Author Topic: The Commons Forum  (Read 2385 times)

alan2102

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #30 on: April 28, 2014, 10:07:38 am »
I suggest saving your posts in notepad and reposting them here if I Deep Six them.  That is why I set up an Anti-Diner for you guys.

We're ON the anti-diner, here, are we not?

Quote
Issue is that you just non-stop emanate Negative Waves.

Perhaps some truth in that. But it is supremely ironic hearing it come from you -- a confirmed neo-Malthusian and one of the biggest most non-stop Negative Wave-emanators in existence today. In fact, far as I can determine,  the emanation of Negative Waves appears to be your life purpose, or at least your most-favorite activity.

Quote
You don't agree with anything I am trying to accomplish.

What are you trying to accomplish, R.E.?

Quote
  Constantly arguing with you takes too much **** time, and after a full year of it I won't bother anymore, least on the Diner I won't.  I'll drop in here occassionally though to see how things are progressing.

Yeah, I HEAR YOU, bro!  I feel the same way about DD, and TAE, and other doomer fora. Arguing takes way too much **** time, and after MANY years of it I won't bother anymore, except to drop in occasionally, leave a spate of posts, and then split for another  6 months or year.  (Drive-by posting, if you will.)  These places are not worth any more than that. They are not even worth that, but I cannot resist coming back to vent some occasional accumulated toxic bile at the realm that ate up so much of my life, fruitlessly, and to my detriment. (My fault, of course; I LET IT do so.)

MKing

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 180
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #31 on: April 28, 2014, 02:24:36 pm »
Can you stay drunk and drive a truck for your daily bread for very long? Highly unlikely.

Interesting. I missed this tidbit within RE's wild tales of  "us Ivy League truck drivers iz so darn smarterers dan doze normal kind" postings. Did he mention it elsewhere, or are you speculating?

Coping with depression, addictions, or a lifetime of social, academic, and/or physical defeat, can be quite draining, and can end badly, as Mike Ruppert has already demonstrated.


MKing

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 180
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #32 on: April 28, 2014, 02:35:43 pm »
As that paragon of half seas wisdom expostulated, It's all about ME, the ME in question being the poor defecated upon RE, rejected by the world and at his wits end to make a fast or slow buck that would not take him away from the necessary drinking of alcohol. Can you stay drunk and drive a truck for your daily bread for very long? Highly unlikely.  Can you float Armageddon with promises of salvation over the internet and radio while staving off delirium tremors and living frugally off of inheritance from a bar? Very possible.

I keep seeing this thing about R.E. and alcohol. Is he a bigtime boozer? If so, that could explain a lot. Alcohol is poison for the brain in all but small amounts. It is also terrible for depressed people: makes them feel slightly better for a short while, then worse for much longer. The more you drink, the more depressed you get; the more depressed you get, the more you drink. Throw in to the mix a doomer belief system, perhaps poor diet, perhaps no exercise, perhaps poor social skills and few opportunities, etc... and what it adds up to ain't pretty over a few years or decades.  Related:
http://doomsteadantidiner.createaforum.com/general-discussion/new-status-of-contrarians/msg81/#msg81

I once mentioned my father was a murderous drunk. So I am sensitive to what inebriation means. Does. Causes.

So do we need to worry about Doom Drama Queens and certain habits?

Look at these pictures closely…from a time when he was a small business owner, paying his bills, getting the work done, and then later after fleeing the country for…reasons….and then coming back, and the spiral that began right around that point in time…

The man who wrote Crossing the Rubicon…



and the man who was not long for this world, and if you watch his videos we can argue about some true whack-a-doodle stuff?



That flushed face? Evident nearly the entire time he was being interviewed for Apocalypse Man. Versus the serious, "yes I once walked a beat" flat foot.

So is this a chicken and egg problem?

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
 

Musings on Modernity
Nelson Hultberg

It is believed by many on the left today that our Constitution resulted from the Founding Fathers deceitfully conspiring to form a society ruled by aristocrats, and that the seeds for modernity's corruption lie in the Founders' elitist Constitution that now plagues us. This is why it is so easy for today's liberals to ignore the Constitution with no qualms or regrets. They feel it is their duty to do so.

Conservatives and libertarians see things differently. It was not the Founders in the beginning who warped the ideal of justice with "elitism." It was the Progressives of the early twentieth century who did the warping with "egalitarianism." And it has been modern day liberals who have furthered this tyrannical leveling of society. Worse, it has been our greed and shortsightedness as a people that have compelled us to complicity with such criminality.


