The Real Enemy

Elites of both Republican and Democratic parties; the majority of men and women currently in Congress; Supreme Court Justices and all running the Executive branch are millionaires, multi-millionaires, and some are even billionaires. These people know nothing of, and care less for the needs of ordinary citizens. Why would they? They can continue being re-elected time after time, relying on huge campaign donations from eager Big Money donors. These negate the need for reliance on ordinary people's meagre offerings. Ordinary people are nuisance value, do not matter to them, probably never have - beyond their value in filling the military, that is.

Left versus Right, Right versus Left - wrong games, distractions only. Top versus Bottom is the only game worth playing now. Ordinary folk from both right and left should bury their hatchets, band together and strongly oppose everything obstructive to their needs. Their right/left differences, important as they may be in normal circumstances, must be set aside for a while, until some headway has been made. If this isn't realised nothing will improve - ever.

My take-away catchphrase from one of the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire: a line spoken by Haymitch: "Always remember who the real enemy is."
It's essential for all of us in the 21st century to take heed.


On not the same, but a similar wavelength is a piece by Frank Scott at Counterpunch:
Only Thing Dumber Than Trump? The Reaction to Trump. (My highlight.)

SNIPS

In the American political economy that spends more than 600 billion on war, more than 60 billion on pets, reduces millions to poverty and hundreds of thousands to being homeless, to mention only a handful of the staggering contradictions that were and are our reality whichever clown prince sits at the surreality seat in DC, we need to become conscious, active and truly resistant to it and not simply individual or group personalities. Millions have been murdered in the Middle East by that system and now its unconscious supporters are maneuvered into standing up for the rights of immigrants we have forced out of their countries by our murderous practices. It would be like a Polish Jew trying to escape the Nazi onslaught by trying to emigrate to Germany, with decent if terribly uninformed German citizens crying out, “We must help them!”........................

These and countless other contradictions cannot simply be reduced to heroes and villains and must be seen as the workings of a system that can only benefit a few at cost to very very many. Billions of humans on a global level, but millions just here in the USA. That is a much bigger problem for us to deal with than the identity, personality, skin tone, religion, or sexuality of one or another individual or member of a group. And all of us, once we deal with the political economics that rule our lives, will benefit, not just some of us. In other words, stop worrying only about Trump and start worrying – big time – about capitalism.

GM Foods, Monsanto, Corporations - Oh My!

Two blog friends and regular commenters have given me a heads up on issues involving GMO - genetically modified organisms - in the food chain: GM crops. I've been aware of, but not especially motivated to write about the topic before now. I realised that GM foods form simply another tentacle of unfettered corporatism, this tentacle has Monsanto at its heart. I prefer to criticise and rant about corporatism, the oligarchy and capitalism as a whole, rather than focus on any of the many separate tentacles of this fatal disease. Perhaps I've been too blasé in this case, so have done some research.

It has to be kept in mind that while corporate conduct - Monsanto's conduct in particular - has been, and continues to be despicable, as most corporate conduct is, that is not the whole story.

However unwelcome genetic modification of crops may be to people in the USA and Europe, all relatively privileged people, there are hungry people elsewhere, starving people....there are some here in the US too. If elements of Monsanto's high-handed objectionable work can provide any relief for starving humanity somewhere on the planet, it'd be wrong to dismiss their efforts outright. Millions of starving people will increase, in time, to billions struggling to survive. If Monsanto would concentrate their efforts towards staving off just that eventuality, more people might be prepared to support them.

All genetic engineering isn't bad. Modifications can change plants and animals in a number of ways: modified corn produced to resist a certain weed killer is not the same as rice reprogrammed to contain more vitamin A. Two sides of the coin: beneficial/risky.

The fact that GM crops have been engineered to withstand high application rates of toxic chemicals is an attendant problem, as well as the fact that any new gene used to make fruit ripen more quickly would be likely to reduce its nutrient value....and flavour.

Most GM crops require, or allow, more pesticides and herbicides to survive, and so embed themselves in food; some of it washes off to pollute groundwater and streams, then kills off fish, affecting birds, killing insects the birds eat, and so on. Many GM crops produce sterile seeds, robbing farmers of opportunities to renew their crops as farmers have done for centuries, forcing them to buy a new store of seeds. Follow the money -again!

A current concern in the USA is that foods containing GM ingredients should be clearly labelled as such. That's a reasonable step to take, but whether it would make enough difference to cause Monsanto to change its ways is another matter.

Once again, it's balance that is missing. If corporations were better regulated Monsanto's activities and results of same, would be subject to closer scrutiny and limitation. I feel that it's more important to put stronger focus at the core of the wrong: the corporations and unfettered capitalism.

There are numerous photographs of protesters from US and Europe marching against Monsanto and GM foods - an example shown earlier in this post. Numerous photographs of marchers against fracking, Keystone XL oil pipeline, and other tentacles of unfettered corporation disease are also online. If all those protesters were to combine their strength, along with those who support The Green Party, Justice Party, socialists, anti-war and other left wing groups, there might be an outside chance of making a lasting and more powerful impression....and at the at the very least of waking more sleepers to join them. They are few, we are many. ...or would be if we would all wake up and work TOGETHER instead of splintering into diverse groups!

Thoughts at Equinox: Who Laid The Tracks?

The USA's version of "middle class" is different from the UK's version. Here the middle class seems to refer to anyone not living in actual poverty, yet not of the 1% of elite bankers, financiers, corporate CEOs, "celebs", multimillionaires and billionaires. In the UK middle class is understood to relate to the professions: doctors, lawyers, professors, scientists - that sort of thing. Ordinary folk, tradespeople, craftsmen, office workers, factory workers, store assistants etc. are the working class. Bearing that difference in mind, yesterday I read a good article by Edward McClelland at Salon.

