Trump and Metaphysics: A Continuing Thought-stream

Parodites wrote:

I But America, destined to become its own separate power and host the US as a new nation-state, utilized a colonial system of inter-regional independent economies (true colonies) and its oceanic access to both the Atlantic and Pacific- a new economic model which the old Empire simply could not understand, (it thought it was just going to use us as another slave zone, gather some spice to import and export back to other temperate zones, and that would be that, maybe grab some gold too)

Fascinating. We dont learn this because the very idea that thew US has colonies is taboo, so any colonization we see is 'bad bad bad'... but I am beginning to see your point with the third phase.

Quote :

itself being limited to exchanging between the two types of zone on the earth, and thus America became the new hegemon, leaving Europe behind to become basically a banker society.p

I rather see banking as an Anglosaxon phenomenon. The wests biggest investment banks are English, Scottish, and American. Continental Europe has a manufacturing axis that easily rivals that of the US. It runs from Italy up to Sweden, Italy alone is a pretty good match for the US if we weigh value production surplus extra as it should:

Italy - Exports: $0.53 trillion, imports $0.47 trillion
U.S. exports $1.6 trillion, import $2.4 trillion.

the US needs to become a producer nation again, and this need has been recognized by the people. Trump stands for Make America Great Again

Right now the main exporting product is Military Intelligence. We're inside that product. The internet is the US economy. Its an economy as Capable mentions of values that cant be reduced to money, or capital - values that cause people to go paths that matter to the monetary economy unless or until one of them discovers a marketable aspect of the Holderlinean questing that the wests glory is made of...  why the Chinese web is walled in.

The US can withdraw a lot of its military from the worlds shitholes and gain a lot of power in the process. it wont have to pay for idiotic iron firsts,but it can allow civil wars to bring about consensus and democracies to rise. But it can only do this if it is itself a producer nation. It must have an export surplus. That is the only way for a nation to exist independently.

Quote :

But with the transition to the globalist system of international debts, the US is in danger of losing its status as world-hegemon and becoming nothing more than a banker state as well, and there is a possibility of this new power, the globalist system, that is not a political government or an economy or a nation-state, of gaining superiority. Thus Trump is here to prevent us from losing hegemony and to stifle the globalist power from supplanting our position. Being a nationalist, I desire my nation to succeed above all others, but all the developed nations are threatened by globalism equally so they should want to opt out of it too as with Brexit's example.

I dont think the US has even the capacity tro be a banker state --- it requires very obedient citizenry, clerks, shopkeepers.... it requires Englishmen, who have found a way of being proud in petty things. Jews can also do it very well, granted. But they have one or two big investment companies, on a population of 15 million certainly above average - but the British Empire has organized such as to have their entire capital (The City of London) purged of anything besides banks and investment companies. Well save some pubs and a swanky restaurants. England is Banksternation. Germany is Calvinistic Producernation. They just dont have a scope for things, where the Brits may have a bit too much of a scope of things. Who knows what theyre up to now, I cant begin to fathom. I could sooner speculate on the Chinese than the Brits, and least of all the relation between the English and the Swiss. (The Austrians produce Glock (US police service weapon),US firetrucks and the feds money printing presses at the core of that axis, Sweden has Ikea, to begin with)

So with Capables model we have the iceberg of which the tip is the economy of monetary transactions, which rests on the greater mass, below the surface of numbers, of value that is simply human excess - 'nature' as it plays out among us; in fact those that advertise their art with great $$reward are often deeply miserable, - they are being fucking robbed. For some measly millions they are made to part from themselves, merge with Sopciety in rock conerts, those awkwardly stale and draining experiences...

Great insights.

"[Hillary was] Saudi Arabian money and LGBT.. a fake coalition". Haha.

Capable, Parodites wrote:

If I am understanding you correctly, what you are saying is that the US basically became a microcosm of how the world had previously been running economically, namely with a southern (Africa, ME, and Asia) zone of raw resources and raw labor-power easily bought or controlled-managed, and a northern zone (Europe); that this setup with Europe vs. the rest of the known world (Russia excluded) was logically replicated in the US, in a single country, and therefore all of the gains and economic production and growth that had been taking place across the entire world was now condensed and transferred to the US alone?


