Corporations are similarly presented as entities purely pursuing profit for their share-holders.
In these temples of knowledge profit is valued highly; an end to be achieved by all means. Consequently in our societies people have begun to worship the god of profit; and his successful disciples as heroes, people to be emulated and praised. Things such as ethics, moral values and decency are pooh-poohed and left to the philosophers to deal with.
Similarly in political science, nations are treated as individuals, blindly pursuing their own self-interests no matter what. When nations behave ruthlessly and selfishly, it is called REALPOLITIK (political realism or practical politics). Consequently wars are no longer started because of territorial disputes or the desire by a king for a greater kingdom, but because of economic interests. It is the monetary cost-benefit analysis that determines if millions are made homeless or hundred of thousands are murdered. And this is done by mercenary armies.
You see the armies are privatised. Regardless of how patriotic the poor soldier feels, at the end of the day he is a mercenary, fighting for a country that is controlled by big corporations that in turn are controlled by rich individuals. In effect he kills or is killed to advance the interest of those individuals. A certain German general once said that if the soldiers knew what they were fighting for, there would be no war. As for us, well, we are fooled into believing that it is our interest that the soldiers are fighting for. After all what is good for General Motors is good for America, right? Or what is good for Rimi (Norwegian supermarket chain) is good for Norway, right? Well it all depends doesn't it? After all who can guarantee that General Motors or Rimi won't become another Enron?
The Economic Man and the Pursuit of Happiness
As was mentioned earlier, in the free-market capitalism, it is the interest of the individual that is paramount. Everything revolves around the individual and his/her desires. The question is, what is it that an individual, be it the amoral Economic Man or not, REALLY desires? Is it education; money; sex; youth: a palace: two palaces: private jets; servants and slaves....what? None of these things is an end in itself but rather the mean to achieving something else. One studies to gain knowledge, to get a better job, to earn more money, to buy a better house, to eat better food, to.... and it continues. You see behind every desire, lurks another. If you examine all desires, you'll see that they all eventually lead to one ultimate desire: happiness.
From the moment that we are born to that moment that we close our eyes for the last time, we want happiness. Happiness is very subjective and therefore difficult to either describe or quantify. In order to understand it, it is perhaps easier to examine what causes happiness. Happiness is closely connected to desire; for it is popularly believed that the state of happiness is brought about by the fulfilment of desires.
Already in mid 1600, Blaise Pascal was questioning the illusory nature of desire and its connection to happiness. He argued that "as nature makes us always unhappy in every state, our desires picture to us a happy state; because they add to the state in which we are the pleasures of the state in which we are not. And if we attained to these pleasures, we should not be happy after all; because we should have other desires natural to this new state." [ ]
In other words we are happy when we dream of achieving/possessing that which we desire, but as soon as we get it, we cease to want it. To sustain that feeling of happiness, we have to move on to satisfying new desires. This means that in order to be even modestly happy, one must continually satisfy one's desires. Desire comes in all forms and shapes from small ones such as satisfying hunger to large ones such as dominating the whole world. But as we go about satisfying our desires, we find that the rush of happiness is harder and harder to come by. And consequently our long periods of contentment, interspersed by small periods of happiness are replaced with long periods of frustration and discontentment interspersed with smaller and smaller periods of happiness; this despite the amassment of all sorts of titles, possessions and experiences. In 2000, Robert E. Lane of Yale University published the results of his investigation into the state of people's happiness in the market democracies. This is what he found out:
"Amidst the satisfaction people feel with their material progress, there is a spirit of unhappiness and depression haunting advanced market democracies throughout the world, a spirit that mocks the idea that markets maximise well-being and the eighteen-century promise of a right to the pursuit of happiness under benign governments of people's own choosing. The haunting spirit is manifold; a post-war decline in the United States in people who report themselves as happy, a rising tide in all advanced societies of clinical depression and dysphoria (especially among the young), increasing distrust of each other and of political and other institutions, declining belief that the lot of average man is getting better, a tragic erosion of family solidarity and community integration together with an apparent decline in warm, intimate relations among friends." [ ]
You see, a society that is built around the self-interest of the individual can not provide anything except material things. The free-market economy, especially consumerism equates happiness with possession of material things. It seeks maximum economic growth to generate maximum corporate profit, fuelled by mass consumption and provided by mass production,. In this system it is the promise of happiness that is sold rather than the product. That ownership of material things brings happiness is a big lie that has been around for thousands of years. It is just that in those days they didn't have TVs and Internet to propagate it effectively.
