Die Wahrheit Macht Frei
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Unknown Aftermath April 1865 “Richmond, Virginia. Destroyed Richmond & Petersburg locomotive.” Aftermath of the Confederate evacuation in which Richmo
[See the full post at: Die Wahrheit Macht Frei]Yeah, it’s enough to really make a feller mad. Save that fire Ash, I expect these outrages are just the beginning (or the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end). However we might choose to put it- there is a part of me that can’t help but think TPTB are like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Could they even choose to do otherwise? Has the momentum of events, and the pattern logic of Capitalism made all of this inevitable? I think so.
In a similar light, I don’t think I should be surprised when the people of Greece completely lose it and start stringing up bankers and politicians.
Thinking along the lines of mrawlings above….
Devil’s advocate:
It’s a finite world and everybody’s hungry.Somebody eventually had to turn off the spigot.
How else would it be done?
We’re only human.
It’s belt tightening by hook or by crook. Would the Molotov cocktail throwers voluntarily reduce their gasoline consumption? voluntarily substitute eggplant for lamb?
Ashes to ashes
and there’s only one path home.
What’s the point of fire and brimestone in a deterministic system?Isn’t that the central question: Is it a deterministic system?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterministic_systemIf it is, and I suspect it’s so, then doesn’t this all sometimes feel like empty navel gazing?
We’re all permitted to pick our roles and our costumes for this drama, but Mr. Goldwyn paid good money for the screenwriters, so don’t deviate from the script.
Predictably, New Democracy “opposition” leader Samaras is still stuck in electioneering mode, and has said that his party can renegotiate the package just agreed to when they get in power two months from now. That, in turn, just provides more fodder for Germany to justify cutting off the cash.
Also predictably, there has been extensive rioting in response to last night’s boondoggle. I told you it was a neoliberal edifice!
Telegraph wrote: 11.03 Some pictures coming in of the clean-up in Athens after last night’s trouble. Estimates are that 45 buildings were wholly or partly destroyed. The deputy mayor said rioters attacked “emblematic buildings, about 10 neo-classical edifices”.
All semantics aside, I am less deterministic about the evolution of this whole situation than I used to be. In terms of Engel’s theory of historical materialism (most of that was written by Engels, not Marx), for example, I tend to agree with more modern thinkers that the original formulation was too simplistic. The system definitely carries a lot of momementum for all those invested in it, which obviously includes the financial elites, and there is more range of freedom at the bottom than the top, but choices still exist for everyone involved. Not really something that can be established beyond a doubt one way or the other, though.
The Global Economic Crisis: Can Canada escape a lost decade?
On January 26, 2012, in Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives organized an event titled “The Global Economic Crisis: Can Canada escape a lost decade?” The first session examined perspectives on the crisis and the way forward, and featured Yanis Varoufakis (Department of Economic Sciences, University of Athens) and Stephany Griffith-Jones (Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University).
Varoufakis considers Canada and Australia to be in a short-term sweet spot.
One of your best articles to date, Ash. Not a long road from Die Wahrheit Macht Frei to an Arbeit Macht Frei “community.” I am afraid that in a year’s time, NATO will have to pull some troops off the Iranian front to crush the the New Greek Republic. I understand that the Greek police had used up all their tear gas yesterday (for real), and Merkel was asked if she had any old Zyklon-B canisters lying about, and not to worry about the expiration dates.
Since the Viscount brings up a question of determinism, I will throw in my two drachmas. Individuals have free will to make their own decisions, though overcoming old inertial habits (karma) requires much stamina. When groups of individuals approach the millions, the general outcome becomes increasingly deterministic for obvious reasons of statistical probability. However, there are instances where an individual’s free will can have a global effect. For me, the most obvious example in modern history would be JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis. IMO, most presidents would not have bucked the pressure of the Security State, and we would have been plunged into an all out thermonuclear war. Of course he paid the ultimate, personal price for these decisions, which included firing Allen Dulles as CIA Director, a couple of years later. On a spiritual, not biological, level, evolution is a very individual affair. One has to do one’s best and let the cow chips fly where they may.
And as a public service, let me remind any Americans reading this – if you see anything unusual, be sure to report it to the unit leader of the VIPR road block nearest you.
I would think that by now someone would have look at the other side of the “Greek coin”.
First, the logic is that the center collects tributes, resources and wealth from the periphery to support its lifestyle.