--

Yes exactly, and this is why we became the world hegemon, the dominant force on earth, so quickly, just in 200 years.

Somehow the implication rose, as I was spending languid time in playing out this powerful vision, that it may not be illogical for other nation states to be candidates for absorption into the US, on a lets say hyper-federalized expansion model. I think the Netherlands may join quite happily. Denmark, the Baltic states, I bet they'd consider it. Dont give them too much electoral votes, maybe 1 each, plus have a mandatory American-law schooling as part of the curriculum, and a higher voting age, but all this without breaking up the self-valuing structure of the nation - that is why you want, possibly, such nations to join you - their specializations. Control Holland and you control German in and export through Rotterdam, also you get a hand in Philips, which now builds and outfits entire hospitals, Royal Shell is one of the largest petrol molochs, Schiphol is the worlds second airport a while ago, etc -- in Holland tarmac is renewed every year. It has a lot to offer, but has a small soul. It could breathe more easily as part of the US than as crammed in between Germany, England and France together with Belgium,. which by some cynical humor even managed to be given the capital that controls us - not that the Belgians are benefiting, given the nature of that seat of power - they are merely a host to a disease that killed them first, and has been killing all of the rest. Anyway - they produce beer and chocolates, both he best in the world, may be a reason to consider them but Id advise against it, theyre lazy and have a lot of basement incest crimes. France should absorb them.

Problem is that the Netherlands has the international tribunal, which the US doesnt recognize. Hm.

Capable wrote:

"[Hillary was] Saudi Arabian money and LGBT.. a fake coalition". Haha.

Yeah exactly

My lesbian friend here texted me a couple of days ago: TRUMP IS LOVE

Remember though that Clinton, and her voters, are the rapists, the pornographers, the islamizers, etcetera - those that take dignity away from women. That they did not win is a reason to think rape is not going to be normalized after all - or that it is going to be denormalized, now that the Clinton Bush rapist clan is out. Abu Grahib: ta, ta.   "Grab her by the pussy": HITLER!!!!

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More used to polite debates in stuffy cabinet offices, this career politician was certainly in for a shock, for Syriza is an entirely different breed of political party. Forget everything you’ve taken for granted in politicians and not just in policy terms. Rejecting the anti-austerity status quo is just the beginning.

The Rat Pack Revolution

On his swearing in as new Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras didn’t swear an oath on the bible. As an avowed atheist, he said he didn’t need to. He isn’t married and his partner has apparently rejected every attempt to upgrade her attire to something more fitting for a first lady. Austerity it seems only applies to the wardrobe.

The new finance minister too is someone the likes of which I doubt Dijsselbloem has tangled with before. Arriving to his first meeting at the Finance ministry on his trademark 1300 CC Yamaha motorbike, Yanis Varoufakis had to fight his way through 3 deep crowds trying to get a picture with the “coolest politician in Europe”.

Many have seen the “rat pack revolution” in Greece as a breath of fresh air, shaking up the comfortable pro-austerity consensus in the EU – at least in the powerful (and wealthy) nations.


Dijsselbloem was certainly shaken up. By all accounts, the first round of the EU ‘creditor vs debtor’ fight was anything but your standard EU talking shop. At the fiery press conference following the meeting, Varoufakis dismissed the Troika – to whom Greece owes the majority of its colossal debt – saying pointedly;

“we have no intention of working with a three member committee whose goal is to implement a program that we believe is based on an anti-European logic”

Met with this Dijsselbloem merely looked on angrily, lent in towards Varoufakis and whispered something, although inaudible to the press, caused staff to remark “Oh my God… I wonder if this is the time to pack my bags”. The mind boggles.

Greece’s ‘Philosopher Kings’

For me though, this is much more important than a mere wake-up call for Europe. Syriza’s stunning victory is all the more refreshing because the party consists of economists, lecturers and intellectuals. This is not a victory of political posturing and sleight of hand, it’s a victory of argument and reason – even if it is backed up by populist support.

2500 years after Plato wrote “The Republic” in which he said ‘Philosophers must become kings’, Greece has finally elected a group who could claim this label.