RIP, the middle class: 1946-2013
The 1 percent hollowed out the middle class and our industrial base. And Washington just let it happen

Here's a paragraph from the piece:

When I was growing up, it was assumed that America’s shared prosperity was the natural endpoint of our economy’s development, that capitalism had produced the workers paradise to which Communism unsuccessfully aspired. Now, with the perspective of 40 years, it’s obvious that the nonstop economic expansion that lasted from the end of World War II to the Arab oil embargo of 1973 was a historical fluke, made possible by the fact that the United States was the only country to emerge from that war with its industrial capacity intact. Unfortunately, the middle class – especially the blue-collar middle class – is also starting to look like a fluke, an interlude between Gilded Ages that more closely reflects the way most societies structure themselves economically. For the majority of human history – and in the majority of countries today – there have been only two classes: aristocracy and peasantry. It’s an order in which the many toil for subsistence wages to provide luxuries for the few. Twentieth century America temporarily escaped this stratification, but now, as statistics on economic inequality demonstrate, we’re slipping back in that direction. Between 1970 and today, the share of the nation’s income that went to the middle class – households earning two-thirds to double the national median – fell from 62 percent to 45 percent. Last year, the wealthiest 1 percent took in 19 percent of America’s income – their highest share since 1928. It’s as though the New Deal and the modern labor movement never happened.

The highlighted sentences are what I latched onto immediately. At this time of equinox and balance in the natural world, doesn't it seem peculiar that any kind of equinox or balance has never, ever existed for humans - anywhere on Earth? Balance, even partial balance, of the distribution of wealth and bounty of planet earth?

We, in the west at least, have moved in cycles of vicious feudalism/slavery, to a much milder disguised form of the same, back to a variation of the more intense form, under a different name.

Why is this? Why does it have to be like this? Karl Marx and others throughout history must have asked the question and tried to answer it. Their solutions didn't take, anymore than it would be feasible to try stopping a toy train on circular track and causing it to take a different route where no tracks existed.

But who laid those tracks in the first place? The elite (for want of a better description of the planet's early rulers). How did they become rulers, and capable of doing this? Why did they think it was the right thing to do?

If astrology works at all, it has to be something inherent in humans due to our physical position in our solar system. Our very nature must drive us along these already laid tracks, and divides us very unequally into rulers and ruled. I wonder where it says that in planetary language? Is it due to the Sun's rule over life itself? That could explain the need for leaders - a ruler: king, emperor, president, whatever, but it doesn't explain why things are, and have always been, so unbalanced; or when efforts to bring about even minor adjustments are made, results are short-lived at best. We soon veer back to the same old tracks. The part of DNA relating to greed for wealth and control must be fairly rare but very, very powerful.

That little lot spewed, unbidden, right off the top of my head and could well be utter rubbish. I needed to let off some steam.

“The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Rebel? How?

Chris Hedges writes at least one essay a week, published at Truthdig and Common Dreams (maybe elsewhere too). His writings can be depressing, he is unafraid of telling the dark unvarnished truth (as he sees it) about our political situation in the USA and in the world; he's one of the few brave enough to do so regularly. This week his essay is titled
"Rise Up or Die". Links to both sources and accompanying comments:
Common Dreams
truthdig


Key paragraphs from Rise Up or Die:

"Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power."

"More than 100 million Americans—one-third of the population—live in poverty or a category called “near poverty.” Yet the stories of the poor and the near poor, the hardships they endure, are rarely told by a media that is owned by a handful of corporations—Viacom, General Electric, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Clear Channel and Disney. The suffering of the underclass, like the crimes of the power elite, has been rendered invisible."

"A handful of corporate oligarchs around the globe have everything—wealth, power and privilege—and the rest of us struggle as part of a vast underclass, increasingly impoverished and ruthlessly repressed. There is one set of laws and regulations for us; there is another set of laws and regulations for a power elite that functions as a global mafia. "

"It is time to build radical mass movements that defy all formal centers of power and make concessions to none. It is time to employ the harsh language of open rebellion and class warfare. It is time to march to the beat of our own drum. The law historically has been a very imperfect tool for justice, as African-Americans know, but now it is exclusively the handmaiden of our corporate oppressors; now it is a mechanism of injustice. It was our corporate overlords who launched this war. Not us. Revolt will see us branded as criminals. Revolt will push us into the shadows. And yet, if we do not revolt we can no longer use the word “hope.” "

" ........We are sailing on a maniacal voyage of self-destruction, and no one in a position of authority, even if he or she sees what lies ahead, is willing or able to stop it. Those on the Pequod who had a conscience, including Starbuck, did not have the courage to defy Ahab. The ship and its crew were doomed by habit, cowardice and hubris. Melville’s warning must become ours. Rise up or die. "

The question hangs over the engaged reader: Rise up? How? Especially for those of us marooned in red states, and probably most in need of a rising up....but how?

A few commenters raised similar questions. Here are one or two of the responses - I feel certain none would object to my using their words, with screen-name credit here:

The way to sabotage the corporate machine is to back a nationwide boycott –– for tactical reasons, one product or service at a time. Some business savvy committee of an able activist organization should consider (carefully) which corporation to target first. Then let the publicity about the boycott go forth on blogs and around water coolers. The more foul the corporation, the easier the sell to friends and family, with little physical risk or hardship to them.

Change one buying habit at a time. Much easier than changing people's politics or world view. Boycott! The only question is which corporation is to be tagged first and which organization is best equipped to decide the order of these rolling boycotts. Don't Occupy. Boycott!!! (John Janitz)

Good question. Is anybody out there ready for some answers? All readers, all people, are you ready?? Because the answers will turn your "be good" mentality upside down. The solutions available will mess with our heads, but since it's our heads that are all "f'd" up, that's where we MUST start.

1. Get over your compliant and fearful and embarrassed attitudes. Forget what other people will say or think. What other people think of you is their problem. There will be NO change until you get that. Until you get THAT, the world is doomed.

2. Yes, it's about you! Not "us", not the crowd...so stop looking for a leader. BE A LEADER. Good grief! We all need to get some guts! "Don't go where the path leads. Make a path for other's to follow."

