tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post5862192490816548749..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: A Citizen of the World Is a Citizen of NowhereStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-8978949255669430792016-10-08T16:17:24.420-07:002016-10-08T16:17:24.420-07:00p.s. It looks like Prime Minister Theresa May'...p.s. It looks like Prime Minister Theresa May's speech has context also for Hillary's secret speeches given to bankers, and released by wikileaks. If it wasn't for the Trump tapes, perhaps this would be top-news? <br /><br />So whatever else, her "open borders" is a neoliberal goal that benefits the wealth class to keep no loyalty to any country, and move their money in and out, depending on where ever they can get the best tax deals. Open trade and open borders weakens national governments to control their own billionaires after all.<br /><br />http://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13206882/hillary-clinton-wikileaks-speeches-goldman<br />---<br />“My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.”<br />---<br /><br />And on health care, something that the UK now has, but perhaps has to give up because too many poor immigrants are taking advantage too much? (I've not heard May's position on this.) But it looks like nothing Hillary would be ashamed of - Bill himself was just speaking against the failings of ObamaCare after all.<br />---<br />“If you look at the single-payer systems, like Scandinavia, Canada, and elsewhere, they can get costs down because, you know, although their care, according to statistics, overall is as good or better on primary care, in particular, they do impose things like waiting times, you know. It takes longer to get like a hip replacement than it might take here.”<br />...<br />“We're in a learning period as we move forward with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. And I'm hoping that whatever the shortfalls or the glitches have been, which in a big piece of legislation you're going to have, those will be remedied and we can really take a hard look at what's succeeding, fix what isn't, and keep moving forward to get to affordable universal healthcare coverage like you have here in Canada.”<br />---<br /><br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-82056121193537259552016-10-08T13:01:20.007-07:002016-10-08T13:01:20.007-07:00Saying "a citizen of the world is a citizen o...Saying "a citizen of the world is a citizen of nowhere" is a worthy perspective, but it seems to risk a false division, that is to say we might all admit there is a continuum involved, and it is an abstraction to imagine there are merely two scales "local" and "global."<br /><br />Wendell Berry has talked about something similar, or he considered all modern people as living in "colonies", i.e. a place without self-determination which is being controlled by those outside of it. He saw this in regards to modern economics and materialism where the essentials of life have to be imported, while local work has to be done to meet the needs of distant people. <br /><br />One example Berry used was that traditionally farmers first grew food for themselves, than each other, and only if there was surplus in local food production would food be exported. And this "market competition" accomplished its stated goal - to reduce the price of food, and moving food production to the largest scale farms that use the most fossil fuels and chemical inputs, and the least care for the land. I recall as well one of the primary effects of NAFTA in Mexico was to undercut small local farmers, who were previously self-sufficient in a subsistence way at least, and when their "businesses" failed, they were forced to move into the cities to look for work, and expanded the supply of "unskilled labor" and reduced the cost that manufacturers had to pay labors. Of course a decade later, all the new cheap labor was undercut by Asia anyway!<br /><br />Stuart mentions "Anglo-American and Western values" as a sort of common denominator to define who belongs and who doesn't belong, but when she says "international elites" she is by-in-large talking about people who came from "Anglo-American and Western values", and are most of all interested, along with making money, in spreading "neoliberalism" to the entire world, which basically seeks to override local culture and local citizen or governmental control with privatization where people of European "values" have all the money, and all the influence, and it all sounded great as long as empires like Great Britain were gaining all the advantages.<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism<br /><br />So if we admit this neoliberalism was a mistake for a way to dominate the rest of the world, we can admit it is not a good way to run a democracy or a republic either.<br /><br />But just like the cosmic turtles, localization goes all the way down, and localization is a great virtue. All you have to do is admit a "race to the bottom" isn't in your best interest, and put up trade barriers, even against other cities or states, if they're outcompeting your local workers in prices for local needs. And it also means giving up on fossil fuels to run your local economy, unless you happen to have your own fossil fuels to produce. And if you do have your own fossil fuels, probably selling it to others is a bad economic strategy since it'll help them better compete against you.<br /><br />And as best I can tell the end of this process is feudalism, and it is the natural process that happens when centralized systems fail, either through resource depletion, or war, or the diminishing returns of complexity or corruption.<br /><br />Japan and the United Kingdom stand tall as island nations, so their ability to expand is limited, and they may benefit the most from setting up trade barriers that protect local workers from international competition, leading to a net decrease of standard of living BUT a rise in collectistic good spirits, knowing your labor is helping your neighbors, people you know and trust, even if some of them do not have your racial or religious heritage, they will share the same land, and your fails are intertwined.<br /><br />Anyway, they don't have to build walls to keep people out, although they still have a lot of shore line to watch for viking raiders and such.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-8041184321603429142016-10-08T11:27:12.206-07:002016-10-08T11:27:12.206-07:00A Rabbi spoke about how young people now believe i...A Rabbi spoke about how young people now believe in loving all cultures and people equally. <br />He made the case that you cannot love anybody let alone the whole world without loving family and the people closest to you first.Brooksidenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-40043643325636046482016-10-08T09:09:33.916-07:002016-10-08T09:09:33.916-07:00Somehow I missed that she had become PM. Dang goo...Somehow I missed that she had become PM. Dang good speech! I await Ares' contradiction.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.com