Tsipras is a civil engineer by training who has studied urban planning. Varoufakis leads a long list of economists and professors within the new Greek cabinet. MPs Costas Lapavitsas, Euclid Tsakalotos, George Stathakis on top of Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis are all economists by training.

When they speak of the necessity for economic change in Greece, this is not from a position of populist ignorance. When compared to the UK chancellor, George Osborne, a man who has never had a real job and who studied History at Oxford, this depth of knowledge is blessed change.

It is of course questionable whether it’s wise to leave economic matters to economists. You only have to Google “how many economists” before the search engine anticipates the rest of your request to be “change a light bulb” – not fix a nation.

We will see if asking two economists a question does indeed lead to three answers.

So far though, their discipline has been iron-clad. It will need to be over the coming weeks. Intellectuals or not, their political skill will be put to the test when confronted by the Iron Chancellor – Angela Merkel.

The Greece vs Germany Prisoners Dilemma

Fortunately for Greece, their lead negotiator should be adept at these strategic discussions. Yanis Varoufakis has not only studied game theory – the study of strategic decision making – he’s written books on it.

In game theory, one attempts to study the possible outcomes of actions between multiple parties, with differing results dependent on each of their actions. This is epitomised by the “prisoner’s dilemma” in which a pair of hypothetical condemned men have to decide whether to work together or do each other in to get ahead.

In this case, Merkel and Syriza don’t have an incentive to work together. A majority of the German electorate doesn’t support any leniency towards the Greeks. To reduce the debt burden for them would be to invite the same requests from Spain, Italy, Portugal or even France. Therefore, Merkel stands firm;

“There has already been voluntary debt forgiveness by private creditors, banks have already slashed billions from Greece’s debt… I do not envisage fresh debt cancellation”

Therefore, game theory suggests, Greece should up the ante. By creating a credible threat should Germany choose non-cooperation, Greece could force Merkel to support them out of self-interest.

There are a number of ways to do this. Firstly, they could threaten unilateral debt default, something Greece has not countenanced so far. This would present Germany with a fait accompli. They may want their money back, but they’ll only get it if they cooperate.

Secondly, Greece could stoke unrest in other debt laden nations. The trade-off is then not one of money in vs money out. It becomes a more fluid and dangerous discussion of the integrity of Europe as a whole with truly horrible possible outcomes.

The EU Reckoning

So far, discussions have been amicable, I doubt they will stay that way. Greece must get tough, it’s their only option. European Parliament President Martin Schulz can see the writing on the wall for Greece-German cordiality;

“I am pretty sure that the debate will very controversial. That is to be expected and was in our conversation already noticeable”

For the rest of us looking on, things will get rough and we’ll need to expect that. Greece will raise ugly spectres of civil unrest, of humanitarian catastrophe to ensure German cooperation.

One thing is certain, the next few months will be interesting. The whole of Europe will be watching.
http://www.thelaymansterms.com/greeces-philosopher-kings-hunger-games-come/

And then Tsipras accepted EU austerity and bailouts just 5 months later.

Trump isn't nearly so spineless. It seems these media types can't help falling in love with "academics" and then being surprised when those same academics turn out to be nothing but a suit.

Capable wrote:

Quote :

More used to polite debates in stuffy cabinet offices, this career politician was certainly in for a shock, for Syriza is an entirely different breed of political party. Forget everything you’ve taken for granted in politicians and not just in policy terms. Rejecting the anti-austerity status quo is just the beginning.

The Rat Pack Revolution

On his swearing in as new Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras didn’t swear an oath on the bible. As an avowed atheist, he said he didn’t need to. He isn’t married and his partner has apparently rejected every attempt to upgrade her attire to something more fitting for a first lady. Austerity it seems only applies to the wardrobe.

The new finance minister too is someone the likes of which I doubt Dijsselbloem has tangled with before. Arriving to his first meeting at the Finance ministry on his trademark 1300 CC Yamaha motorbike, Yanis Varoufakis had to fight his way through 3 deep crowds trying to get a picture with the “coolest politician in Europe”.