3. Do the exact opposite of what the sheep do. Now this is going to tick some people out there off (and I rest my case about the "be good" programming we have all been inculcated with; to the benefit of the oppressors and the endless, bottomless system of deceit.) For example,

a. If you get ticketed because of a surveillance camera at an intersection, FIGHT IT. RAISE HELL. Make your case to the judge and don't back down. Be heard.

b. If your kid gets sent home from school for making a gun with his fingers or drinking herb tea or some other idiotic control madness, FIGHT IT. RAISE HELL. Make your case to the school board and don't back down. Be heard.

c. Humans are animals that have been overly domesticated in order to serve the system. Recognize when and how you are under attack and don't stand still for abuse. A lioness doesn't wonder what will happen to her when she protects her cubs. She just does it. A hummingbird will attack a person too close to the nest. Period. Nature is in you and nature is GOOD. Find it!

d. Understand your rights are not granted by government. Rights to freedom, the pursuit of happiness, life, health, home, equality, truth, and justice are given by Life itself, what some call God, or Divine Right. It's time to stop being owned. Get that in your head, first, and all else will follow.

e. Stop watching the damn television set!

f. Demand from grocers, growers, legislators and anybody that will listen that your food be labeled properly: GMO's anyone? Good God, it's gone mad...ARE YOU INFORMED????

g. Do you know what Fukishima is doing to this planet? GET INFORMED. Oppose nuclear power in all its forms. It's the death knell.

h. Don't donate to churches!! Give money to any one of the millions who are in dire need. You won't have to go far...your neighborhood is ripe with suffering.

i. Don't donate to money-sucking corporate jokes like the American Cancer Society or the United Way. Give money to someone you know who needs it.

j. Don't judge/exlude/condemn other people: stop persecuting smokers, (government wants you to do that as they are one of the many litmus tests for the cessation of personal liberty) stop railing against the poor as if they are the leeches of the world, and go out of your way to help old people. Kindness kills evil and evil is inciting people to cold indifference and separation. Honest to God, we've gone mad and the only cure for our insanity is love and decency of mutual respect.

k. Don't use credit cards routinely. Work with cash as much as you can. Buy used items. NEVER go into Walmart, or KFC, or any of the corporate monstrosities that have gotten more money than God and more power than Congress because we made them stinking rich. Shop local. Don't buy junk. Live lean.

l. Defend the defenseless. Speak up. Somebody been beaten by the cops? Somebody being mauled by the system? Step UP. Don't look the other way. You're next. Guaranteed.

This list could go on....there are thousands of ways to rebel.

It begins with attitude, folks. Get strong. Lead. Don't follow. (Sarah)

All revolution is local. The best way to rebel/revolt is first to know the painful truths of empire and not be afraid of them. Then we must communicate those truths directly through words or indirectly through action to friends, family, neighbors, at work, etc. on a daily basis. Then we also need to have faith that the revolution will necessarily have to spread gradually, slowly, and unpredictably over time until it reaches a tipping point (which may or may not be in our lifetimes). We must therefore not be afraid to feel sad and angry to some extent every day, because that is the right way to feel, and those feelings impel us to continue to resist on a daily basis, and over the course of our lives. (Feeling sad and angry daily does not mean we can't also feel love, joy, etc. as well, because we will be living a good life, fighting the good fight).

All other actions (e.g. Occupy) while beautiful and good, will be easily resisted by empire until the local work is done, and that may take many years. In order to be successful, we must take the long view, we must be patient, and we must have faith that acting locally, one person at a time, will spread. (DL)

There are but a few people I encounter who are aware of this state of affairs and even fewer willing to take any action -- most of them are deceived and deluded by their blind faith in the institutions they trust to ultimately "do the right thing" for the people. They are ensconced in a cocoon of daily ritual -- job, family, and entertainment -- unable to accept the vast dysfunction as anything but an aberration that those in charge will "fix" given enough time. "Obama is a nice guy who's trying to do the right thing against overwhelming opposition, and I support him", one fellow told me. The problem is not just the "lesser of two evils" illusion, it is the lack of imagination of how things could be different if they would consider alternatives. That applies not only to elections, but to every aspect of life. Individuals' minds already have been enslaved, and their critical faculties have been dulled by distractions and material comforts. The only way the dire predicament we are facing will be confronted is through the impact of disaster, which is destined repeatedly to befall us.(norecovery)

Most of us who are older here have all seen the same things. I can only tell you how I deal with sense of helplessness and inevitability when it threatens. I have 8 neighbors. Of those, 6 are as you describe. One is an ardent supporter of power. Another sympathetic to the people's cause. Forget about 7 of those 8. You live for that one. You are not trying to wake everyone up or persuade the world of anything. That would be futility at its grandest. The good news is that you don't need to. Historical conflicts are waged by minorities. We don't need everyone on board. We just need enough.(drone1)

This should be all about rebellion, not violent revolution: it means finding ways to stop "feeding the beast" as a first step, and doing what each of us can to raise awareness. It'll seem like a pretty pointless exercise for a while, but at some point, if enough of us participated, a powerful single movement would eventually form, embracing any seminal movements which are already out there, and a leader would emerge. I have faith in that old saying "cometh the hour, cometh the man" (nowadays it could well be a woman); or a slightly different version of the same idea: "when the student is ready a teacher will appear". "The hour" is perhaps not quite here yet, "the students" (us) not quite up to scratch. It's up to us, all of us who see the sense in Chris Hedges' words and in suggestions from those commenters, to make sure that when "the hour" does eventually "cometh" - we'll recognise, understand, and have done all we can to help things along.

There's a video of a brief interview with Chris Hedges on this topic at Common Dreams today:
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2013/05/22

Manipulated Into Illusion....another look at Century of Self

Any thought of manipulation and control of the minds of others is an anathema to me. I believe most people, if they stopped to consider the matter, would feel the same. It's becoming ever clearer that we are not, and have never been, aware that such manipulation has been going on - and for many decades. I wasn't fully aware, other than realising that advertising is a mild form of mind manipulation.

Century of Self opened my eyes. It originated in 2002 as a BBC TV documentary series written and directed by Adam Curtis. The films are also available in DVD format, and used to be available as a set of 4 on-line videos, sadly now taken down at YouTube due to copyright restrictions, though an individual episode or two could still be available there. Unless taken down by the time anyone reads this, there's a set at Information Clearing House.