"I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine -- my mind still guiding me with wisdom -- and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man's delight. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."[ ]
The quote above describes King Solomon's disillusionment (ca 3000 years ago) with wealth, power and pleasure. In effect there was no continuous state of happiness in any of the things that he had tried.
It seems to me that happiness is achieved not by possessing material things but ideals. One is most happy when one is working towards a goal; and what goal is more worthy than another's happiness. It is my belief that the perpetual state of happiness can be achieved only through striving to create that state (happiness) for others. It is never-ending, fulfilling and satisfying. In other words, it is only through other people's happiness that one is guaranteed a continuous experiencing of one's own happiness.
Who are the Pushers?
Who are the people that are continuously working to perpetuate this system of deceit, lies and corruption? Some politicians, the political lobbyist, the TV/Movie screenwriters, the charming evangelical preacher, even your average rich guy, etc, are not the real movers and shakers. These people are only pawns, played with and then sacrificed. The real power behind the scene belongs to those dynasties that have existed for a very long-time. They know each other well and indeed have family ties. These are the puppet masters. They are behind the people who are behind the little known companies that own big industries, banks, and insurance companies. They are the real pushers. These people have no interest in peace and transparency. They want chaos and opaqueness, for in chaos they find even more profit and in opaqueness no one can see their deeds. Some may call them a Cabal; some may call then a satanic group, and some may call them economic wolves. Regardless of what you may call them, one thing I am sure of: they exist; and if they are not stopped they will continue to spread mayhem and misery through elective wars, selfish national and global economic policies and worst of all through corruption of the very essence of man, its sense of right and wrong, its values. Their aim is not only US, UK, Canada or Australia. It is the global village that they are after. And they are bent on achieving their goal either peacefully by bribes and threats or by WAR.
What Now?
In these temples of knowledge profit is valued highly; an end to be achieved by all means. Consequently in our societies people have begun to worship the god of profit; and his successful disciples as heroes, people to be emulated and praised. Things such as ethics, moral values and decency are pooh-poohed and left to the philosophers to deal with.
Similarly in political science, nations are treated as individuals, blindly pursuing their own self-interests no matter what. When nations behave ruthlessly and selfishly, it is called REALPOLITIK (political realism or practical politics). Consequently wars are no longer started because of territorial disputes or the desire by a king for a greater kingdom, but because of economic interests. It is the monetary cost-benefit analysis that determines if millions are made homeless or hundred of thousands are murdered. And this is done by mercenary armies.
You see the armies are privatised. Regardless of how patriotic the poor soldier feels, at the end of the day he is a mercenary, fighting for a country that is controlled by big corporations that in turn are controlled by rich individuals. In effect he kills or is killed to advance the interest of those individuals. A certain German general once said that if the soldiers knew what they were fighting for, there would be no war. As for us, well, we are fooled into believing that it is our interest that the soldiers are fighting for. After all what is good for General Motors is good for America, right? Or what is good for Rimi (Norwegian supermarket chain) is good for Norway, right? Well it all depends doesn't it? After all who can guarantee that General Motors or Rimi won't become another Enron?
The Economic Man and the Pursuit of Happiness
From the moment that we are born to that moment that we close our eyes for the last time, we want happiness. Happiness is very subjective and therefore difficult to either describe or quantify. In order to understand it, it is perhaps easier to examine what causes happiness. Happiness is closely connected to desire; for it is popularly believed that the state of happiness is brought about by the fulfilment of desires.
