Several times while reading your piece I remembered a haunting line from Vasily Grossman’s novel, Life and Fate: “Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness.”
Word. Anyone who watched ‘Network’ back in ‘76 knew where this was headed. Unfortunately, most Americans preferred the feel good mythology of ‘Rocky’.
Jensen laid it out for Howard Beale here:
“ You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?! Do you think you've merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and You Will Atone!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state - Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel. (Beale: "Why me?") Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. (Beale: "I have seen the face of God.") You just might be right, Mr. Beale.”
I read this morning that senior officials at OPM (Office of Personnel Management) were frozen or blocked out of the system. Several employees of Musk’s various companies have been placed into those senior positions. Cots were moved into the offices so the saboteurs could work 24/7 to undermine the agency. Like when Musk took over Twitter. Employees said it felt like a hostile takeover. That’s exactly what it is.
Your analysis so spot-in I feel as if you've taken a peek into my own brain to help me understand this tragic state of affairs. Thank you. One bright spot in BRICS.
Several times while reading your piece I remembered a haunting line from Vasily Grossman’s novel, Life and Fate: “Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness.”
Ever since the plane crash in DC I’ve been thinking, They shrunk the FAA enough to drown it in the Potomac.
“No common good, just commerce and extraction.”
Word. Anyone who watched ‘Network’ back in ‘76 knew where this was headed. Unfortunately, most Americans preferred the feel good mythology of ‘Rocky’.
Jensen laid it out for Howard Beale here:
“ You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?! Do you think you've merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and You Will Atone!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state - Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel. (Beale: "Why me?") Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. (Beale: "I have seen the face of God.") You just might be right, Mr. Beale.”
I read this morning that senior officials at OPM (Office of Personnel Management) were frozen or blocked out of the system. Several employees of Musk’s various companies have been placed into those senior positions. Cots were moved into the offices so the saboteurs could work 24/7 to undermine the agency. Like when Musk took over Twitter. Employees said it felt like a hostile takeover. That’s exactly what it is.
I'm sending you an interview you might find interesting, even hopeful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FUFewGHLLg
Your analysis so spot-in I feel as if you've taken a peek into my own brain to help me understand this tragic state of affairs. Thank you. One bright spot in BRICS.