In 2010, after watching the videos I wrote a long post on their content, with some related astrology. Recently, last week in fact, comments received on posts about the arc of capitalism brought Century of Self back to mind. I decided it's time for a partial re-run as the subject matter of the series is closely related to the issues then discussed.

Series creator, Adam Curtis describes Century of Self: “This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.”

Episode titles:
#1: Happiness Machines
#2: The Engineering of Consent
#3: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed
#4: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

A brief synopsis of Century of Self then, with clips from a review by Paul Shepherd. The link I had to his review is now defunct, I can find no alternative.

Sigmund Freud's theory of the subconscious is explored, how it has been successfully exploited during the 20th century and beyond in areas of consumer manipulation and social control.

Leading roles:
Sigmund Freud, neurologist/psychoanalyst, born in Moravia, Austrian Empire (now part of the Czech Republic).
Anna Freud, Sigmund's daughter.
Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's nephew, Austrian-born, influential pioneer in the field of public relations.
Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychoanalyst, pioneer of sexual freedom.

Tentacles of their influence have reached out through many decades, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Focus of attention on "self" and away from "society as a whole" is key.

At centre stage, the starting premise of Sigmund Freud regarding the unconscious: that humans

were motivated more by irrational sexual and violent urges than by rational thoughts, and therefore democracy was not a matter of allowing people to choose for themselves between a range of different policies, rather they had to be guided towards the 'correct' choice by an elite composed of people in command of the theory. People just like Edward Bernays.

Freud's theory was taken up by his daughter Anna, and exploited by his nephew Edward Bernays as a tool of psychological, political and social control, for benefit of Big Business and political elites. The development of marketing techniques, later adapted and modified by Reich's theories was where it all began.

Bernays set to work for major corporations, with one of his most spectacular successes being to help break the taboo against women smoking. He paraded a group of attractive young ladies through New York smoking and bearing the slogan 'March for Freedom'. Anyone criticising the idea of women smoking would now appear to be against freedom, and the numbers of women taking up the habit shot through the roof.

After this success Lehman Brothers and other big New York banks financed the development of department stores, confident that they could use the techniques pioneered by Bernays to persuade people to purchase a range of products that left to themselves they may very well not have bothered with. This period also saw the introduction of the techniques of product placement and psuedo-scientific product endorsement so familiar to us today. All of this dubious activity in the capitalist economy was one of the main factors leading to the bubble which ended in the Wall Street crash of 1929.........

The psychoanalytical theories of Wilhelm Reich also fed into this stream, despite his being a convicted fraudster with some very strange beliefs. Reich argued that the release of orgasmic sexual energy was neccessary for the mental health of the individual and society. After the defeat of the New Left in the political conflicts of the late 1960s and early 70s, Reich's theories gained a mass influence as many former activists turned in on themselves. The thinking now was that perhaps you didn't need to go on demos., hand out leaflets etc., what was required was to change oneself, though not neccessarily in the traditional, transcendental sense. A myriad groups emerged, all promising that they had the correct technique for the re-discovery and re-moulding of the Self.

A blend of techniques arising from the ideas of Freud, Bernays and Reich remains in place, both in business and, more importantly and dangerously, in politics today.

It's hard to understand how such long-term influence has been able to take a hold in a diverse and vast country such as the USA and a small but historically independent one like the UK.

I guess I ought to suggest here that, at the start, there may have been no ulterior motive involved, simply a genuine attempt to construct a better system by those who believed they had superior intellects. Were those people making decisions fit to be the deciders? Is anybody? Eventually a different agenda surfaced, one far removed from the good of society.

In my original post I went on to look at natal charts of the Freuds, Bernays and Reich, and came to the conclusion that a common denominator was found: links to Scorpio and Pluto/Neptune: powerful, deep, long-lasting elements, motive hidden from view, dark and often paranoid. Sex, also connected to Pluto/Scorpio was involved too, via the theories of Reich.

If we are in the midst of a decline now it is due to a serious lack of integrity in certain individuals. Astrologically those individuals shared some of the most powerfully dark zodiacal and planetary "flavours".

The truly unconscionable element in all of this, to me, is the notion that any individual(s) should have power to secretly dictate, manipulate minds, in such a way as to benefit one section of society over another section....or for any reason whatever. This hidden manipulation worked in tandem with the growth of capitalism. The public is not to blame for what happened in the past, and what still happens today. The public is, in fact, victim of a near atrocity in my view. We need to take control of our own minds, or others will be ready to do it for us.

600-year Arc, Capitalism & Astrology. PART 2.

Part 1 and some interesting comments are HERE.
This post is my attempt to understand a little more about a possible 600-year arc of capitalism. Why? I guess it's to try to decide whether we really are on the cusp of the tail-end of capitalism - or not.

Humans love to predict. From soothsayers of yore studying entrails of an ox, to to day's psychics and astrologers, we've always strained to see beyond our horizons. We feel vulnerable, I suppose, unable to control random events thrown at us by the universe doing what it does best - progressing, albeit very slowly. We think that if we are aware of what's around the next corner we can psych ourselves up to receive it with some measure of equanimity. Prediction, though, isn't reliable, from whatever source it comes. Often those doing the predicting have axes to grind, or a political view to peddle, or other underlying motivations. It's wise to do a little basic research of one's own.

First up, trying to establish how reliable is the theory of the World Systems Analysis school, mentioned by Morris Berman, the writer whose article was quoted in Part 1. Is the "arc" of capitalism really a period of around 600 years: 1500 to 2100?

Where and when did capitalism breathe its first breath?

Tricky question, almost as tricky as "when, and where, will it breathe its last breath?" For brevity and at the expense of total accuracy, I'll concentrate on western development: Britain, Europe and the USA. It has to be mentioned, though, that six hundred years ago the kingdoms of Western Europe compared to Eastern civilisations would have seemed like backwaters, ravaged by continuous wars, disease and plague. Ming China or Ottoman Turkey then led civilization proper. China was the world's most advanced civilization in the 15th century, but stagnated and was overtaken by Dutch mercantilism and the rise of capitalism.

