Chop it Down and Sell It

Most people look at a natural landscape, a mountain, a forest, a river, and see beauty. We enjoy looking at beauty, and we enjoy being in places that are beautiful or naturally unusual. A walk through the Grand Canyon brings us much more pleasure and satisfaction than walking down a city street.

Some people do not see any beauty in nature. They do not understand why people will line up and pay a fee to visit a national park or nature preserve. These materialists look at a landscape and think about its potential to be used for monetary gain. Can the trees be chopped down and sold for lumber? Can the hills be scraped away and mined for precious minerals? Can the river be diverted for sale to farmers, or used as a dump for factory waste?

This inability to value or appreciate nature's beauty and wholesomeness is often accompanied by an inability to appreciate the arts. These guys don't read books, attend concerts, or visit museums. Most of us derive pleasure from beautiful and interesting creations, contemplating works of art, listening to music, reading engaging stories, seeing a skillful performance. The materialists are strangers to emotional or intellectual pleasure. For them, there are only two kinds of pleasure. One is ego gratification, which may be derived from receiving other people's attention, admiration, and obedience, or from acquiring material possessions, which they see as the only real measure of human worth. The other pleasure they recognize is physical: sex or goal-oriented sporting activities that emphasize individual achievement rather than teamwork, like golf or trophy hunting. Those activities also provide ego gratification.

These materialists do not perceive human beings as having value, except to the extent that they have wealth or can be used to create wealth. Workers, as a group, have value because their labor generates wealth for the employer. The individual worker is not of much value, but is disposable and replaceable. People who are unable to generate wealth for the master class, such as retired or disabled persons, are seen as completely valueless. Young children are valued for their potential as future workers. More and more, the materialists look for ways to turn children into workers at younger and younger ages, setting up systems to remove kids from school and place them in physically demanding jobs.

The materialists' ideal world is one in which they are universally recognized as superior beings and they have complete dominion over everyone and everything they see.

 

But What's In It For Me?

Every chance they get, Musk, trump, and their closest buds try to demonize "NGOs". NGO just stands for Non-Government Organization, or what we Americans usually refer to as a "nonprofit", like the Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, or Save the Children.

These guys claim that nonprofits are all corrupt and are stealing money to enrich their leaders. Musk has even claimed that organizations feeding starving children are criminal. This is because Musk and trump simply cannot believe anyone would want to do good things for other people. They believe the only reason to do anything in life is to make money. Healing the sick, feeding the hungry, making the world a better place in some way -- these ideas just don't make sense to them.

Whatever they do, they're only in it for the money, and they assume other people are just like them. "Those charities must be stealing the donations," they think. "That's what I would do."

Telling them that they should support a program that cures disease is not persuasive, unless there is a way for them to profit from it. Telling them that cutting a program will cause suffering and death is not persuasive, because they do not believe human lives (other than their own) have value beyond the ability to generate profits. Once you understand this about them, the bizarre-seeming things they say and do are easily explained.

 

The Greater Good

Photo by Duncan Kidd on Unsplash

I turned on the TV this afternoon and saw the last 45 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan".

It occurred to me that most of this movie is probably incomprehensible to Comrade Krasnov, who simply can't understand why people would sacrifice themselves for the greater good. To him, there is nothing greater than the fulfillment of his own desires, the accumulation of wealth, the exercise of power in the service of petty grievances, the feeling of nasty satisfaction obtained from being able to destroy an entire nation.

A film like that is no doubt also meaningless to Musk, who is ignorant of American history, oblivious to patriotism, and unable to identify with people who want to help others.

After his life is saved, Private Ryan is advised that he should try to deserve what his comrades did for him, and he takes that to heart, striving to live a righteous life, to be a good man. Krasnov and Musk don't feel obligated to make such an effort; in their minds, they are entitled to have all life on earth sacrificed for them, simply because they have "good genes".