The intent of the Founders was to provide a document that would keep the growth of government under wraps for all of time. Unfortunately, there were flaws in their document that should not have been included, but it was not because of deceit. It was because of their desire to get all 13 colonies to sign on to it.

There were too many conflicting desires among the states that were vying for inclusion into the system, and there was too much overreaction to the failure of the Articles of Confederation, leading to the belief that a strong central government was needed. After all, this was the first attempt in history to devise a truly free society. To say that it was less than perfect in its design is, in no way, a slur on the brilliance of the designers. They did the best they could within the context of their time, their values, and their philosophical predilections.

So the Founding Fathers did not do us in by establishing an aristocracy. The destroyers of America are her modern intellectual class who have taught the goal of equal results instead of equal rights to a complacent people looking to get more out of life than they are willing to put in. Our sins are academic deceit and citizen complacency. "We have met the enemy, and he is us," said Pogo.

The Decay Around Us

Every avenue of life throughout the world (certainly throughout the West) is in decay, whether it is sports, politics, the economy, family solidarity, entertainment, movies, literature, art, religion, or schooling. We're falling apart as Rome did because we have abandoned "rational philosophy" as our guide. It's now the Mad Hatter's world. Black is white, up is down. The Truth is what we want it to be. There are no objective rules. We can wing it and do our own thing. We can all become slothful and still praise each other as gritty and heroic. We can divorce rewards from performance. We can redistribute men's wealth, which means the redistribution of their working hours, which means the redistribution of their waking hours and lives. Today's slave mentalities are mouthing what Nietzsche termed the "transvaluation of values." Orwell put it simpler: "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength."

Today's Soma


The dictatorship in Huxley's Brave New World used the drug of "soma" to divert the people's attention away from the freedoms they had lost. Soma was the means to make the people still feel they had wonderful lives even though they were not free. It turned them into sheep who didn't mind losing their freedom.

Our society today also has its somas. The latest is texting to engage in aimless chitchat. It provides ready-made soma for humans averse to thinking and issues of importance. Observe your fellowman the next time you are in an airport, an office lobby, a Post Office line, even in restaurants, libraries, and other gathering places. Droves of Americans are gleefully engaged in aimless texting while the dictators entrench themselves a little more every year in Washington. The people are oblivious to what is taking place in those realms of life that really matter. They are gaga over the newest delight of modernity - incessant texting. And they are so happy with their inanity. Diversion has always been the tool of dictatorships to pacify humans and keep them docile, tolerant of, and trapped in, their enslavement. Aimless texting is the newest of our diversions.

Ruthless Capitalism


Collectivists complain about capitalism because it foments what the great economist, Joseph Schumpeter, termed "creative destruction." The free-market ceaselessly innovates in our lives. New ways flow in; old ways flow out. This often decimates old, traditional neighborhoods and thrusts gaudy, neon jungles of franchised commercialism upon us.

No one likes to see old communities go through such a ruthless phase out. But a good part of the ruthless destruction problem that we see today is due to the political-economic system we have conned ourselves into accepting. What fellow patriot, Tom Molitor, calls "hot Keynesian moola" is being injected into the economy. This speeds things up and accentuates the natural greed of men and women. It makes them think they are richer than they are.

If we were on a gold money standard, capitalist expansion would be slower and more humane. There would be more rational thought applied to productivity instead of the pell-mell scramble to get one's "hot moola" out there working while it still has value. The price inflation of Keynesianism exacerbates capitalism and makes it appear nefarious. It transforms a rational productive process into a frenzied buy at any price, invest without caution, build indiscriminately, spend, spend, spend for tomorrow prices will be much higher.

If we were on a gold standard with its accompanying price stability, and if we taught to our young a reverence for nature and the resplendency of community, then the society we create would be a much different one than what we see springing up around us.

We practice, today, false monetary policy and teach to our young indifference to the essence of real community, which never comes from government and its coercions. It comes voluntarily via people living freely in a marketplace. If we would correct these two errors, we would have a much slower and saner economic system. But we refuse to do this. Decades ago we hatched the infant alligators of false ideology - the Fed and the income tax - that have now grown into monsters to consume us. And we do nothing.

Freedom of Association

I believe that all humans have the right to organize themselves into groups and put borders around those groups, whether it is a family with a fence around its yard, or a town with a city limits, or a country with a border. This is the nature of correct human existence - the right to "freedom of association." This means that no individual has a right to force his entrance into any group of humans who have organized themselves into a gathering and established requirements for inclusion. An individual does not have the right to enter a country uninvited for the same reason he does not have the right to enter a family's home uninvited. Both acts are crimes of trespass.

