Zeitgeist: Moving Forward Page #8

the worse it is for sustaining cyclical consumption

and hence the market system itself.

In other words, product sustainability

is actually inverse to economic growth

and hence there is a direct, reinforced incentive

to make sure life spans are short

of any given good produced.

And, in fact, the system cannot operate any other way.

One glance at the sea of landfills now spreading across

the world show the obsolescence reality.

There are now billions of cheaply made cell phones

computers and other technology

each full of precious, difficult to mine materials

such as gold, coltan, copper...

now rotting in vast piles

usually due to the mere malfunction or obsolescence

of small parts which, in a conservative society

could likely be fixed or updated

and the life of the good extended.

Unfortunately, as efficient as that may seem

in our physical reality, living on a

finite planet with finite resources,

it is explicitly inefficient, with respect to the market.

To put into a phrase:

Efficiency, Sustainability, and

Preservation are the enemies of our economic system.

Likewise, just a physical goods need to be constantly

produced and reproduced

regardless of their environmental impact

the service industry operates with an equal rational.

The fact is, there is no monetary benefit

to resolving any problems

which are currently being serviced.

At the end of the day

the last thing the medical establishment really wants

is the curing of diseases such as cancer

which would eliminate countless jobs and trillions in revenue.

And since we are on the subject...

Crime and Terrorism in this system are good!

Well, at least economically...

for it is employing police

generating hi-value commodities for security

not to mention the value of prisons

that are privately owned - for profit.

And how about war?

The war industry in America is a huge driver of GDP -

one of the most profitable industries -

producing weapons of death and destruction.

The favorite game of this industry is to blow things up

and then can go and rebuild them, for profit.

We saw this with the windfall billion dollar

contracts made from the Iraq war.

The bottom line is that socially negative

attributes of society

have become positively rewarded ventures for industry

and any interest in problem resolution

or environmental sustainability and conservation

is intrinsically counter to economic sustainability.

And this is why

every time you see the GDP rise in any country

you are witnessing an increase in necessity

whether real or contrived

and by definition, a necessity is rooted in inefficiency.

Hence, increased necessity means increased inefficiency.

[Value System Disorder]

The American dream is based on

the rampant consumerism.

It is based upon the fact that

mainstream media and

especially commercial advertising

- All corporations who need this infinite growth -

have convinced us or brainwashed

most people in America and the world

that we have to have X number of material possessions

and the possibility of gaining infinitely more

material possessions, in order to be happy.

That's just not true.

So why do people continue to buy in this way

which is ultimately eco-genocidal

in its systemic effects cumulatively?

And it just is classical & operant conditioning.

You simply put inputs of conditioning into the organism

and you have outputs of desired behaviors

or goals or objectives.

And it has all the resources of technology

and they boast about how they

get into the minds of infants

what they hear is already making them

conditioned to the brand.

Then you see, that's how

people have been such fools.

They have been taught to be fools.

It's a value system disorder.

You know, if there is any testament to the plasticity

of the human mind.

If there is any proof to how malleable

human thought is and how easily

conditioned and guided people can become

based on the nature of their environmental stimulus

and what it reinforces:

the world of commercial advertising is the proof.

You have to stand in awe

at the level of brainwashing

where these programmed robots known as "consumers"

wander the landscape

only to walk into a store and spend, say

4000$ on a handbag

that likely cost 10 dollars to make

in a sweatshop overseas.

Only for the brand status it supposedly

represents in the culture.

Or perhaps the ancient communal traditions

which increase trust and cohesiveness in society -

which have now been hijacked by acquisitive

materialistic values where now we annually

exchange useless crap a few times a year.

And we might wonder why so many today have a

compulsion to shopping and acquisition

when it is clear that they have conditioned from childhood

to expect material goods

as a sign of their status with friends and family.

The fact is, the foundation of any society

are the values that support its operation

and our society, as it exists

can only operate if our values support

the conspicuous consumption it

requires to continue the market system.

75 years ago consumption in America

and much of the 1st world was half

of what we see today, per person.

Today's new consumer culture

has been manufactured and imposed

due to the very real need for higher

and higher levels of consumption.

And this is why most corporations now spend

more money on advertising, than the actual process

of product creation itself.

They work diligently to create a false need for you to fill.

And it happens to work.

["The Economists"]

You know economists, in fact, are not economists at all.

They're propagandists of money value

and you will find that all of their

models basically get down to token

exchanges that are true to profit

of one side or both sides or whatever

but they are completely disconnected from the actually

existing world of reproduction.

In Ohio, an old man failed to pay his electric bill

you may be familiar with the case

and the electric company turned off the electricity and he died.

The reason they turned it off was

because it wouldn't have been profitable

for them to keep it on because he didn't pay his bill.

Do you believe that was right?

The responsibility really lies not on

the electric company for turning it off

but on those of this man's neighbors and friends

and associates

who were not charitable enough

to enable him, as an individual

to meet the electric bill.

HMMMMMM...

Did I hear that right?

Did he just say the death of a man

caused by not having money

was the responsibility of...

other people...

or, in effect, charity?

Well then, I guess we're gonna need

a whole lot of infomercials, little miserable

coin slot donations for bodega counters

and a bunch of pickle jars

for the billion people now starving to death

on this planet...

because of the very system Milton Friedman promotes.

Whether you are dealing with the philosophies of

Milton Friedman, F.A. Hyack

John Maynard Keynes, Ludwig von Mises

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