Elements of capitalism were present in the west as far back as 13th and 14th centuries, but not fully-fledged capitalism. Discovery of a sea route to India, put into regular use for trade, together with the rise of powerful French, English and Spanish monarchies, saw new measures established which could be seen as seminal capitalism.

If taken from the 14th century, 1300 - 1400 any 600-year arc of capitalism would have ended already (maybe it has but we just are not aware of yet!)

16th century found ocean voyages and discovery expeditions increasing in scope and danger. Risk factors and potential profits increased. Merchants risking fortunes on unpredictable adventuring needed high levels of support. Governments encouraged them, motivation being increased trade as well as extension of a nation's reach and power i.e. settlements and colonies abroad. Chartered companies were the solution. A charter, granted by the monarch, gave merchant companies a monopoly on trade with a specific region for a certain number of years, and legal power to enforce order in distant places while carrying out business.

Now capitalism began breathing easily!

The Industrial Revolution, from early 19th century onward, brought development of factories, steadily increasing in size, employing large numbers of workers in a single private enterprise.

Now capitalism began its heavy breathing.

The bigger companies and factories became, the wider the divide between workers and employers. Working conditions were bad to horrendous, wages poor, but still a co-dependency had been created. Through the 20th century until today, with boom and bust mini-cycles, capitalism has survived. Whether we are now on the edge of a "bust" period, with capitalism snatching for breath, wheezing away, old and diseased but capable of recovery; or almost at the end of a 600-year arc when the last breath will be drawn, isn't completely clear.

The 600-year arc proposed by researchers doesn't peter out until 2100, so we've around 88 years still to go before the strained last breath of capitalism is experienced, if the calculation is correct.

What of any relevant arcs in astrology?

Some astrologers consider the cycles of the farthest of our inner planets, Saturn and Jupiter, especially conjunctions of these two, to be significant to the topic of capitalism, its rise and fall. Astrologers also rely heavily on the three outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and their cycles and aspects to one another for indication of coming events, examining events of the past when similar aspects occurred.

Several outer planet combinations and aspects are possible, many more if including Saturn and Jupiter in the mix, for instance: Uranus/Neptune, Uranus/Pluto, Neptune/Pluto and a few triples too. I find that sorting out astrological cycles and aspects can easily become something of a lucky dip, lending itself to the bending of anything to mean anything. All we have, truly, are best guesses linked to personal experience of what each planet, more often than not, indicates.

Uranus more often than not brings change, Neptune more often than not brings delusion and foggy thinking, Pluto can bring destruction, death and darkness which lead eventually to transformation.

With capitalism in mind we need to establish two things: an exact-as-possible start date to work from - and this for me remains nebulous. Also needed, clarification of which planet(s) are most likely to be involved when investigating capitalism. I can see why astrologers prefer Jupiter and Saturn in this respect. Jupiter = expansion, excess. Saturn = business, the law. A conjunction of the two planets could clearly relate to capitalism - and the cycle of those conjunctions might well show how capitalism progresses. But I think that if capitalism were "on its last legs" we'd have to see Uranus or Pluto prominently indicated at the time Jupiter and Saturn were conjoined or in harmonious aspect - otherwise the indication might just point to capitalism rolling along, booming and busting, in mini-cyclic fashion within a wider arc.

I'm grateful to commenter "mike" at Part 1 for referring me to a blog Astrology and Yoga by astrologer Adam Smith. In a post for 20 September 2012 he wrote, regarding capitalism:

We have seen the archetypal boom and bust, peaking in 2010 with the Jupiter-Saturn opposition, which brought us to the brink. Our present Jupiter-Saturn cycle is the last in Earth for another 600 years, and the present economic tumult is the world saying goodbye to the Industrial Revolution and dog-eat-dog capitalism.

Not to be forgotten are the Uranus/Pluto square (90 degree aspects), seven of 'em, I think, occurring exact at certain points in 2012 to 2015. Bearing in mind that there's up to a 5-year span between 2010 (Jupiter-Saturn opposition) to 2015 (the last Uranus/Pluto square), at some point in this time span we'll see.....what....? Something highly significant relating to capitalism. Whether it'll be its absolute end doesn't strike me as clear-cut at all, but a definite re-jigging or hiccup is coming.

Conclusion - We can't be 100% sure that a 600-year arc is the accurate measure for capitalism's "lifetime"; even if it is near enough correct, the arc's starting point isn't 100% clear. A fair amount of latitude, wiggle-room, needs to be allowed as to calendar years involved, if credence is given to the theory that capitalism is ailing and about to die.

Helpful information on capitalism found HERE and HERE.

600-year Arcs - Capitalism, Astronomy/Astrology

In reading a very interesting piece by Morris Berman at Counterpunch:

The Waning of the Modern Ages, I noticed mention of the "arc" of capitalism, a period thought to be around 600 years long: 1500 to 2100.  Whenever I read about "arcs" I think of astrology.....anyway more on that later. A brief clip from the article:

La longue durée —the long run—was an expression made popular by the Annales School of French historians led by Fernand Braudel, who coined the phrase in 1958. The basic argument of this school is that the proper concern of historians should be the analysis of structures that lie at the base of contemporary events. Underneath short-term events such as individual cycles of economic boom and bust, said Braudel, we can discern the persistence of “old attitudes of thought and action, resistant frameworks dying hard, at times against all logic.” An important derivative of the Annales research is the work of the World Systems Analysis school, including Immanuel Wallerstein and Christopher Chase-Dunn, which similarly focuses on long-term structures: capitalism, in particular.

The “arc” of capitalism, according to this school, is about 600 years long, from 1500 to 2100. It is our particular (mis)fortune to be living through the beginning of the end, the disintegration of capitalism as a world system. It was mostly commercial capital in the sixteenth century, evolving into industrial capital in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and then moving on to financial capital—money created by money itself, and by speculation in currency—in the twentieth and twenty-first. In dialectical fashion, it will be the very success of the system that eventually does it in.

