The Trap

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[Michael]

Just stumbled across a new (for me) BBC video series in the same general vein as Power of Nightmares, and Century of the Self.

Called The Trap.

Looks very interesting...

[Michael]

'thought I'd offer this brief ten minute intermission film, before heading into the second reel of our featured film...just for the contrasting vision:

[Michael]

Part 2:



Part 3.1:



Part 3.2:



Part 3.3:

[Michael]

The Irony:

[Jana]

Thanks for the awesome video Michael...it was real fine to see RD Laing.
Some needs to do a decent video on A. Huxley

[jimtzu]

a great series, BBC puts out some good stuff.


let's see..  a schizophrentic comes up with a game to balance out the nuclear threat based on the rationality of the power of the self with a paranoid view to relating with everyone else.  MAD works so well that the powers that be decide to use it to control the populace  in the guise of free markets and liberty, codifying and measuring individuals, using the mechanical, sim city version of freedom to export freedom thru force to liberate the world, only to find out that we become what we fight against.
ahhh good times.... 

[Nickeson]

I kind of liked these videos for the simple reason that they did not make all that many crackpot indictments against the powers that be—if they can actually be called powers at all. The overall message, although not particularly specific, but in the end perfectly clear, was that the Anglo/Euro/American culture is not nearly as bright and competent as it would like to think it is. I think that most privately know by now that blanket charges of corruption, insanity, malevolent collusion, greed and sadism that are leveled against the culture say far more about the unenviable emotional and intellectual conditions of those making the charges than the true quality of the culture. The best and worst that can be said about the active human environment, which includes myself, is that it is barely capable of doing its level best to prevent the very worst; hasty, amateur applications of make-do bandages over make-do bandages over injuries, over scabs over scars that go back so far that one can only theorize as to their origin. People just don't have, either personally or collectively, the intellect or experience to do much more than that, even those I have considered righteously humane, gifted and thoughtful like Isaiah Berlin and me and my friends. To expect anything more than how the species has performed to date is to ask for endless disappointment, fear, frustration and bitterness; a life that is self-condemned to slow corrosion by that which could as easily be juicy and sustaining if seen from a state of actual courage.

[Jana]

America cares nothing for democracy...only for world supremacy...Americans are scared, they seek security at all costs. Secturity for their dollar! Cost...genetic destruction of Iraqis via DU, plus one million Iraqis dead since 1991...and now Iran is organizing the Middle Eastern states to change their oil sales over to the Euro. The fact that Saddam Hussein  was selling oil for Euros  is what caused the US to go into Irag in the first place. If all Middle East oil changes over to the Euro, this is perfect historical justice, and will cause the financial collapse of the States.

These videos and John Pilgers "War on Democracy" are the answer.

Fantastic...inside view of the Iraq Conspiracy!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=k1oPEfa9Lws

Is the Iraqi war illegal?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Khut8xbXK8&feature=related

Chomsky on upcoming war on Iran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTGf4X_Qjew

[Nickeson]

If all Middle East oil changes over to the Euro, this is perfect historical justice, and will cause the financial collapse of the States.

This sounds like short sighted wishful thinking that is inspired more by spleen and ideology than factual assessment of both the cause and effect.

1. In the last OPEC meeting in November only Iran and Venezuela advocating converting sales out of Petro-dollars. They got nowhere. What Iran wants to do is open an Iranian based oil "burse" (kind of a brokerage house) which means that those countries that sold their oil through the Iranian burse could sell for either Euros or a basket of currencies. This is old news. There is a January 2006 blog post on the matter at Econbrowser that provides a good briefing on the subject and intelligently scoffs at the feverish theories behind the proposition that America's economic strength is dependent on the perpetuation of the petro-dollar uber alles.

2. When Iraq was trying to sell the small trickle of oil dripping from its antiquated system in Euros there was no threat to the US. Russia and France thought they had the corner on Iraqi oil at the time. The US was not a stakeholder in that market. The war was more a way of gaining control of an OPEC source and also keeping that oil out of the control of Russia. This would (theoretically)  force Russia to develop its own resources and thereby weaken OPEC's world market share.

3. OPEC controls 40 per cent of the world's oil production, most of that is coming out of Saudi Arabia, the most vocal and powerful force against dropping the petro-dollar. Most of America's imported oil comes from Canada and Mexico though Mexico's ability to export is slipping. Brazil's output is growing, another potential source for the US of non-OPEC, non-Iranian bursed, oil.

4. There is still more solidly invested capital inside the borders of the US than any other country in the world which means that the US is still the richest country in the world. The most reliable rule of thumb in a period of financial meltdown is that the rich stay rich or get richer and the poor suffer. China's economy is largely dependent on that of the US. If things start to turn sour in the US they will turn sour faster in China and faster still in India. If the US defaults on its debt in dollars or treasury notes it will be the creditor countries that suffer rather than the US. The saying goes: "If you owe the bank a million dollars the bank owns you. If you owe the bank a billion dollars you own the bank." And the US owes China and Japan the equivalent of billions of dollars. And that did not come about because the US financial powers and the US government were being stupid. A country does not get to be the richest in the world over a period of less than 50 years by being stupid. Another good financial rule of thumb is that it is always safer to get rich if one is using other people's money.

