Greed, et al.
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Blog Entry #3


I read a lot of history, both in general and in specific.  One of the things I’ve noticed being repeated over and over are the comments about the downfall of empires, countries, and even peoples/tribes/cultures.  From ancient times up to recent times .. it’s always the same story.  There are, of course, variations in some of the (minor) details, but all are the same at their core.

1. The Gods

People “forget” their gods, no longer worship them, or worship them improperly.  This causes the gods to turn their faces away from the people, tribe, country, whatever.  The gods are sometimes ‘replaced’ by other, “foreign” gods, or are sometimes just no longer able to keep all the “demons” in the world from running amok; i.e.-they’ve lost their ‘powers’.  In any case, everything just falls apart.  It may be that this is being use literally – the ‘actual’ gods are suffering because humans aren’t feeding them ‘mana’ – or it is being used as a metaphor or excuse for severe changes in the traditional values & practices of the culture .. and people just don’t know how to cope.

2. Ancestors

People forget about or just no longer revere their ancestors.  This one may actually have some ‘meat’ to it.  Studies have shown a for-real connection between peoples’ consideration of their ancestors and their concern for their descendants.  When people are only concerned about themselves (i.e.-“today”) and no longer concerned about their descendants (i.e.-“tomorrow”), they think they can do any damn thing they want, now, and to hell with the consequences.  This is obviously very short-sighted, at best, and usually has disastrous long-term consequences .. and too often ‘not-so-long-term’.

3. Greed

But the one thing that always shows up and seems especially bad is that people become greedy and corrupt.  Note that nothing is said about becoming wealthy, but about becoming -greedy-.  Working hard and/or wisely and becoming wealthy is seen as very positive and admirable.  It is presumed this is done “fairly” and within the bounds of and in consideration for societal/cultural norms.

However, greed indicates all sorts of unhealthy negatives.  It indicates an intense desire for money (or the cultural equivalent) far, far beyond what is needed or even useful.  It condones “the ends justify the means” (im)morality.  It cares not a whit about people or society.  It cares only for one’s self.  People no longer matter, not even as a mere “number”.

This leads to all sorts of problems.  The so-called “social contract” that allows people to interact smoothly no longer has much, if any, meaning or guidance.  Greed deliberately breaks many of the guides of the contract.  If it causes others to suffer, that’s just too bad; those suffering from your actions either deserve to suffer for being “weaker” than you, or just don’t matter in life (your life being the only standard by which to measure).  This means the very basis of “civilized society” flies out the window!
Society depends on everyone following, at least modestly/moderately, the “social contract”, and when one or more parties begin to ignore or actively flaunt its guides, society begins to fray, if not out-right break, at those points.

In some cases, the behavior is the result of an “ego-game” (for lack of better term).  The participants are vying within their own peer-group for supremacy.  Only members of this peer-group are important or have any value or meaning.  Everyone else is just part of the ‘background noise’, and obviously of no importance.  Not even as servants or support personnel.

In other cases, the behavior is literally the result of a mental sickness.  This is a bit different from the previous in that it is irrelevant what others may be doing.  This behavior is actually pathological.  The amount of wealth one has is just “not enough”, and no matter how much one has, it is never, ever “enough”.  Asking the question “enough for what” is meaningless, because having wealth is important for its own sake and more is simply more.  The impact of this hoarding of wealth on others, or even on society in general, is completely without meaning.  The focus is strictly to fill an internal need, sick though it may be.

And in a tiny number of cases, greed is simply to fulfill 'The Joker’s Need' – “It’s not about the money, I just want to see the world burn.”

In all three cases, society and its needs are irrelevant and thus ignored.  But the money must come from somewhere .. and that means the rest of society.

Money is a medium of exchange.  It is used to exchange “energy” from one person or entity to another, in representation of goods and/or services.  A society only has/produces so much “energy” to make its economy function.  As long as the “energy” keeps flowing, the “engine” of the economy keeps working.  When the “energy” is hoarded and no longer available to fuel the “engine”, it simply stops functioning.  When society’s engine stops working, society loses the “energy” to do things as simple as feed itself!  When people become hungry enough, naturally, not all the excuses, misdirection, or spin in the world will save your sorry, mis-begotten ass.  If you try to use the police and military forces to suppress hungry people, you will only anger them more than they already are.  At that point, the possibility of society surviving intact heads down to the single digits .. .. and for the survival of the greedy fools who caused the mess to approach negative numbers!