The last time a change of this magnitude occurred was during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, during which time the medieval world began to come apart and be replaced by the modern one. In his classic study of the period, The Waning of the Middle Ages, the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga depicted the time as one of depression and cultural exhaustion—like our own age, not much fun to live through. One reason for this is that the world is literally perched over an abyss. What lies ahead is largely unknown, and to have to hover over an abyss for a long time is, to put it colloquially, a bit of a drag. The same thing was true at the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire as well, on the ruins of which the feudal system slowly arose.

 I couldn't immediately relate a 600 year span to anything in astrology, but a little research soon brought up the following at sacred texts.com: 

An astronomical period of 600 years, spoken of as the "Naros," the Cycle of the Sun, the Luni-Solar period or Sibylline year, consisting of 31 periods of 19 years, and one of 11 years, is often referred to in old works on the Mysteries. It seems to have been known by the Chaldeans and ancient Indians; it is a period of peculiar properties. Cassini, a great astronomer, declares it the most perfect of all astronomic periods.

If on a certain day at noon, a new moon took place at any certain point in the heavens, it would take place again at the expiration of 600 years, at the same place and time, and with the planets all in similar positions. 

Hmmmm - not sure how that relates to any supposed arc of capitalism, but the fact that there is a definable 600-year arc in astronomy/astrology is interesting and food for further thought.  Perhaps that brush-stroke I mentioned in a previous post about the current set of Uranus/Pluto conjunctions is actually a brush-stroke in an oil painting covering a span of 600 years - or la longue durée.

 PS - Both linked articles are worthy of full investigation!

Analogies ~ Ayn Rand ~ Barack Obama ~ Capitalism ~ Libertarianism

Analogy is one of the most useful of all language tools. A good analogy can serve to more clearly explain a difficult or foreign (to the receiver) concept in a way no other effort at explanation can come near.

I feel in need of good analogies to fully appreciate what's what in politics these days, in the USA, and elsewhere - and in issues relating to "the economy". Luckily there are excellent journalists and commenters around who can oblige.

"One good analogy is worth three hours discussion."
(Dudley Field Malone)

Three quickies first:

From a commenter using the screen name conan 776 ( I regret losing the link to the website where I found this little gem). An analogy to illustrate socialism versus capitalism.

"If the government wants to move a pile of dirt from point A to B, buying a bulldozer and hiring an operator is socialism.

But if it contracts that out to a company, where the CEO gets 20%, the VP gets 15%, upper management gets 10%, lower management gets 7%, the lawyers get 5%, the author of the contract gets another 5%, the stockholders reap whatever else, and the operator gets minimum wage anyway, that's capitalism at it's finest!

And we wonder why government can't do anything under budget!"

Two referring to President Obama:

A sporting analogy from Tsalco, commenting on and improving another commenter's analogy at HuffPo on a piece by Steven Weber titled simply "Well...?"

"Obama doesn't punt on third down. He often huddles with the opposition­, while ignoring his own teams huddle altogether­. He tends to throw the game. He punts on first down BEFORE his own line is even in position."

One thing I would disagree with - Obama doesn't punt on third down. He often huddles with the opposition­, while ignoring his own teams huddle altogether­. He tends to throw the game. He punts on first down BEFORE his own line is even in position.

And from Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters - and this one can be related to much I and others interested in astrology have seen - the illusion of Neptune emanating from the Prez.

He is an illusion masterfully crafted by himself, his handlers, and his sychophant supporters in the press.
What (Robert) Redford and "so many others" are beginning to realize is that when you strip back the veneer, there's nothing but cheap particleboard held together with Elmer's Glue.

And one on finance from blog-buddy Jefferson's Guardian at No Corporate Rule, in his post of 31 August: Around the Monopoly Board

Whatever is happening, one thing's for sure. The lending institutions are making out like bandits. While they're drawing interest on public funds given to them to stay alive, they're capitalizing into derivatives, commodities, precious metals, and god know what else, while we're feeling the double-whammy of increased food prices, increased energy costs, and increased everything. It's like when we played Monopoly as kids, and one person had everything. Their stack of money just sat and didn't help anyone. All we could do was go around the board and hope to land on Community Chest (i.e., public assistance) or Free Parking (i.e., the lottery), but eventually we knew it was just a matter of time before we were sucked down the drain with the little money we had left. Our only other hope was going to jail. In our current real life scenario, that's not a pleasant thought.

Next, a stab at Libertarianism and Ayn Rand, but before launching into the next analogy, as this is an astrology blog, a look at Ayn Rand's natal chart. She was a Sun Aquarian, as I noted in a blog on Aquarius-types : Aquarius Pro & Con (Progressive & Conservative).

She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on 2 February 1905. Astrodatabank gives a "C" rated birth time, probably rectified, not 100% to be trusted as accurate, but I've used it here anyway. The rising sign may or may not be as shown, Moon's degree likewise, but Moon would have been in Capricorn whatever her time of birth.



For me the key to Rand's right-wing conservative/libertarian views is the placement of Saturn in Aquarius, with a secondary key being Moon in Capricorn (ruled by Saturn). Aquarius Sun people are often politically inclined, with a yen to "change the world" in one direction or t'other - direction being governed by the rest of their chart, and by their own life experiences.

For an astrologer's interpretation of Ayn Rand's chart see Joseph Crane's take on it in the Astrology Institute's Newsletter, here.

Disclaimer: I have not read Atlas Shrugged, the long novel many see as Ayn Rand's "magnum opus" . The more I read about it the less inclined I feel to read it. The novel is said to portray the idea that a world in which the individual is not free to create is doomed, that civilization cannot exist where people are slaves to society and government, and that the destruction of the profit motive leads to the collapse of society.

There's an interesting piece by Cathy Young from 2005: Ayn Rand at 100.
Penultimate paragraph of that piece kind of describes the conflicting traits of Aquarius/Saturn/Capricorn within Ayn rand:

Rand herself was a creature of paradox. She was a prophet of freedom and individualism who tolerated no disobedience or independent thought in her acolytes, a rationalist who refused to debate her views. She was an atheist whose worship of Man led her to see the human mind as a godlike entity, impervious to the failings of the body or to environmental influences. (Nathaniel Branden reports that she even disliked the idea of evolution.) She was a strong woman who created independent heroines yet saw sexual submission as the essence of femininity and argued that no healthy woman would want to be president of the United States because it would put her above all men.