The understanding is that the center is Germany and France and that Greece is the periphery.Then, why has Greece been the one getting the tributes, resources and wealth at the expense of the financial system which is now being propped up from failure by the supposedly center?
Why is Greece, being considered periphery, been the one enjoying the lifestyle that is suppose to be reserved for the center?
The logic seems to indicate that it was Greece that did the conquering of the EU and that the EU does not want to send anymore tributes, resources and wealth to the center, Greece.
jal,
We should remember that Germany’s GDP per capital was still at least 1.5x greater than Greece’s as of 2011, and that gap is widening rapidly. Greece was not really receiving “tributes and resources” from the center, but was artificially increasing its wealth through large amounts of private and public debt creation (like most other economies), which in turn helped the center grow their “productive economies” as well.The common currency allowed for that to happen, and now Greece doesn’t have the productive economy (cash flow) to back up even a small portion of those debts. There is no doubt that capital is pouring out of peripheral Greece like there is no tomorrow, and into central institutions (as opposed to the citizens of central nations). In terms of capital/resource flow, the periphery has greatly expanded to encompass a large majority of people in the world.
Normative Gravitism postulates that Gravity is a recursive algorithm bounding a maximally spatially open universe, wherefore only massfulness yields choice. Providing also that the cause of time is relativistic mass, a moral heuristic may be compiled wherein good is voluntary, or of its own accord, and evil is involuntary, or against its will. As a derivative function Capital is subject to Gravity in any market geometry, if not at fair value.
Since Year of EU entry, 1981, it is too far fetch of an idea that the Greeks were smarter than the the bankers and the fund managers.
They could not have worked out a plan to get the “center” to give them a lifestyle reserved for “center”.
There is no way that the “center” got taken in by the Greeks. The bankers orchestrated it all for their commissions.
That the Greeks managed to kick the can 20 years down the road and sucked all that money etc. from the “center” must be absurd./sarcasm off
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos:
Our country is waging a battle of survival within the euro zone – a battle of social conhesion and national dignity. However we are in a peculiar situation becase we continually have new terms, new conditions. This is because, manifestly, there are now forces within Europe that are playing with fire because they believe the [loan agreement] will not be implemented … and who consequently have prepared and want Greece out of the euro zone.
This has to be understood here in Greece by all political and social forces. We have to rally so as not to give anyone the excuse or alibi to enforce such a scenaro, a frightening scenario not only for Greece but for the world economy.
Meanwhile, more contradictory nonsense out of Greece. New Democracy leader Samaras has signed a “pledge” to new austerity measures, but still wants to renegotiate the plan…
SamarasAdvisor wrote: We also said we should modify the plan to allow for prompt [economic] recovery. We don’t want to make recovery a top priority but we insist that it becomes an additional priority, that it be be applied in tandem with other policies to allow the economy to breath. Is this such an irrational, stubborn view when the [rescue] plan to date clearly hasn’t worked?”
It’s not because the objectives are wrong. From the beginning we agreed with them. But there is a missing ingredient.
Even if it was perfectly implemented the numbers didn’t add up. We are not saying that we are against austerity but we have to change the mix and allow for recovery.We are feeling a little embarassed that again and again they want us to show our committment to the plan. When we say prioritize recovery we mean we want to discuss it with them, not do anything unilaterally. Even if they allowed us to do whatever we wanted to do we would still stick to the programme.
NOW … you remind me that its bad everywhere and getting worst.
Only the center is allowed to direct the flow of tributes, resources and wealth from the periphery.
The USA has been doing it for 30 years by borrowing from other countries and spending more than it raises in taxes.
For Greece to have done the same thing is not even an idea worth considering.
Those who prefer normal “economic talk” can check out the following by the market ticker.https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=202029
This is elmementary mathematics, but nobody wants to deal with it.
GDP = C + I + G + (x – i)
GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)
Now … what happens when “the center“ finally decides that it has been used by the periphery.
1 .Austerity is the punishment for Greece
and/or
2. The financing of the spending binge come to a stop.See …
Russia Dumps Treasurys For 14 Consecutive Months; China Slashes Holdings To Lowest In Over A Year
3. Of course, there is the final solution which we are presently seeing. You can pretend that the party is not over by “printing money” until someone decides that your tokens of exchange are worthless.
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