 

Following the Money

Illustration: “Because so much money creeps into my sack, the whole world climbs into my hole” (1568), Jan Wierix

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Traditionally, throughout history, the rich have robbed the poor. This is so deeply accepted as a norm, that a greed-crazed billionaire will characterize helping the poor as "criminal".

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There are no U.S. laws that contain the footnote: "Super-wealthy individuals may ignore this."

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If I had more wealth than anyone in the world, and if I also wanted people to admire and respect me, I would provide food for the hungry and medicine for the sick. I would repair bridges and roads. I would build affordable housing.

On the other hand, if I had all that wealth and wanted to make people hate me, while attracting the admiration of sadists and criminals, I'd cut off supplies of food and medicine to babies and others who really need it. I would build only projects that were flashy and ego-pumping.

How we really choose to use the resources that are available to us tells more about our value as human beings than any speeches, slogans, or promises we speak.

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Eat the rich, and you feed your family for a day.

Tax the rich, and you feed them for life.

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He Wants More

A unimaginably wealthy businessman has so much money, he could give a million dollars to every person in the country, and he'd still be the richest guy in the world. Yet this person wants to reduce the resources available to the rest of us. Why? Why would someone who has everything want to take away the relatively small amounts others have?

The answer is greed. Most of us can understand ordinary greed, the desire to have more than you've already got, the wish to be rich and to have fancy things. But few of us can comprehend the special type of ultra-greed that drives the oligarchs. They are NEVER satisfied. Five yachts aren't enough, if it's possible to get one that's fancier. A fleet of private jets isn't enough, if there's a chance a new one would be faster or more luxurious.

While we can, on an intellectual level, comprehend that someone might feel driven to improve upon his already excellent situation, what we can't understand is why someone who already has everything desperately wants to take the little we have away from us.

The problem with the never-satisfied, ultra-greedy oligarchs is that they don't just want a lot, they don't just want more, they want EVERYTHING. Anything you have, no matter how small, is something they don't have. They want it. This is why they don't care if we die of preventable illnesses, or starvation, or nuclear holocaust. Only if we are dead can they feel sure that we have nothing and they have everything.

As they build their doomsday bunkers, they fantasize about a world in which more than half the population is annihilated. Unfortunately for them, they need workers for a few things, so they can't quite wish for everyone but themselves to vanish.

 

What Are We Paying Them For?

One time, my husband was really sick with a respiratory infection. The doctor had prescribed some medicine to relieve his symptoms, and he had used it all, so the doctor called the pharmacy with a prescription for more. Later, I called the pharmacy to see if the medicine was ready, and I was told they hadn't filled the prescription because insurance declined it! The insurance company's position was that it was "too soon" for Hubby to get more medicine, even though his doctor thought he should have it.

I told the pharmacy to forget insurance, I would pay. It wasn't actually a lot of money. Overall, there are probably many cases where it costs the company more to deny a claim (paying the drones who do the paperwork and deal with the patient's complaints) than it would to just go ahead and pay for it.

Costs aside, I don't understand why office workers who have never even met the patient are allowed to overrule his licensed physician, who has firsthand knowledge of his illness and is trained to treat it.

We think we are paying these companies to provide for our health care. We think their purpose is to help us pay medical bills. They think their purpose is to just collect our money and dole it out to shareholders and millionaire executives.

 

Ranting About Billionaires

Is your yearly budget less than a million dollars? If you had a billion dollars, you could spend a million a year for a thousand years, and you still wouldn't run out, because all that time, your money would have been invested in accounts that pay interest and dividends, so more money just keeps rolling in.

Now, imagine you had not just one billion, not two billion, but a hundred billion, or three hundred billion. With 300 billion, you could spend a million dollars EVERY DAY, and you'd have money left over at the end of 22,000 years.