This means that people of any nation have the right to determine who gains entrance to their nation and set guidelines for that entrance. This is a crucial requisite for freedom, order, and high culture to prevail. But many cannot see it. They envision a utopian world where they say borders are not necessary, where nations are anachronisms, where men and women are angels possessed of perfectible natures. They read history selectively, avoid lessons in logic, and ignore their fellowman's right to gather in groups, i.e., their right to "freedom of association."

If people can, whenever they wish, enter a family's home and squat there to feed and interact, then that family no longer exists. Primitivism has begun. It is no different with a country. Primitivism begins when borders are denied.

The Rulers of History

All legitimate men of the mind realize that ideas rule the world, which means ideology is of monumental importance in how history unfolds. Why is this so? Because ideas always come first in the sequences that make up history. They are the seedlings that produce the great springing forth of truth, love, and liberty, which are the fundamental pursuits of all mankind. Ideas launch all revolutions. No political revolution can proceed until an appropriate intellectual revolution has first taken place. Thus ideas matter because they are the root source of all we build and achieve on earth.

On a more primal and metaphysical level, ideas matter because as the biblical wisdom says, "In the beginning was the Word," which means the universe is structured upon thought - the thought and will of the creative force that brought it into being. This Creator thought the universe first, and then willed it into being. Aristotle and the Greeks called this the Prime Mover. The Jews called it Jehovah. The Muslims called it Allah. And Christians called it God. On a more derivative level, "In the beginning was the Word" also means that truth is dictated by God, i.e., truth is the higher natural law that governs us and is capable of being discerned by us. It is the way God speaks to man.

Liberals smear the idea of natural law as something conservatives take on "blind faith." On the contrary, there is nothing blind about it at all. Natural law comes to us via the synthesis of reason, experience, and intuition from our greatest thinkers in both the sciences and humanities. This synthesis is the means that man used to climb from the cave to build a majestic civilization. And of its three parts, intuition is the most essential. It distinguishes the visionary from the mundane intellects of life.

Intuition is a mysterious force. We don't really know what it is or how it forms, only that all great original ideas come intuitively. Intuition is the spark that reveals truth's fire, which man must then expand with the kindling of experience and the breath of reason.

Quote
Einstein put it in these words: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
In our forgetting of the sacred gift lies our fall as a country and a people. In its restoration can come again our rise toward the resplendent and the exceptional.


-----------------
Nelson Hultberg is a freelance writer in Dallas, Texas and the Director of Americans for a Free Republic www.afr.org. His articles have appeared over the past 20 years in such publications as The Dallas Morning News, American Conservative, Insight, Liberty, The Freeman, and The Social Critic, as well as on numerous Internet sites such as Capitol Hill Outsider, Conservative Action Alerts, Daily Paul, Canada Free Press, and The Daily Bell. He is the author of The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values.
Golden Oxen

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
Golden Oxen

Doomer Sport

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 109
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #35 on: May 06, 2014, 06:57:33 am »
Insightful article

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #36 on: May 06, 2014, 07:26:06 am »
Insightful article

Yes DS, I have been reading Nelson for years but this one was exceptional in my opinion so i decided to post it. Glad you found it of interest.  There is so much stuff out there it becomes quite a task to post things you feel are of importance relative to the others and then hope that others on your favored forum will find it interesting as well.
Golden Oxen

Doomer Sport

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 109
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #37 on: May 06, 2014, 08:37:03 am »
He placed "family solidarity" squarely in the group of things that have been lost and at the cause of many problems. This is completely overlooked by the majority of commenters. I see  disruption to the mutual respect inherent in natural gender relations as a huge factor. It is an artefact of excess energy and wealth in the oil age, so is a bubble like many others.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rethinking-men/201010/why-some-people-have-issues-men-misandry

MKing

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 180
    • View Profile
Our society today also has its somas. The latest is texting to engage in aimless chitchat. It provides ready-made soma for humans averse to thinking and issues of importance. Observe your fellowman the next time you are in an airport, an office lobby, a Post Office line, even in restaurants, libraries, and other gathering places. Droves of Americans are gleefully engaged in aimless texting while the dictators entrench themselves a little more every year in Washington.

Boy, if this isn't visible everywhere. But it sure isn't the biggest, or even latest to come along. Look at what TV has done for those selling superficial, no different than the Diner and their mcdonald's hamburgers. Hell, you could argue the mcdonald's hamburgers themselves are just another soma.

