Technocrats, the Third Way and the Death of Diversity

[whereisjustice]

I had some time this weekend to put some thoughts down on paper and started expanding on the idea that we are a technocratic state run by 3rd way types in both parties. I only got this far, but maybe someone can pick up on the theme and do a better job of it.

I'm not talking about ethnic diversity. I'm talking about something deeper. I'm talking about the native and organic aptitude and talent that people are born with. It's what makes a musician and the carpenter and the scientist what they are. It's exactly this human diversity of talent being stripped from businesses, occupations and careers in the US, replaced by a political vision of an engineered society, operating lock-step as a machine, serving the needs of our political elite. I've come to believe that organic human diversity of skill is far more threatening to our ruling oligarchy than any perception of race or sex. If there is going to be a challenge to the status quo, it's going to come from people who have the raw talent to imagine something better than the unacceptable state of our class based society which values wealth over justice and equality. Somewhere in that talent pool are people who share a gift with those who first formed the nation in search of justice and equality. After all, by the standards of their day, they were extraordinarily successful. And that surely must scare our ruling class to death.

The neo-lib and neo-con both have faith in the idea that corporate efficiency can solve difficult social problems. But in actuality, the deference to corporate interests as a legitimate political principal is just a bullshit cover for the dirty business of financing the high standard of living of our political leaders. We are expected to blindly accept the idea that the wealthy leadership of our party represents proof of good, while the wealthy leadership of their party represents proof of evil. But the truth is, political leadership in both parties has dignified, through the use of complex, high-minded semantics, the act of taking cash in return for passing laws and entitlements exclusively beneficial to corporations. From a technical point of view, what could be more efficient than a government that takes cash for service?

To legitimize this corruption within the context of a nation of self-governing people, the corporations simply reclassified themselves as corporate-persons, with the same basic rights of an individual. This recent development is something unlikely to ever be challenged by our political elite because it is an abstraction fully compatible with the core governing principals of a political monopoly, namely that people must earn the right (literally, in cash) to be represented by their own government.

So, here we are. A nation governed by corporations.

If there's one thing corporations know how to do, it's how to apply technology and automation to create a consistent product. We've got it all down to a science. From the moment a child is placed on the conveyor belt, they are moved down a line of corporate designed standard curriculum and quality control tests. Schools automatically filter out the defects, those outside corporately acceptable tolerances. Once pulled from the line, you end up in a bin for discard or recycling. This bin is commonly known as the US prison system.

At the end of the line, a successful product is optimally refined to meet the immediate need of today's market. Of course the immediate needs changes on a daily basis as we try to out smart the corporate forces sending jobs to Mexico one day, China the next, India the next and Vietnam the next in a never ending pursuit of nations willing to enforce rock bottom standard of living conditions for their workers.

The technocrats actually envision a nation where we start each day checking the market conditions for our chosen profession ready to move from electronics technician to carpenter to auto mechanic to computer programmer at a moments notice. To the 3rd way, there are no careers or native talents. Skills are just an abstraction, something bought and sold on the market, like stock in a company. If you get washed out of the American dream, its only because you were too lazy to pay attention and invest in the most profitable market of the moment.

We have come to devalue a career as something you buy from a low wage workforce in a god forsaken hell hole in Asia. The consequences of this reckless and dangerous transition to a "knowledge based economy" is that we are literally losing the ability to innovate in areas that keep the nation competitive. We can't all make a living giving $300,000 "knowledge" speeches on the lecture circuit. By not developing essential hands-on skills we are becoming a highly engineered monoculture, susceptible to a single point of failure.

Consider that our banking system recently collapsed due to criminal activity. Our inability to punish the perpetrators and conspirators, perfectly illustrates this important point. Surely there are skilled individuals with the talent, regulatory background and proper sense of right and wrong who understand how important it is to serve justice to the criminals behind this massive fraud. The sense of honor and patriotism in being able to serve the nation by bringing justice should be motivation enough... where are they? I argue they've been deliberately washed out of our government as adding no value to our nation's newly developed corporate mission statement.

That's as far as I got...

[cantbeserious]

1. I Will No Longer Settle For The Lesser Of Two Corporate Evils - Go Bernie Go

eom

[whereisjustice]

2. The more I hear Sanders, the more I am convinced he is made of the stuff of nation builders, the

same people who wrote the Bill of Rights.

[cantbeserious]

3. Roger That

eom

[sabrina 1]

6. Yes, Bernie is how I imagine the great thinkers who founded this nation.

Actually the great thinkers who INFLUENCED the founders of this nation would be more accurate.

[Enthusiast]

4. Kicked

and recommended!

[Fairgo]

5. I appreciate your spirit and effort

This is refreshing, and a reminder that a good forum can be a place to explore different worldviews, and maybe challenge our own. Capitalism requires consumption. The spiral of consumption is not sustainable. Physically, we simply run out of material. Spiritually the ritual of consumption so alienates us from our human nature that we eventually walk away. The second form scares the stuff makers to death. What if one day we realised that there is more happiness in a community garden than a bank full of money. What if one day acquisition was not the reason you got out of bed? You opened a very large box here...so many good ideas. I hope you post more.

[sabrina 1]

7. I agree, it is an excellent OP

This I agree with completely:

I've come to believe that organic human diversity of skill is far more threatening to our ruling oligarchy than any perception of race or sex.

This is why some of them are able to infiltrate the Dem Party using women and minorities to pass for Democrats and if we don't end their control over this Party, that IS what the party will be.

We have only two parties. A third party isn't an option right now, so we must hold on to the party that claims to be the party of the working class while in reality it is more and more the party of Wall St.

