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sibelian

sibelian's Journal
sibelian's Journal
August 15, 2012

This Romney chap seems a little oversensitive, wouldn't you say?


Lacks the necessary self-confidence, I'd suggest.



August 13, 2012

And when you gaze long into an abyss ....


...the abyss eventually gets pissed off with your passive aggressive bullshit and says "Stop staring at me you rude bastard! How would you like it if weird, sinister people followed you around for decades and ogled you continuously like you were some kind of freak show? Hm!? Have a good look, then, you nosy piece of shit! I can't help the way I am! It's congenital! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" And then it bursts into tears and calls the police and gets an injunction out on your ass, which is highly embarassing and an alarming experience calling for some self-examination and perhaps a re-evaluation of one's OCD abyss fetish.
August 12, 2012

A nation is not a business. A nation is a haven for human souls.


A nation is the physical manifestation of a constellation of human ideals.

Nations exist for the sake of the people in them. They serve no purpose if they cannot improve the lot of the average citizen or there is no shared understanding of what the nation is all about. Nations provide a sanctuary within which human beings can realise their potential, in the company and safety of like-minded humans, where shared values can work in unison for the betterment of all. Human beings need nations to rise above their individualism and make common cause with those who share their values. Nations are places where beliefs are tested and the best way forward is decided on collectively, as far as possible by consensus, and as far as possible by consent.

Nations are not places where selected segments of the populace are sold down the river like bits of scrap metal so that rich people can get richer. Nations are not places where individual's dreams are forgotten or purposefully crushed because they aren't part of the business model. Nations are not places where human beings are less important than the bank balance.

Ideals are not things that should be treated like materials in a factory, products to be marketed, workstreams to be "streamlined", assets to be spent or hoarded or conceptual models to be updated, repurposed or made redundant. Ideals that are treated in this fashion are no longer ideals, but mere ideas, ideas thrown into a psychological garbage disposal unit and spat out at the end to see which one got the least screwed so that it can be sold.

Businesses have nothing to do with nations. They have nothing to do with ideals. Businesses are about counting. Counting things, counting money, counting time, counting, counting, counting.

Even the Romans understood that money existed for the betterment of humans, and not the other way round.

Mitt Romney does not believe in anything. He has no understanding of the necessity for human beings to have lives beyond the trivial time consumption of work, to have succeses beyond the trivial mathematics of a rich man's bank balance or the necessity for human beings to feel that their lives are meaningful, that their time on this world matters. This is perfectly clear from every single thing he has ever said.

If Mitt Romney wants to run a business, why isn't he running a business?
August 11, 2012

He can defend the Ryan pick. He can't defend his refusal to release his taxes!


I urge all here interested in seeing him fail not to forget that the tax story is the big gun. I also predict with total confidence that every opportunity he has to put the Ryan story in place of the tax story will be taken by his campaign, they cannot afford to lose any more ground and will start fighting in earnest, every opportunity they have to distort, lie, twist facts, bend the narrative will be taken!

It will be:

Everyone: "So, Mr Romney - TAXES, how about that?"

Romney campaign: "RYAN. RYAN, RYAN, RYAN."

They won't answer questions or allow any further ground to be taken up by the tax story it's KRYPTONITE to them.

DON'T DROP THE BALL.
August 11, 2012

If Ryan releases HIS taxes... it makes Romney look worse...


If he doesn't, it makes the whole campaign look even worse than that!!!!!
August 11, 2012

My paranoia - If the US elects Romney and the asset-stripping continues, Europe will be next.


Europe has no money. Politicians in the Eurozone will have to lock step with the US if Romney's campaign convinces the US that giving all their jobs and money away to China is in their interest. This will happen because the globally minded 1%, having taken the US down, will have to move taking down the socially responsible political models in Europe next as there is no way the story of the collapse of the US middle class can be allowed to be seen as unique to the US. They will work to bring down Europe as no contrasting model can be permitted.

Am I paranoid?
August 11, 2012

Altrusim vs indifference is the story being played out in the US.


I think that's the message that the Obama team should be putting out. And, largely, they are. Thus far their campaign focusses on specifics, individual stories, particular financial or social issues that highlight and form a narrative specificity to the ideological struggle. I think that Obama's team are doing very well indeed but could potentially do even better by actually going for the jugular and isolating from the rhetoric what it is about Republican thinking that makes it fail for ordinary people - namely that it's incompatible with human development, which is impossible without the concept of altruism.

Would you like to see Obama address this concept more directly? Would you like him to take on the "ideological" component of the right wing in blunter terms (the terms are already pretty blunt, to be fair)? Or would you rather they stuck to their current tactics (which are certainly extremely effective...)? Would you rather not spook the horses with bold statements?

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