MKing

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 180
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #39 on: May 06, 2014, 02:26:07 pm »
Insightful article

It was.

I find it interesting that contained in the video was the idea that some think this is a bad thing…but offer up a solution that is untenable. If the NIMBYS of the world were subjected to the consequences of their decision, I bet there would be far fewer NIMBYs.

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #40 on: May 06, 2014, 08:59:51 pm »
Quote
I find it interesting that contained in the video was the idea that some think this is a bad thing…but offer up a solution that is untenable. If the NIMBYS of the world were subjected to the consequences of their decision, I bet there would be far fewer NIMBYs.

A valid point for sure, don't do it, but make sure I get mine when you do.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2014, 09:03:43 pm by Golden Oxen »
Golden Oxen

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #41 on: May 06, 2014, 09:32:14 pm »
Quote
Boy, if this isn't visible everywhere. But it sure isn't the biggest, or even latest to come along. Look at what TV has done for those selling superficial, no different than the Diner and their mcdonald's hamburgers. Hell, you could argue the mcdonald's hamburgers themselves are just another soma.

While there is much wrong with the Diner, our banishment and those silly groupings and censoring tactics to name the most flagrant, I would not go so far as to place it in the category of drivel that Mr. Hultberg is referencing.

There are many at the Diner who post ideas, opinions, items of great interest and I for one feel much was gained by my attendance there. You yourself MKing, have made it clear to me that I know little about energy matters, and the so called experts are sorely lacking in the expertise their reputations give them. There are many formidable worthwhile posters there that have much to offer, sadly, most of the ones who left were among the most interesting.

As I look back at the Diner it was the forming of the communist dictatorship, and the establishment of the goon enforcer and censor squad that ruined it as a place for constructive discussion permanently.

Of Course, as you say, it is just another McDonalds now, with the drive up window for the sheeple so they may order their burgers and fries without having to even get out of their car.

There are some wonderful memories of the old Diner however that linger with me. When they had home cooked meals served on a ceramic plate, and the coffee wasn't in a paper cup, and the menu was diverse and changed daily, and of course no drive through window.  :'(
Golden Oxen

MKing

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 180
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #42 on: May 06, 2014, 10:34:29 pm »
As I look back at the Diner it was the forming of the communist dictatorship, and the establishment of the goon enforcer and censor squad that ruined it as a place for constructive discussion permanently.

It is a side effect of the goon squad mentality. Fear. Lets face it, humans are naturally gregarious, and TPTB of BAU or TPTB of the Diner know how to take advantage of it. And do. They are born into it, steeped in the tradition, and know no other way of forcing compliance.

The most similar thing I can think of is excommunication from the church, a wonderful example of the kind of forced compliance required at the Diner. Sing from the hymnal, follow the rituals and don't you DARE ask a question about the dogma, or talk or think outside the lines.

Lone wolves are dangerous to such a configuration, a well thought out dissent being absolutely horrifying to TPTB, of the Diner, or to the Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condemnations_of_1210-1277

Quote from: Golden Oxen

Of Course, as you say, it is just another McDonalds now, with the drive up window for the sheeple so they may order their burgers and fries without having to even get out of their car.

Not even that as of late. With all topics and posts now checked for approved content, and censored and erased for containing factual information contradicting internet myth or make believe facts, hell, even the regulars have been deflated. Diner folks seemed a bit more intelligent than Doomer forum norm (based solely on my experience dealing with them for nearly a decade now), and therefore they probably understand what happens when you gut the freedom and openness that are a healthy part of a good conversation. A real bummer I suppose, to discover that it was a fantasy, and who knows how they have been tracked or what steps were taken to out them?

Where is the learning, the good conversation, the healthy discussion, if one side makes a statement...and the other side nods as required....ad infinitum?

Quote from: Golden Oxen
There are some wonderful memories of the old Diner however that linger with me. When they had home cooked meals served on a ceramic plate, and the coffee wasn't in a paper cup, and the menu was diverse and changed daily, and of course no drive through window.  :'(

I have some of those same memories about my learning the forum world, and peak oilers specifically, back at po.com. The topic was new, in flux, there was learning enough for everyone. But as that learning took place, and the typical well site forum issues began cropping up, I learned about those as well. Fond memories indeed. Now, it has been well sanitized with bleach and there just isn't anything left of that vim and vigor.