Unfortunately, there is another aspect of greed that is often overlooked, especially in ‘modern’ times.  In all three cases, there is only “loyalty” to oneself, not to society and certainly not to country/nation.  If your greed results in the demise of the country you’re in, tough beans, just move to another one.  After all, ‘society’ is meaningless and only the accumulation of wealth, for its own sake, has any meaning.  This means decisions are made on the basis of “what benefits me, personally” instead of taking any consideration of society’s needs.  If a decision will result in many millions of dollars for you, but will throw thousands of people out of work, of course you take your millions.  People can simply find another job .. even if the one you just destroyed was literally the only one available in the entire area!  It’s not your fault that society planned so poorly.

But it’s not just “natural people” (i.e.-human beings) that get caught up in greed.  Corporations have been all about greed for a long, long time.  And, of course, they have absolutely no incentive to be “loyal” to a country/nation at all – their only “loyalty” is to their profits.  It means nothing to the corporation that they may be the very cause of destruction of environment or society, or even gruesome death.  If things get difficult enough in one location, they simply abandon that location and go elsewhere.  People, society, country - - none of these mean a thing to corporations; only their profits have any meaning.

And forget the complete and utter B.S. that CEOs, et al, use as an excuse – “It’s not my fault that ‘x’ happened or ‘y’ policy exists – it’s the corporation that did it.”  Look, corporations are a legal fiction designed to represent a collection of people, for whatever purpose.  Its policies and practices are determined and enacted by people.  From the CEO & BOD on down to the lowest employee, the active unit is a person, not a faceless paper entity.

They also like to use the excuse of “staying competitive in the global market” for many of their policies and practices.  This is pure and utter Bull Shit.  What they say is belied by what they do.  If they could get slaves to do their work, they would, but lacking that, they look for places where they can pay slave-like wages, with no benefits, no safety rules, or anything else that would cost them even a dime.  This might be fine if only short-term, instant gratification was important, but it is lousy for the long term.

Now, according to the ‘Holy’ Chicago School of Economics, corporations will do what is supposedly ‘right and proper’ because of their own “enlightened self-interest”.  In the many decades this utter crap has been pushed, and that includes at the end of a bayonet - literally, it has not once proven to be true.  It’s a pleasant myth corporations like to trot out, but their own records prove their only interest is profits .. and any way to increase them is considered “fair”, no matter what harm may be caused to others.




To be continued…

Friends, et al.
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Blog Entry #2


I have very few friends, especially male friends.  What seems to be the ‘problem’ with men - - aside from the fact that I are one?  (Joke)

Well .. .. my father was one, and he abused the hell out of me.  In the army, all of my superiors were men.  Far more often than not, they didn’t strike me as the sharpest pencils in the box.  They often made decisions/choices that weren’t very sensible, to be polite about it.  Unfortunately, they sometimes got people killed needlessly.  Let’s face it, in combat people are going to die, no matter what you do – it’s a fact of life (as it were) – but you don’t need to make things worse by being stupid!

Males tend to be aggressive and competitive.  I was abused – I don’t like “aggressive”.  Get aggressive with me and I’m most likely to simply walk away.  If you get in my face and don’t let me walk away .. things could get very dangerous very quickly, for you.  I literally don’t know how to fight.  At best, I only know what I was taught in the army - - and it wasn’t how to play “patty-cake”.

As for competitive, I simply won’t.  All it means to me are the things my father harped on: stand up for yourself (an extremely dangerous thing to do around him), the world is dog-eat-dog, so you have to look out for yourself first, last and always (yes, he grew up during the Great Depression – how could you tell).  Also, the world doesn’t care about you, so you have to fight for everything you get.  Often, you simply took what you needed, no matter what it was – food, clothes, women, whatever.  It was simply what “real men” did .. or you didn’t survive.  Now, OTOH, I can understand how he got these attitudes, but, OTOH, I wanted nothing to do with them.  If these attitudes made, or helped make, him what he was, I was going to do something else.  No, that did not mean I was going to become a SNAG¹!  Those guys simply make my skin crawl.  Yeah, yeah, the Age of Aquarius and all the rest of it.  Nuts!