The best one-line review of Atlas Shrugged I came across in my searches is to read it in tandem with The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, by Robert Tressell - a novel portraying the other side of the coin:

"Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the inequity and iniquity of society, Tressell's cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is "not for the likes of them".

Balance is everything - in all things!

Back to analogyland then, and John Atcheson's piece from last week: Atlas Mugged: The Ayn Rand Six Step. Mr Atcheson uses the analogy of an apartment building as the USA.

Imagine your landlord coming to you one day and saying, “It’s everyone for himself. We’re not going to supply heat or water or electricity any longer, and we’re not going to conduct repairs.Of course, you and the rest of the tenants wouldn’t stand for such a thing . You’d kick him out if you could and move out if you couldn’t.

But suppose, over the years, he cuts the part of the portion of your rent that goes to utilities and repair work. Year after year, he’d stop by and announce his cuts with great fanfare, telling you how much money you’ll save.

On each visit, as he handed out the meager savings, he’d rail about how the utilities were incompetent, and filled with lazy workers, and that repair and maintenance work was a rip-off perpetrated by equally lazy laborers.

“We’re gonna show them,” he’d say, “The market will take care of these bozos.”

Meanwhile, year after year, you pay a little less. Things might get a little ragged. The maintenance man might not show up every day; the fire alarms might stop working; the elevators get stuck more, there’s an occasional power outage, water’s a bit murky … but there’s those savings.

Unbeknownst to you, most of the money the landlord saves is going to upgrade the top floor where he and his cronies live, bringing in their own dependable power and clean water. But you don’t investigate much because … there’s those savings.

Every time you passed him in the hall, he’d give you his spiel. “Those repair guys are thieves,” he’d tell you, again and again. “And you might as well burn money as give it to the utilities,” he’d say with a sage nod of his head. “Just wait ‘til those market forces hit, that’ll show them.” But he’d begin to add a new verse to his rant. “And hey. What about those gays in 3G? Or the Mexicans in 2D? Disgrace how they double up like that …”

Then finally, one year, he announces he can no longer afford to supply heat, electricity or water, and he can’t be repairing anything that breaks any longer. “Just not enough money – besides, look what’s happening around here … throwing more money at those lazy good-for-nothings is no solution.”

Now imagine complaining to him about the frozen pipes, or your child’s pneumonia and him responding with: “Hey. It’s all about the market – if you want it, figure out a way to get it – the market will provide if you’re diligent. Look at the top floor. Besides, it’s all the fault of those Mexicans. Or those gays … or …”

Would you believe that crap? Would you put up with it?

.......Call it the Ayan Rand six step. Step one: discredit government. Step two, starve it. Step three, when the underfunded government can’t perform, stand back and say “I told you so.” Step four, create the myth of the individual uber-alles – the Marlboro man on steroids; Step five, if anyone gets wise, find a scapegoat and blame it on them – gays, immigrants, government workers; government working gay immigrants. Step six, when things get bad, divide and conquer – “if it wasn’t’ for them…"

The whole comment thread is well worth perusing, but a couple of especially insightful comments ought to be highlighted here - these match my own thought. Several commenters agree that if the author of the piece is relating his analogy only to Republicans/Libertarians he is missing something. Both major parties in this two-party nation serve the same master.

At 2.06pm on 2 September in the comment thread Rick Wright commented:

....both parties ultimately serve the same social interests, but in different ways, utilizing different types of rhetoric, & appeals to different constituencies. The 2-party system is a kind of "division of labor," allowing the Repubs to specialize in appeals to nationalists, militarists, Christian evangelicals, anti-abortion fanatics, racists, militia types, libertarians, Red States, etc. Meanwhile the Dems specialize in herding constituencies like the liberal intelligentsia, groups connected to organized labor, & traditionally Blue State populations.
The point is that both parties are in effect working together to herd the entire population to submit to the prevailing social structure (including its enormous military establishment, & the 2-party system itself), with the corporate plutocracy sitting atop the social pyramid.

At 1.46pm on 2 September Obedient Servant wrote the following. (Hint...hint) the new character introduced ought to be ringing loud bells for any current or former Democrats!

.......it (Mr. Atcheson's piece) needs critical tweaks for the sake of authenticity, verisimilitude, and relevance.

For one thing, it's sorely lacking a Good Landlord to complement the Bad Landlord villain of the piece. You know-- a partner, perhaps a spouse, who meekly tiptoes around, ostensibly behind the Bad Landlord's back, and commiserates with the increasingly beleaguered tenants.

The Good Landlord administers tea and sympathy, whispers encouragement and even promises to the tenants, praises the maintenance staff, and is particularly solicitous to those lazy good-for-nothings scapegoated by the malignant but dominant Bad Landlord.

The Good Landlord by turns seems to cry real tears and shake a fist in real defiance when the Bad Landlord isn't around. In fact, the Good Landlord piteously stage-whispers that he or she would like to do so much more for the tenants, if the mean, bullying Bad Landlord didn't constantly intimidate it and thwart its best intentions.

To demonstrate his or her benevolence, the Good Landlord furtively hands out occasional amenities-- blankets, candles, matches, aspirin.

Oh, and the Good Landlord isn't above accepting, and even soliciting, tips and gratuities from the grateful and desperate tenants in return for his or her apparent good will and promises to usurp the Bad Landlord's place once he or she has sufficient resources and support to manage it.

Only then will the place become the Tenants' Paradise advertised in the prospectus!

Postscript for Monday 5 September ~~
It's Labor Day in the USA. A day on which, once upon a time, the people celebrated "the workers", their solidarity and their efforts. Nowadays it represents little more than a long weekend. Unions have been gradually de-fanged by successive governments. Solidarity among the workers scarcely exists now. If the lot of ordinary folk in the USA is ever to improve, some form of solidarity, something akin to the old union movements, will need to arise. Until then the working class (or as Americans for some reason prefer to call it "middle class") is right "up a creek without a paddle", and if things don't change soon, "without a canoe". Another analogy!