[whereisjustice]

9. Thanks! You've written some great posts/comments as well, always enjoy them.

[sabrina 1]

10. That's very kind of you to say. You asked a question regarding why none of those who

committed massive crimes were prosecuted. Whether there were decent people who were willing to do so. It's a question that will be asked imo, by future generations.

I think those people do exist, however it seems to me that there was a decades long plan to get to this point. They thought of everything, or almost everything.

They worked to get laws overturned, Glass Steagal eg. Bush withdrew from the International Court. I believe they knew they would be committing crimes in order to get the kind of money to achieve the power they now have.

When they were exposed for spying on the American people, the law making that a crime, was changed, retroactively to cover they period of the crime.

It's not as if this hasn't happened before in history. Narcissistic, unethical, immoral individuals grab power and then make their criminal behavior legal.

As for anyone who might have wanted to prosecute them, Congress is where that should have begun, but Congress is populated by people who are bought and paid for.

They have achieved so much power at this point that turning it around will take a long time, and it will take more than a few good politicians.

It will take an overwhelming uniting of the American people imo, to stop them. So long as they can keep the people divided, left/right etc, they are safe. I do think that is beginning to happen. See OWS which was non-partisan. That scared them as they watched it grow and refusing to be political, made up of people from all over the political spectrum.

[whereisjustice]

11. Funny thing about OWS, it worked. It wasn't overnight, but it made a difference

people freely understand the 99% - it took a while for it to sink in, but I believe it worked - it challenged perceptions, but once the cheap shots were out of the way, there was a lasting impression. Researchers started publishing data, the economics became clear, people started taking notice.

Much like climate change took a while, most reasonable people acknowledge it and understand the consequences.

Perhaps people are being too patient, but I think there is an expectation that our Government must tackle these problems, regardless of corporate loyalties.

As long as people like yourself keep chipping away at the lies and duplicity and the abstract 3rd dimensional bullshit covering the asses of the ruling class and distracting us from needed reform, maybe we can make a difference.

I don't know, I'm not usually optimistic but maybe a few Bernie speeches has lifted my spirits. What an amazing contrast to Hillary Clinton.

[merrily]

13. Within your post is a very important point. They plan decades ahead, while it has taken us

decades to catch on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group to name just one.

ALEC, domestic and foreign. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_International_Relations_Task_Force

Think tank after think tank.

Etc.

I don't know how we combat it, unless we fund at least one think tank that respresents no one but John and Jane Average Citizen.

[whereisjustice]

17. think tank that respresents no one but John and Jane Average Citizen.... how about Bernie?

First time I've contributed directly to a candidate since wasting a ton of cash on Obama and a few idiot blue dogs that DLC types tricked me into thinking were necessary to save the world but they only ended up fucking us over.

I will never again put party above principals.

[merrily]

18. I have been contributing to Bernie, but that's different.

[whereisjustice]

8. Thanks very much!

[Paka]

12. Great thoughts.

Bookmarked to keep referring back to.

[merrily]

14. That's a different take on politics than I usually see and I give you a lot of credit for that.

Of course, though, the banks were not punished because no one in power wanted to punish them and no one's really fixed "too big to fail" because the banks didn't want it fixed.

[whereisjustice]

15. For sure that is one side of it, the longer view is we are grooming kids to paint by numbers and

stay within the lines to an extent never before seen. Technology made it possible to parametrize every aspect of their development. Only the most compliant and non-threatening can succeed. The goal seems to be one of rote intellectual development without the distractions of considering right and wrong. Winning *really* is everything.

I see it pervasive in industry where someone will make a cost cutting decision based on "the best data we had at the time". They are expert at the analysis and power point presentations and don't waste valuable corporate resources on inefficient "what if" exploration.

For example,

An engineer says - "you are replacing the ignition switch with a cheaper one to save $0.50, but it's spring lock mechanism is weaker and could turn the engine off while a car is in motion. I can't approve this."

The technocrat says - "you have no data to back that assertion. People don't weigh down their key chains with junk. Our research shows that we'll save several hundred thousand dollars this way and our tests using a typical key chain with 2 keys passed all of our tests. People must be responsible for making sure they don't abuse our switch." The technocrat fires the engineer and sends his job to a low wage worker in India who is unburdened with such esoteric concerns.

When the shit hits the fan and hundreds die, the technocrat announces "nobody could predict this failure, we made our engineering decision based on the best data and computer modeling available at the time."

The same technocrat probably told Obama "deep water drilling is absolutely safe, we have all the technology in place. There's never been a leak."

Same with banking de-regulation, "we could not predict the volatile market conditions that occurred to precipitate this crisis. Such an event has never before occurred in our economic history, therefore, it is only fair that, as a nation (*), we all share the difficult sacrifices that must be made to ensure America maintains its position as the world's safest investment option."

(*) meaning the middle class and below

All of this shit becomes much easier for corporations if they start while kids are young and monitor their development using corporate standards. Hence, Bill Gates and Arne Duncan are literally automating our education system with robot teachers assembling kids to the tightest corporate tolerance possible.

Our education and political system is beating ethics and morality out of our population in order that corporations can operate without fear of opposition or dissent. Certainly a SEC regulator whoring for banks will have a much easier time of it if the thousands on the staff are carefully selected for their ability to follow directions without asking a lot of dumb questions.

BTW- the same technocratic mindset is the one that calls Snowden a traitor because he broke a rule. He wasn't compliant. Never rmind that the NSA was doing something abhorrent and wrong and violating everyone's civil rights and constitutional protections. Snowden didn't follow the rules.

[merrily]

16. Again, wonderful insights.

Human life is not valued. Greed is. Automaton people are easier to deal with than people who can analyze. Let's make sure our education system doesn't turn out latter---and makes private parties rich with tax dollars.

[merrily]

19. kicking for whereisjustice, who I am sorry to say stopped posting.