So it will not be any kind of justice, historical or otherwise, if the US faces economic collapse. Folks in the third and developing worlds will be starving in the streets while Americans and their foreign guests will still be getting their three meals a day and sleeping under their stronger-than-carboard roofs. How much collateral damage are people willing to risk just to see the US economy tank?

I am not an apologist for the US, but I do like to know what is factual and that requires looking for it and making reasonable assessments. It also means not paying attention to checkout stand tabloids and most of their Youtube vid equivalents.

Chomsky is usually good but his war with Iran sentiments were made well before the US intelligence community reported this week that Iran had gotten out of the nuclear weapons business in 2003. That announcement is a signal that the current administration has recognized that it cannot afford financially or politically to expand the Mideast war. Relations are already beginning to thaw. What a disappointment, huh?

[Michael]

That sounds like good down-to-earth info Steven.  Thanks!


I am continually reminded of Neil Postman's insights about new media forms when immersing in You Tube and suchlike, one of which was:

For every new value of a media-form, there is a corresponding new detriment.  He was mostly focused on the TV of his age, but the same can be said of internet media.

I love internet media...in case y'all haven't noticed, but I am continuously deeply frustrated by what I see as it's serious downside, which will certainly not be news to anyone here, and that is its general lack of editorial integrity. 

I see these things every day now.  Hoaxes that look convincing, things filmed out of context, and used for an agenda, or used to bolster an ideology or specific worldview...etc...etc...nothing new, yet new in the sense of the scope of participatory media creation.

Now this:

[Jana]

Party Line: Democracy at all cost
Reality: Economic extortion, puppet government, control, police state
Party Line: Saddam Hussein caused deaths around 500,000
Reality: American caused deaths 1000,000  Iraqi plus 500,000 americans dead-diseased-dying
Party Line: Liberation for the people of Iraq
Reality: Foreign companies get to keep 100% of the profits
Party Line: Increased quality of life in a democractic society
Reality: Genetic destruction of the Iraqi bloodline forever
Party Line: War on terror
Reality: War of terror
Party Line: Secure oil for American drivers
Reality: Oil prices increase $20/barrel
Party Line: The oil will pay for the war
Reality: The gulf wars will cost 7 Trillion by 2012
Party Line: America is safer from terrorists by employing preemptive strikes
Reality: America trains terrorists, and inflames them with justifiable hate
Party Line: A bunch of badly trained arab pilots bought down the towers
Reality: The evil junta in the white house murdered in cold blood 3250 of its own countrymen, plus there must have been many fake suicides related to the years of planning involved.
Party Line: Some nukes took a little holiday across country and 8 people accidently met their death
Reality: Nukes were stolen by the Junta in an attempt to implicate Iran and start WW3

[jimtzu]

steven, to pick your wisenend and seasoned brain, why do think Bush and co. invaded Iraq?   

[Michael]

Interesting speech by Ron Paul.  He certainly sings the right lyrics.  I wonder about his tune though...

[Michael]

I kind of liked these videos for the simple reason that they did not make all that many crackpot indictments against the powers that be—if they can actually be called powers at all. The overall message, although not particularly specific, but in the end perfectly clear, was that the Anglo/Euro/American culture is not nearly as bright and competent as it would like to think it is. I think that most privately know by now that blanket charges of corruption, insanity, malevolent collusion, greed and sadism that are leveled against the culture say far more about the unenviable emotional and intellectual conditions of those making the charges than the true quality of the culture. The best and worst that can be said about the active human environment, which includes myself, is that it is barely capable of doing its level best to prevent the very worst; hasty, amateur applications of make-do bandages over make-do bandages over injuries, over scabs over scars that go back so far that one can only theorize as to their origin. People just don't have, either personally or collectively, the intellect or experience to do much more than that, even those I have considered righteously humane, gifted and thoughtful like Isaiah Berlin and me and my friends. To expect anything more than how the species has performed to date is to ask for endless disappointment, fear, frustration and bitterness; a life that is self-condemned to slow corrosion by that which could as easily be juicy and sustaining if seen from a state of actual courage.

Thanks for those words Steven.  I've re-read them a few times today, and gather inspiration therein.  I also learned something new:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Berlin

[Jana]

Hahaha, perhaps they are not evil? Perhaps they are just bad politicians, bad statesmen, bad businessmen, bad strategists, and just generally bad all round

December 11 ‘07
Iran has decided to abandon oil export settlements in U.S. dollars.
Our current policy is to sell crude oil for any currency but U.S. dollars, Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said in a statement, adding that all settlements in the U.S. currency had been ruled out.
OPEC representatives have also questioned the advisability of using the dollar as the currency payable for energy resources, primarily the irreconcilable opponents of the United States - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Ahmadinejad called on his OPEC partners to stop using the dollar in their international oil deals and replace it with another and more reliable currency. Although Iran is OPEC's second largest oil exporter, the majority of its members have not immediately supported the idea.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071211/91913059.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jRR9QnAmH08 —Iran stops selling oil in dollars
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sb_tDhmE2ms&feature=related —Petro Dollar Result Part 1 Nothing Lasts Forever 9/11
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a5FoDLrn-Z4&feature=related —Cheney’s nest egg.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CLA410A.html  —History of the Petrodollar feasco