As an essay, this would be a rough first draft, but its kind of more a letter. My quick scrawled outline has some other points I hope to write about as briefly. Please write to disagree, agree, help me clarify or correct me. jf

Standing By pt. 1
March 13 2003


No matter what happens—war or no—Saddam Hussein will not remain in power.

The reconstructed Iraq will be one that is designed to interact more compatibly with US markets. This is borne out by historical evidence. The United States is not imperialist in the sense of ‘taking over’ and adding new lands to the United States, but there is a kind of ‘takeover’ that does take place which is more insidious.

The American consumer culture, which benefits from greed and materialism (and so encourages them), is presented as the attractive modern alternative to whatever was in place before.

Please read that paragraph again.
‘Consumer-culture.’ Your eye goes right over it because you hear it so much. But take note of it and consider that almost all groups, whatever their ideology is, acknowledge that we live in one.

American consumer culture tells its new plebes that their religions are fine in their place, which is: properly subservient to consumer culture. ‘But don’t worry,’ intones the market confidently, ’the two can work together just fine.’

This is kind of like when Microsoft was on trial for holding an unfair monopoly. Other companies could make computers, but Microsoft was quick to see to it that microsoft’s operating system was pre-installed: everything would develop and grow in their world. ‘And why not?’ they could argue, ’Ours is the best.’

Microsoft did not own everybody’s computer. The computer manufacturers didn’t have to be part of Microsoft. MS gave an initial investment to the computer manufacturers, which would help make the computers more saleable. The benefit to Microsoft was that THEY set up the structure for how the whole thing would work. And of course, they set it up in the way that plays to microsoft’s greatest advantange. Yes, we want to help. We want to bring you more fully into the arena in which we are king.

[For those interested in God, note this: Capitalism and Democracy are godless systems, and they can only create godless cultures.]

Note1: clarification: Captialism and democracy do not require a God, and they place certain principles higher than God. God may be present in people within these systems, but he must be injected. He isn’t needed by the systems, and is sometimes an impediment to their smooth flow.

Note 2: Capitalism and Democracy are not the same thing.

Note 3: Captalism and Democracy are an ill-suited pair. Successful captalism leads to the end of democracy. For the two to work together requires controls on capitalism that end up seeming silly and anti-capitalist.

Business

Assimilating/restructuring Iraq into our ‘way’—our preferred structure—but not ‘conquering’ and adding them to the US is beneficial to the US.

We will be able to benefit from their resources, but we will not be obligated to provide some of the more expensive features of US citizenship such as public education and social security. More notably, they will not be restricted by certain laws and norms that we are. Things like child labor laws and restraints on business. The tendency of a capital driven culture is towards corruption. In the US we denounce it, but it can work to our advantage when other people do it. This is not conspiracy theory, it has historical precedence.

One example is US involvement in Central America in the 1900s. A series of bloody revolutions and coups was distasteful to us. We wanted the Central American countries to be “stable” so we could trade with them. We restructured Central America and it’s individual countries in a way that brought them into the market (most notably in coffee, bananas and cocoa) and made them almost fully dependent on us. Britain had the same idea but we wanted it to be only us. Now various Central American countries may be looked at as our coffee colony. Our cocoa colony. Our banana republic.

Close

Certain words are buzzwords. Hot topics which ‘everyone knows about.’ The effect of this is that they often serve as a shut-off switch for the brain. “oh-I-know-all-about-this”-àSPRING! And the rest of the subject is not listened to. That’s one reason why I’ve tried to describe this situation in a way that highlights various factors for their own importance, as well as creating a reasoned bigger picture. All this about the nature of a country’s “operating system” and the kind of culture it produces, and the EXTREME POWER of making the operating system: That’s the main thing.

Iraq’s oil is a lure so valuable and so irresistible that it must be considered as a significant motivating force. That’s one reason it’s so significant that this situation has come up at all—why it’s so significant that war or no war, Iraq will be restructured.

This essay is intended to show how we are likely to extend power without ‘conquering,’ and to point out the nature of the thing we are likely to expand

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Your Veins. March 13, 2003

This song is about how bad it feels and how destructive it is when someone important to you makes you feel like you’re no good, or that your tries will end in failure. Words are just wordsk, but with someone you care about, your connection to them gives the words as much substance as if they were a baseball bat. They strike with that much force.

Forget skin and bones: the weapon becomes mental and spiritual. Whether or not there’s a sharp sudden pain, a slow bruise will develop and probably expand for years.

Destructive language never comes from good motives. Even if the accuser thinks they have your best interest at heart, they are killing you. Destructive words, hostility and humiliation are not products of a good heart. They’re not what a good heart wants to do. Train your own heart not to want these things. Don’t accept them from others.

People can make good points. We need to be able to accept right criticism and accept the possibility that we’re wrong, but pay attention to this: if the content of the words is that you are worthless, it will never ever ever be true. Ever. You are key. Move forward. Start today.