Add in to all this the fact that my mind simply works “differently” than almost all people I’ve known (not just men), and we have a curious ‘situation’.  For example, I’ve said elsewhere that I’ve known about and interacted with elves, fairies, and all sorts of other folks and creatures from 'Beyond the Veil' since I was a small child.  To most people, that’s just plain crazy.  In addition, those BNPs² who are the supposed “experts” on this sort of thing maintain that I have no idea what I’m talking about, that I’ve simply fallen for the ‘Disney nonsense’, yadda, yadda, yadda.  When I’ve asked my “little friends” about the attitudes and images of the BNPs, et al, they just roll their eyes and say they can be like that if people insist .. but they’d rather not, thank you very much.

In another example, Lord Shiva of the Hindu pantheon is the aesthetic God of Destruction.  He is always covered in ashes from the cremation grounds, his hair is a tangled mess, he hangs around with ghosties & ghoulies & demons of all sorts, and he really doesn’t care about the niceties of (polite?) society.  [>NOTE: then again, how much of this “description” is simply a PR campaign by the Aryans trying to put him down and make him ‘go away’??  Think about it for a second.<]  Generally speaking, he will interact politely with all the other (Vedic, i.e. “invader”) gods, but acts neither subservient nor superior to them.  After all, they came here – He already Was.

Shiva “is” extremely contradictory.  He is an aesthetic who is constantly ‘meditating’ and ‘withdrawing from the world’, yet his ‘image’ or symbol in temple is the erect phallus!  He is The Destroyer, yet he is the one who dances the world and the universe into being.  (While he can destroy anything, even gods, he usually destroys the out-moded, or that which needs to be removed for new growth to take place.  He also “destroys” ignorance, even in other gods {he teaches them many things, including Magic, for example} .. .. but, yes, stupidity is beyond even his ultimate ability .. .. ..)  He always seems to be sitting in peaceful meditation, yet he has a rage/anger that is only matched by his wife, Kali, who terrifies the ever-lovin' shit out of all the other gods (interestingly enough, by their own admission)!  Once she gets on a killing/ destroying jag, he is the only one who can bring her back to her senses.  The list of contradictions just goes on and on.

And yet.. and yet.. HE is the only deity, or major power in the universe that I identify with.  Don’t get me wrong – I can and do respect and sometimes even honor gods from other sources, but identify with?  Nope, only Shiva.

Now, what does all this have to do with “friends, et al”??  I know of few people, and fewer men, who could read any of the above without thinking I was certifiably crazy .. at best.  According to “society”, okay, I’m probably crazy as hell .. certainly delusional .. but I am what I am, and if you can’t accept or handle that .. .. >>shrug<< .. ..


¹ -- SNAG : Sensitive New Age Guy
² -- BNP : Big Name Pagan
These two terms should be fairly easy to figure out, but ask if you can’t get it.


ADDENDUM:
I just recently ran across an article about "Omega" males.  I'm sure everyone has a good idea what an "Alpha male" is -- you know: macho, best at everything, gets all the gals, always 'the leader', aggressive, more than willing to fight to get what he wants, =has= to be -acknowledged- as #1, etc, etc.

It turns out that what are called "Omega males" are =very= different from Alphas, and not -at- =all= "submissive", to Alphas or anyone else.  The description fit me perfectly!  Now I just wished I had bookmarked the location, so I could cite it.

Race
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Blog Entry #1


Lately, there has – once again! – been a lot of hateful energy spilled about race.  I consider the people involved in this waste of energy to be ignorant fools, at best!!  Human racism is .. what?  A farce?  A mistake?  An illusion?  A strong indicator of a person who is .. “mentally challenged”?  Well, whatever .. .. ..
In any case, it is not something people should be getting all worked up about.  Culture?  Okay, sure, if you insist.  I would personally prefer to learn about another culture rather than argue about it.  They are fascinating!  Oh, and you don’t have to like or agree with the culture or its values, either, just to learn about and appreciate them.  Politics?  Oh, hell, yeah!  LOL!  Sports?  Oh, well .. I suppose so, if you really have nothing better to do.  (As you can tell, I’m not a big sports fan.  Yes, some I enjoy watching, but to get all worked up about?  Nope, just not worth it, to me.)  But .. race?!  Oh, pul-EASE!  How lame!