Ramblings on Capitalism & Astrology

I am ill-equipped to be blogging about economic systems, yet feel the itch to write something on the topic of capitalism, and to try to relate astrological factors to it. Planets, points and their place in the zodiac offer a kind of celestial shorthand, I always think, when trying to clarify complex topics. It's a useful language, and well worth the effort needed to learn it.

First a definition of capitalism. I'm not trying to be patronising here, and realise that most of us already know what it is, either vaguely or geekily in depth. I'm clearing the way, and my own mind. This definition is copied from the Hippie Dictionary: a cultural encyclopedia (and phraseicon) of the 1960s ...By John Bassett McCleary at Google Books. It's less
highfalutin than some others, and easier to absorb for non-economic minded mortals like me. Before turning away with a sigh when a passing reader sees the word "hippie" - wait a while and read it. To my mind it's a fair assessment from the perspective of ordinary people who are not part of the 1% wealth-infested elite.


In astrological terms, capitalism, being involved with expansion (of wealth and power), can be connected to Jupiter - planet of expansion. Jupiter is usually thought of as benign rather than malignant. Expansion, in itself isn't a bad thing. But Jupiter also connects to excess, which is almost always a bad thing. Excess requires some kind of brake, limitation, regulation. The last three words connect to Saturn. So, for capitalism to work at its optimum for both capitalists and the people Saturn needs to be linked to Jupiter. In periods where there is no strong enough link, and Jupiter is allowed free reign, economic collapse might eventually follow. I'm getting a vision of that old Monty Python sketch where a BIG guy is being served huge amounts of food in a restaurant - he eventually explodes from over consumption.






It's a good thing, and probably no coincidence that Saturn is currently in opposition to Jupiter, and people are slowly, at last, waking up in the USA to what has been happening for decades. The system of democracy has been corrupted while ordinary people went about their business, too busy and otherwise engaged to notice what was happening. There is no real democracy, or real elections.

The country has been taken over by a corporatocracy. Even many who enthusiastically voted Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008, taking his promises at face value, are starting to wake up and question his actions (or inactions, or "compromises"). This appears to be alarming the President's minions. Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary this week spluttered a completely unprofessional outburst against what he considers to be "the professional left" for criticising President Obama's record to date. The record is proving that the President's first interests are with the capitalists and corporations rather than with the people who believed his campaign speeches.

Saturn is also opposing Uranus, planet of rebellion and reform though, putting the same brake on any seminal revolutionary yearnings among those on the "true" political left. This is also a good thing....unless Uranus gains the upper hand in opposing Saturn as the see-saw swings!

Revolutions have a romantically adventurous flavour, in theory. In practice however, they mean blood and guts, death, injury, imprisonment. I don't think we're yet at the stage where enough people, though now awake, are angry enough to risk that. Younger generations ought already to be complaining bitterly. Earlier generations would have been out peacefully protesting in the streets by now. There isn't the same fire in their bellies. Apathy and learned complacency have taken over. Unless things change for the better soon though, young and old will become angry enough to rebel in earnest. The only reason Britain avoided the revolution against monarchy that so many European countries experienced was that they changed course, ever so slightly, just in time to prevent it. Maybe there's a lesson there for the US administration?

During coming months and into 2011 Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus will be slow dancing, sometimes retrograding, sometimes resuming closer opposition, reflecting an on- again/off-again atmosphere in public opinion as regards capitalism, corporatism, and unfolding events.

The late and oft lamented comedian George Carlin already knew exactly what was going on in the USA, some years ago: "It's a big club and you ain't in it!" he told us.....Thanks, George - would you finish this post for me, please? ~~~

Capitalism & John Haines, poet.

Notes on the Capitalist Persuasion
by John Haines


"Everything is connected to everything..."
So runs the executive saw,
cutting both ways
on the theme of all improvement:
Your string is my string
when I pull it my way.

In my detachment is your dependency.

In your small and backward nation
some minor wealth still beckons -
was it lumber, gas, or only sugar?
Thus by imperial logic,
with carefully aimed negotiation,
my increase is your poverty.

When the mortgage payments falter,
then in fair market exchange
your account is my account,
your savings become my bonus,
your home my house to sell.

In my approval is your dispossession.

II
Often in distress all social bonds
are broken. Your wife may then
be my wife, your children
my dependents — if I want them.

So, too, our intellectual custom:
Your ideas are my ideas
when I choose to take them.
Your book is my book,
your title mine to steal,
your poem mine to publish.

In my acclaim is your remaindering.

Suppose I sit in an oval office:
the public polls are sliding,
and to prove I am still in command
I begin a distant war. Then,
in obedience to reciprocal fate,
by which everything is connected,
my war is your war,
my adventure your misfortune.

As when the dead come home,
and we are still connected,
my truce is your surrender,
my triumph your despair.

(From Poetry Foundation).


John Haines was born in Norfolk, Virginia on 29 June 1924, with Sun/Mercury/Venus and Pluto in sensitive Cancer, between 0 and 11 degrees. Moon was in sign of the writer, Gemini (whatever his birth time). What I see as most relevant in the chart is a Yod linking serious Saturn and creative Neptune in sextile with Uranus (planet of the rebel) by quincunx. Being translated that means serious-minded creativity manifesting in a somewhat radical/rebellious fashion.

Much of John Haines's writing in both poetry and prose is a critique of a society that he sees locked up, as the philosopher Martin Heidegger phrased it, "in a destitute time." His vision and voice are somber and serious, at times profoundly apocalyptic. There is little room in Haines's poems for humor, playfulness, or what might be called "the domestic." Writing of his experiences as a homesteader in Alaska, Haines was recognized early as a "nature poet" whose interests were divided between his activities as a hunter and trapper, on the one hand, and his concern over environmental degradation of his adopted state, on the other. His awards include two Guggenheim fellowships in poetry (1965 and 1984), a National Endowment for the Arts Grant in poetry (1967), the Alaska Governor's Award in the Arts for his lifetime contributions (1982), an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alaska Center for the Book (1994). (See Dictionary of literary Biography)