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
Members, I came across this very lengthy and extraordinary article By Ilargi Meijer of TAE. I found it to be of such merit in describing the weird financial situation of today that I decided to post it here for your attention and perusal. It is a lengthy article with many sub sections so I will only post part of it to give you the flavor. Nothing we don't already know but presented most poignantly by respected financial writer Ilargi.  Hope you find it of interest.


Debt Rattle May 7 2014: A Parasite is Devouring America   

Tyler Durden runs a few lines by us from casino mogul Steve Wynn that paint a micro cosmos of everything that’s going wrong in our economies. Wynn calls the present conditions in which he conducts business “nirvana” because of prevailing artificially low interest rates and downward pressure on the dollar, but he also recognizes who pays for his nirvana. In very few words, he defines with precision how measures ostensibly intended to save the economy instead serve to destroy it, even as – and because -they make it – too – easy for him and his “class” to enrich themselves even further.

Steve Wynn Slams The Fed’s Ominous, Artificial Nirvana

    … on one hand, as a businessman, I’m thrilled. Never dreamed that we would see anything so tasty and wonderful as that. On the other hand, it’s a reflection of questionable fiscal and monetary policy in the United States that is artificially depressed interest rates because of quantitative easing by the Fed, which is also sort of killing the value of the dollar and the living standard of the working people.

    … if you’re a high-class borrower with good credit rating, this is one of the most tastiest seasons of all time for 2 reasons. You’re borrowing money at artificially depressed rates. And you’re most likely going to pay them back with 85-cent dollars. It’s a perfect storm for a businessperson unless you look at the truth of the matter and the impact it has on your customers and your employees. And that’s a much darker story. It doesn’t lend itself to a soundbite, but it’s — for every businessman in America and any economist that has their heads screwed on right, it’s an ominous situation.

    Capital structure now is – these are mostly at the Venetian and the Wynn, things of beauty. They’re lovely, better than you could ever want. I mean, they’ve got everything, low interest rates, long maturities, low covenants. What else do you want? I mean, it’s great. If you look at it from our point of view. But look at it from a consumers’ point of view or a working person’s point of view, who’s paying for all this cheap money? Well, right now, the Fed is. I thought Bernie Madoff went to jail for that.”

This “policy” of creating the conditions for those who have a lot of money to make a lot more is having consequences that are going to be felt deep inside American society, and for a very long time. In the US housing markets, the only properties that are still selling well are the most expensive ones. In March, sales of homes that cost over $1 million rose 7.8%, while those under $250,000 fell 12%. Since the latter are the vast majority of the market, it’s not hard to see the fall-out for the mortgage industry, construction, home stores etc.

The S&P/Case-Shiller may claim that U.S. home prices climbed 12.9% in the year through February, but that’s just one end of the market. “On the low end, home sales are still making fresh lows every single month”, broker-dealer Newedge’s Robbert van Batenburg told his clients last month. And “The American Dream is dead for everybody but the happy few who have enjoyed the tailwinds of the appreciating stock market … ”

It is not difficult to see why: The Economic Policy Institute says that from 2009 to 2013, wages rose only for the top U.S. earners, but fell for the bottom 90%. Tyler Durden quotes data analyst CoreLogic as saying: “the real estate market is the ultimate reflection of confidence, wealth and income [..] the same factors driving the income stagnation in the middle are driving the income momentum at the top.” [..] That last bit is at the core of all this, as Steve Wynn also acknowledged, even though it’s both denied and ignored across the board: it’s the same factors that serve to both make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Those factors are better known as Fed policies.

This is all not some passing phase which will simply prepare all of America, and all US citizens, for better days ahead; it’s a deciding factor in the demise of the famed American entrepreneurial spirit and the small businesses and jobs that rely on it, a segment of society that’ll be extremely hard to revive once it’s gone. More from Durden:

The Death Cross Of American Business

    So much for the recovery… As WaPo reports, the American economy is less entrepreneurial now than at any point in the last three decades. A rather damning new Brookings Institution report shows that US businesses are being destroyed faster than they’re being created. As the authors of the report ominously explain: If the decline persists, “it implies a continuation of slow growth for the indefinite future,” as new business creation has been cut in half since 1978. This is the death cross of American Business!!

Link to entire article  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theautomaticearth/OCyb/~3/0JV2bBYrwgI/
Golden Oxen

Golden Oxen

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 286
  • Location: Boston
    • View Profile
Re: The Commons Forum
« Reply #44 on: May 09, 2014, 05:21:20 pm »

     

      Yes, Great guys looking after us and keeping us safe from terrorists (Trolls). Just like the great admins at the Diner  ::) ::)
Golden Oxen