Already in mid 1600, Blaise Pascal was questioning the illusory nature of desire and its connection to happiness. He argued that "as nature makes us always unhappy in every state, our desires picture to us a happy state; because they add to the state in which we are the pleasures of the state in which we are not. And if we attained to these pleasures, we should not be happy after all; because we should have other desires natural to this new state." [ ]
In other words we are happy when we dream of achieving/possessing that which we desire, but as soon as we get it, we cease to want it. To sustain that feeling of happiness, we have to move on to satisfying new desires. This means that in order to be even modestly happy, one must continually satisfy one's desires. Desire comes in all forms and shapes from small ones such as satisfying hunger to large ones such as dominating the whole world. But as we go about satisfying our desires, we find that the rush of happiness is harder and harder to come by. And consequently our long periods of contentment, interspersed by small periods of happiness are replaced with long periods of frustration and discontentment interspersed with smaller and smaller periods of happiness; this despite the amassment of all sorts of titles, possessions and experiences. In 2000, Robert E. Lane of Yale University published the results of his investigation into the state of people's happiness in the market democracies. This is what he found out:
"Amidst the satisfaction people feel with their material progress, there is a spirit of unhappiness and depression haunting advanced market democracies throughout the world, a spirit that mocks the idea that markets maximise well-being and the eighteen-century promise of a right to the pursuit of happiness under benign governments of people's own choosing. The haunting spirit is manifold; a post-war decline in the United States in people who report themselves as happy, a rising tide in all advanced societies of clinical depression and dysphoria (especially among the young), increasing distrust of each other and of political and other institutions, declining belief that the lot of average man is getting better, a tragic erosion of family solidarity and community integration together with an apparent decline in warm, intimate relations among friends." [ ]
You see, a society that is built around the self-interest of the individual can not provide anything except material things. The free-market economy, especially consumerism equates happiness with possession of material things. It seeks maximum economic growth to generate maximum corporate profit, fuelled by mass consumption and provided by mass production,. In this system it is the promise of happiness that is sold rather than the product. That ownership of material things brings happiness is a big lie that has been around for thousands of years. It is just that in those days they didn't have TVs and Internet to propagate it effectively.
"I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine -- my mind still guiding me with wisdom -- and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man's delight. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."[ ]
The quote above describes King Solomon's disillusionment (ca 3000 years ago) with wealth, power and pleasure. In effect there was no continuous state of happiness in any of the things that he had tried.
It seems to me that happiness is achieved not by possessing material things but ideals. One is most happy when one is working towards a goal; and what goal is more worthy than another's happiness. It is my belief that the perpetual state of happiness can be achieved only through striving to create that state (happiness) for others. It is never-ending, fulfilling and satisfying. In other words, it is only through other people's happiness that one is guaranteed a continuous experiencing of one's own happiness.
Who are the Pushers?
Who are the people that are continuously working to perpetuate this system of deceit, lies and corruption? Some politicians, the political lobbyist, the TV/Movie screenwriters, the charming evangelical preacher, even your average rich guy, etc, are not the real movers and shakers. These people are only pawns, played with and then sacrificed. The real power behind the scene belongs to those dynasties that have existed for a very long-time. They know each other well and indeed have family ties. These are the puppet masters. They are behind the people who are behind the little known companies that own big industries, banks, and insurance companies. They are the real pushers. These people have no interest in peace and transparency. They want chaos and opaqueness, for in chaos they find even more profit and in opaqueness no one can see their deeds. Some may call them a Cabal; some may call then a satanic group, and some may call them economic wolves. Regardless of what you may call them, one thing I am sure of: they exist; and if they are not stopped they will continue to spread mayhem and misery through elective wars, selfish national and global economic policies and worst of all through corruption of the very essence of man, its sense of right and wrong, its values. Their aim is not only US, UK, Canada or Australia. It is the global village that they are after. And they are bent on achieving their goal either peacefully by bribes and threats or by WAR.
What Now?
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