Debt Rattle July 2 2022
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@Armenio Pereira quoted Lao Tzu:
Taoist rulers of old did not enlighten people but left them dull. People are difficult to govern because they are very clever. Therefore, ruling through cleverness leads to rebellion. Not leading through cleverness brings good fortune.
The sentiment in this quote did not work for China and the same for the western world. In fact, I cannot think of a single society that made progress without using education and the intelligence of the people. Unless of course the phrase “brings good fortune” only applies to the leaders, the emperors, in which case “good fortune” replaced “even better fortune”. With this philosopher it is no surprise that China remained a farming based society until the middle of the last century and then used western intelligence and Chinese bodies to provide the fortune. I don’t know why people quote this book, other than it is very old.
Without much comment- a most beautiful voice singing a most beautiful song. Antony. Bless the differences in our species.
We promised ourselves we would try and catch all the singers of the tribute to Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” concert (an all time best record). We really lucked out with Antony (now she is called Anohni…)
A voice from God. Singing some really …unusual songs.
We’re still waiting for a Jarvis Cocker concert.
Rufus has always been a delight.Progress brought us here, to the verge of annihilation and to the society of permanent fear.
By all means enjoy yourself and the shiny gadgetry “progress” entails while it lasts.While I’m at it-when I was younger I used to hate others doing covers of original songs…but the Leonard Cohen one is soooo amazing. Another over the top one is “Songs Of Elvis Costello: Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous” but then I am a really big Elvis fan.
And so now we have put them on so goodnight.This in regard to the visibly accelerating disintegration of “The West” :
Disintegration of bad things are a good thing.
Just lets not replace anything with worse things.
Peter Zeihan: The Collapse of Globalization and America’s Retreat – The Realignment Podcast
This guy is the most positive about America that I have heard recently.
@Slimy lligator: Good on ya with the ivermectin and ditamin-D. Convalesce well.
Here is the OTC Rxs for Omicron post again:
https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/12/got-well-from-covid.html@Armenio Pereira said:
Progress brought us here, to the verge of annihilation and to the society of permanent fear.
By all means enjoy yourself and the shiny gadgetry “progress” entails while it lasts.Progress did not bring us here, history brought us here. The world is cyclical, civilizations come and go, they usually come through their own efforts – although China was exceptional in that it has arisen by its manpower despite its total dependence on the west’s brain power – and then for various reasons they die.
The idea is absurd that keeping your people “dull” i.e. uneducated and ruling them as stupid, is the way to fortune. I am not preaching that the western way is best, but keeping people uneducated is stupid and results in poorer standards of living for everybody, including your own offspring. Some of the problems the west has at the moment are that people are not free, education is throughly corrupted, there is no diversity of views, people are not encouraged to try new things, the government is overwhelming and is now the absolute unelected ruler of society, corrupted by oligarchs.
I meant to put this up earlier.
From Walter Chestnut.“[…] although China was exceptional in that it has arisen by its manpower despite its total dependence on the west’s brain power […]” (my emphasis)
With all due respect, you need to diversify your information sources: paper – arguably the most terrific and terrible of the human inventions – was most probably than not invented by the Chinese, who also spearheaded and spread its use (not to mention gunpowder.)
“The world is cyclical […]”
“Some of the problems the west has at the moment are that people are not free […]”
If the world is cyclical – and perhaps it is – then how can people be free?Bowie Yup.
Still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild, a million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that testCh-ch-ch-ch-changes (Turn and face the strange)
Brett Video outstanding. Courage for the times. Thank You Raul for bringing us together.
Waiting for the man-
Charismatic guitar and new translations-
Fuck yeah ! Meaningful Life is at your doorstep.
@Armenio Pereira said:
With all due respect, you need to diversify your information sources: paper – arguably the most terrific and terrible of the human inventions – was most probably than not invented by the Chinese, who also spearheaded and spread its use (not to mention gunpowder.)
So many years ago I moved to China and married a Taiwanese lady in Hong Kong. I get most of my Chinese information from Chinese people, Chinese websites and from white people who working and live in China.
The reason I included that comment is because I am at the coal face and see what is going on. Sure, it is not politically correct to say that the Chinese steal all their innovation, IP and other stuff, but they know that and they don’t care, they are quite happy to admit it, in the same way as they are quite happy to tell you that they think brown people are low class.
IP “theft” is actually a major problem in China: should a western or Chinese company invest time developing a new product, the western company decides to move the manufacturing to China, a year later there are 100 such products, all exactly the same on taobao.com.
I know one guy who just sold his company when he saw what was happening, because he knew that with every passing day, the risk increased of a copy of his product appearing on the market. This is how China works. When Dr D says that a reduction in population will reduce the products and services we will get, this is nonsense, there are probably over 500 two ring induction heaters on sale on taobao.com at this very moment, do we really need that many choices, mostly all the same? I should say that the one we bought and the extractor fan we also bought were both very good, and very cheap, but the choice is daunting.
I think we’ve got a problem in translation, not only from Chinese to English, but more importantly from Ancient to Modern.
It says clearly in the text, what is the opposite of being “Dull”? Being “Clever”. That’s what he’s describing, a bunch of clever schmartz monkeys, too clever by a half and monkeying into trouble. His contrast is more like “Pu”, “The Uncarved Block”, that is, things in their natural state. As this is one of the origins of Wui Wei, which is “inaction”, all this monkeying around with frenetic energy comes to nothing. Push the butterfly with just the right force, and the whole system unravels like magic.
I don’t know what he would say about studying books in that context, as I’m pretty sure he read a lot or every one of them. But there is a pitfall of intellectualism which although troubling in China, has no counter balancing force at all in the West. His “dull” I think would mean a butcher does butchering, he goes home, he knows his round and his business. And as every other occupation also does only their work, all things get done. That might even suggest scholars also do their work, perilous and perhaps useless as it is.
What they don’t do is outsmart themselves thinking they know more, have clever new plans to re-invent finance, power, ecology, gender, law, marriage, DNA, and also destroy to re-invent every thing they lay eyes on that they lay eyes on. Build it Back Better, if you will. This is the siren’s call of Progress and Utopia, and it can/does ruin not just themselves, but their entire nation and the world with their frenetic, hebephrenic super-smarts.
If you leave people alone to be a charcoal-maker and a potter, does that really happen? The West may have overrun China in the window of which you speak, leaving China a rural backwater. Okay, and also have destroyed the entire planet and also themselves, perhaps irreversibly. Who’s smarter then? Should we emulate a West that created bombs that erase life and people Schmartz-enough to push the button without thinking? Hmmmm.
@Dr D said:
It says clearly in the text, what is the opposite of being “Dull”? Being “Clever”. That’s what he’s describing, a bunch of clever schmartz monkeys, too clever by a half and monkeying into trouble.
Mao thought the same, he tried to rid the country of intellectuals, people who had committed the crime of independent thought. Mao was no different to all the other cult leaders, he was trying to mold the people. I am not a believer in the benefits of such processes. Mao managed to destroy most of historical China in his attempt to turn China into Jonestown. I can see you have some sympathy with his thinking, although I am sure you would not condone his methods.
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