That sure seems like enough money, doesn't it? But the guys who have that much, or close to it, don't think it's enough at all. They can own dozens of homes in different countries, buy private islands, own personal jets and huge yachts, indulge in collecting rare automobiles or historical jewelry, go anywhere they like, purchase any clothing, any food they want, get cosmetic surgery every year, send their children to the greatest universities, spend the night gambling in Monte Carlo, ski at the most exclusive resorts, get the best medical care in the world, bribe politicians just about everywhere, build stadiums and skyscrapers with their name on it, and - just for a change of pace - donate millions to charity. But they still don't think they have enough. They are constantly scheming to get even more. Many of those schemes require taking away what other people - you and me - have.

They want the power to make us pay for the infrastructure and institutions that make modern life possible for them. While they make $5000 a minute, they begrudge us $15 an hour. They want to eliminate the rules that keep our food safe and our water clean, because they can make bigger profits if they don't have to be clean or careful.

Why? Why do they want to cancel the retirement income of the elderly, cut off health care for the middle class, or withhold food from schoolchildren? They want every possible penny in their own pockets. They already have more than enough, more than too much. But they aren't satisfied. Greed gnaws at them the way hunger gnaws at a starving animal. More, more, more, howl the voices inside them. The sight of comfortable people enjoying safe, healthy lives fills them with anxiety. Those people driving nice cars and living in pretty houses represent pennies that should be in the billionaires' pockets. Your retirement account is cash that they want.

They are much happier when the world around them is populated by hungry peasants dressed in rags and dying young, because then they can feel assured that they have taken everything for themselves.

Links:

♦ Billionaires Lying to Convince Us to Destroy Our Government
♦ Billionaires Hate Us

 

Everything Belongs to Me!

trump and his minions may not be fascists, but they have the attitude of fascists. In their minds, the rules, norms, and laws of a civilized society simply do not apply to them. They are entitled to do what they want and take what they want, at any time and place they want.

We saw this when trump boasted about kissing or grabbing women without permission. We saw it when he refused to pay contractors and workers at his properties. We've seen it many times when his campaign has used music without getting the owners' permission, even when the owners have explicitly told them to stop. We saw it when trump insisted that he could own and possess (and, it seems, display, share, or dispose of) confidential and classified government documents.

Again and again, he and his associates have shown their arrogance, their insistence on privileged status, their contempt toward others, and their disdain for the behavioral norms that make it possible for society to function. Like many fascists before them, they have succeeded in bullying, intimidating, and litigating people into submission.

Most recently, we saw trump and his entourage violate federal law and all expectations of decency, when they chose to film a campaign video at our most sacred national cemetery. Further, members of the group may have assaulted a cemetery official who informed them they were not permitted to film.

And now, in true fascist fashion, they do not admit to being in the wrong. They posted the illegal video they made at the cemetery. Instead of apologizing or simply claiming they were in error due to a "misunderstanding" or "mistake," they are angry at the news organization that first reported the incident. Fascists do not like public scrutiny of their actions.

A trump spokesperson has made a statement accusing the official who was assaulted of being mentally ill, and triumphantly declaring trump "the real Commander in Chief." Fascists are never subtle. Their message is clear: journalists who mention issues that make the boss uncomfortable are "bad reporters" asking "stupid questions." Anyone who tries to get in their way is unfair, crooked, mentally ill, or a liar.

They are above the law - in fact, the boss IS the law. He cannot be restrained or criticized, no matter what outrage he chooses to perform. The rest of us and our expectations of lawful behavior, our hopes for good manners and public dignity, our desire for accountability, are just irritating obstacles along the boss's path toward complete domination.

 

The World is Never Enough

This story is a smaller version of what has been happening and is still happening throughout our country and the world.

A wealthy couple living in a very nice house above Camden Harbor in Maine noticed that their potential ocean view was blocked by their neighbor's big, beautiful trees. They decided to poison the trees. The plan worked, and the trees died.