You see, I know re-incarnation is real.  I know what I’ve been and where I've been a few times, and sometimes even when it was.  I suspect several more, although I haven’t checked them out (..yet..).  As the saying goes, “I am a soul, I have a body.”  Okay, so this time around I have a body with thus-n-such list of characteristics: male, Caucasian, medium height, brown hair (or it once was, anyway), etc, etc.  But, next time?  Well, I could be similar to this time, a few things could be different, I could be completely different, or, what the hell, my next life might not even be on this planet!

Which, of course, brings up something different but related: what in the hell makes people think we – the humans of this planet – are the only sentient creatures in this galaxy, much less in any of the millions of others “out there”?!  For crying out loud, several governments around the world have already admitted there have been “extraterrestrial visitors” for quite some time!  It’s even been admitted there are several different races or origins of these ‘visitors’.  Just off the top of my head, I can recall seeing mention of two different “humans”, two different felines, a canine, three types of “ETs”, and one saurian.  That’s a lot of real “races” .. and some people are getting freaked out over something as simple as a melanin count?!  What a bunch of ignorant dorks!

Hmmm, then again, maybe racists really are so insecure about themselves that they’re willing to grasp at anything to make themselves feel better, and not like the scared little losers they think they really are.  How sad for them.

Read Me First .. before the other blog entries

Read Me First


First things first – I am not much of a writer and I know it.  I write well enough, but I write as if I’m talking to the reader.  So, I have a few things I do to make it easier to “hear” what I’m saying.  I think these are fairly simple and easy to use, as long as you understand that I’m “talking” rather than “writing”.  If, however, you find these too difficult to use or understand, you might want to go read something else.

The following are the conventions I use:
        -xxx-        indicates “emphasis” of the word or phrase.
        =xxx=        indicates “heavy or especially stressed emphasis”
        :xxx:        indicates “sarcasm”
        ::xxx::        indicates “heavy or ‘dripping’ sarcasm”

Remember, I am -not- writing mere words to be read and interpreted however you feel like – I’m talking to you, so ‘listen’ carefully.  😆

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Secondly, remember, I’m a veteran, of “long, long ago in (what might as well have been) a galaxy far, far away”.  I enlisted, to do my ‘civic duty’, before the public (including me) was really aware of what or where Viet Nam was.  I was, to put it rather mildly, -very- naïve, meaning I actually believed all the things my elders told me.  I also had a very high IQ and learned things very quickly.  This meant I would ‘see’ and/or figure out things faaaaar above my ‘pay grade’.  Some people were not happy with me because of that.  To this day I have a ‘problem’ with Trust and Respect, especially of those in positions of “authority”.  Along with that goes a volcano-load of anger, =especially= at those who -refuse- to =THINK= (or only think in terms of what’s in it -for- =them=)!!

I also have a ‘problem’ with people who feel “entitled” without reason, but especially those who think their great wealth makes them ::better:: than everyone else, even if all they did was inherit it.  Don’t get me wrong – I have no problems at all with someone working hard and/or smart and becoming wealthy .. .. as long as they didn’t step on people or carelessly (?deliberately?) screw them over to get/keep their wealth.  I guess I’m one of those ‘throw-backs’ who honestly believe the bit about “to those whom great power and wealth is given, at least an equal amount of responsibility and duty to those below them is required”.  (I forget the fancy term for that – I think it was in Latin, but it could have been another language.)

A bit of an intro and some 'ground rules'

Hi, folks. My name is "Uncle Draggi" and I'm an older guy. I'm also a veteran of "long, long ago in (what might as well have been) a galaxy far, far away." My (paternal) grandparents were immigrants and had a major impact on my view of the world from a very early age. My mother's side of the family I know very little about. I've been to a few countries besides the US, and have spoken a number of languages (if you don't use 'em, you tend to lose 'em). While I think the US is the best country on earth, I readily acknowledge we have our share of problems .. entirely too many of which are self-induced.

As far as 'ground rules' go, they're fairly simple. I will call whatever I'm on about as I see it. I will not always be terribly 'polite' about it, although I'll try not to get too carried away with the cursing or 'earthiness' of my language. I tend to think long and hard about something before shooting my mouth off about it - I expect anyone who comments to do the same. I'm not interested in spammers, trolls, mental/verbal game-players, or anyone who obviously hasn't bothered to think beyond the end of their own nose (beyond their own self-interests, in other words). Altho some people enjoy arguing just for its own sake, I'm not one of them (probably due to a very abusive childhood...).

That's all I can think of at the moment. Ciao!