In the meantime, the herbicide they use leached into a nearby park and contaminated the town's only public beach. The product that was used, Tebuthiuron, does not break down, so it continues killing plants for years. The only way to get rid of it is to remove the soil (tons of soil) or to try waiting for it to be diluted over time. The couple ended up paying a $1.5 million settlement to the tree owner and around $214,000 in fines and fees related to the environmental damage. They haven't been jailed, and apparently are still members of the Yacht Club. And they got the view they wanted.

It seems like just another story of people with too much money and a sense of entitlement arrogantly taking whatever they want with no regard for anyone or anything else. The same thing happens on a much larger scale, too, and it affects everyone. Big corporations do this to us regularly. By "big corporations" I mean the greedy, short-sighted rich people who run them. Assisted by corrupt politicians, they eagerly poison our air and water and contaminate our soil, just so they can make more money.

Like the tree poisoner who didn't care that marine life would be killed for years to come as long as he could get a little more pleasure from his mansion, the oligarchs and robber barons are willing to destroy the future in exchange for the temporary gratification of acquiring more and more paper profits. A CEO might be able to buy another $20 million yacht or another private jet, while workers and their children can't afford the drugs the oncologist prescribed. It's not just that they have so much while others have so little. It's that they are never satisfied, and getting more, always more, requires them to take away the very little those others have.

Read the orginal story here: Poisoned trees

Read about another pollutors' triumph here: Court supports pollution

 

They Want it All, And They'll Take it From You

The oligarchs have more wealth than they can possibly use, and even if they never made another dime, they, their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren would still be incomprehensibly wealthy.

They can have anything they want or need: Big houses, big vacation houses, spare apartments in cities around the world, nice cars, designer clothes, the best food cooked by private chefs, whatever medical care they need at top hospitals with famous doctors, multiple yachts, private hunting ranches, hairdressers who travel with them on their private jets, secret bunkers (underground mansions) in case of nuclear war, their own private security force, private schools and top-notch universities for their kids, lawyers on retainer, ownership of TV stations, newspapers, and tech companies, and the hired help needed to acquire and maintain all their possessions. In summary, they have everything. ^@themrswest

Yet, somehow, that isn't enough. Not only do they constantly want more, they want to make sure that everyone else has nothing. They crave a world where they have absolutely everything, whether they need it or not: All the power, all the means of production, all the necessities, all the luxuries. And they want that world to be populated by impoverished serfs who have nothing and live short lives of sickness and pain. Why? I truly don't know why. It's very hard to get into a mindset where other people's misery is perceived as making your life better. But there it is.

Link: The Koch brothers' political activism and its damage to America - "The Kochs' Ayn Rand–inspired hellscape has yet to completely come to fruition, but the ideas the duo promoted are now part of the regular discourse—and have been for a while."

Link: While the Planet Burns: Billionaires Are Busy Hunkering Down for the Apocalypse - "Many of the wealthiest people in the world have decided that Earth is a Titanic heading for an iceberg. As a result, they have decided to create luxury lifeboats for themselves."

Link: The Koch Brothers Are Even Worse Than You Think - "Koch was found guilty of criminal conduct in many cases.... The workplace is becoming more dangerous under this constant pressure to produce profits."

Link: Robbing the poor to pay the rich - "Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor is increasingly popular as we leave the 20th century, especially in this country"

 

The Prosperity Gospel

When I was a child, I heard a version of the prosperity gospel that was a bit different from the way it's promoted today. The basic idea was that a good-hearted person who generously helped others was rewarded materially so that he could share his fortune, using his resources to lift others out of poverty.

The protagonist in the story was a man who had given his last $10 to help someone who was even worse off than he was. That act of self-sacrifice led to his getting a good job, where he rose through the ranks by working hard. Whenever he got an increase in salary, he used most of his money to feed, clothe and shelter unemployed and homeless people, no strings attached. As he got richer and richer, he gave away more and more money.

This was not a story about a man with multiple mansions and a private jet, whose conspicuous wealth was supposedly a sign that God considered him morally superior. It was a story about a man whom God trusted to help those with the greatest need.

It's sad how twisted that story has become.