Many have seen the “rat pack revolution” in Greece as a breath of fresh air, shaking up the comfortable pro-austerity consensus in the EU – at least in the powerful (and wealthy) nations.


Dijsselbloem was certainly shaken up. By all accounts, the first round of the EU ‘creditor vs debtor’ fight was anything but your standard EU talking shop. At the fiery press conference following the meeting, Varoufakis dismissed the Troika – to whom Greece owes the majority of its colossal debt – saying pointedly;

“we have no intention of working with a three member committee whose goal is to implement a program that we believe is based on an anti-European logic”

Met with this Dijsselbloem merely looked on angrily, lent in towards Varoufakis and whispered something, although inaudible to the press, caused staff to remark “Oh my God… I wonder if this is the time to pack my bags”. The mind boggles.

Greece’s ‘Philosopher Kings’

For me though, this is much more important than a mere wake-up call for Europe. Syriza’s stunning victory is all the more refreshing because the party consists of economists, lecturers and intellectuals. This is not a victory of political posturing and sleight of hand, it’s a victory of argument and reason – even if it is backed up by populist support.

2500 years after Plato wrote “The Republic” in which he said ‘Philosophers must become kings’, Greece has finally elected a group who could claim this label.

Tsipras is a civil engineer by training who has studied urban planning. Varoufakis leads a long list of economists and professors within the new Greek cabinet. MPs Costas Lapavitsas, Euclid Tsakalotos, George Stathakis on top of Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis are all economists by training.

When they speak of the necessity for economic change in Greece, this is not from a position of populist ignorance. When compared to the UK chancellor, George Osborne, a man who has never had a real job and who studied History at Oxford, this depth of knowledge is blessed change.

It is of course questionable whether it’s wise to leave economic matters to economists. You only have to Google “how many economists” before the search engine anticipates the rest of your request to be “change a light bulb” – not fix a nation.

We will see if asking two economists a question does indeed lead to three answers.

So far though, their discipline has been iron-clad. It will need to be over the coming weeks. Intellectuals or not, their political skill will be put to the test when confronted by the Iron Chancellor – Angela Merkel.

The Greece vs Germany Prisoners Dilemma

Fortunately for Greece, their lead negotiator should be adept at these strategic discussions. Yanis Varoufakis has not only studied game theory – the study of strategic decision making – he’s written books on it.

In game theory, one attempts to study the possible outcomes of actions between multiple parties, with differing results dependent on each of their actions. This is epitomised by the “prisoner’s dilemma” in which a pair of hypothetical condemned men have to decide whether to work together or do each other in to get ahead.

In this case, Merkel and Syriza don’t have an incentive to work together. A majority of the German electorate doesn’t support any leniency towards the Greeks. To reduce the debt burden for them would be to invite the same requests from Spain, Italy, Portugal or even France. Therefore, Merkel stands firm;

“There has already been voluntary debt forgiveness by private creditors, banks have already slashed billions from Greece’s debt… I do not envisage fresh debt cancellation”

Therefore, game theory suggests, Greece should up the ante. By creating a credible threat should Germany choose non-cooperation, Greece could force Merkel to support them out of self-interest.

There are a number of ways to do this. Firstly, they could threaten unilateral debt default, something Greece has not countenanced so far. This would present Germany with a fait accompli. They may want their money back, but they’ll only get it if they cooperate.

Secondly, Greece could stoke unrest in other debt laden nations. The trade-off is then not one of money in vs money out. It becomes a more fluid and dangerous discussion of the integrity of Europe as a whole with truly horrible possible outcomes.

The EU Reckoning

So far, discussions have been amicable, I doubt they will stay that way. Greece must get tough, it’s their only option. European Parliament President Martin Schulz can see the writing on the wall for Greece-German cordiality;

“I am pretty sure that the debate will very controversial. That is to be expected and was in our conversation already noticeable”

For the rest of us looking on, things will get rough and we’ll need to expect that. Greece will raise ugly spectres of civil unrest, of humanitarian catastrophe to ensure German cooperation.

One thing is certain, the next few months will be interesting. The whole of Europe will be watching.
http://www.thelaymansterms.com/greeces-philosopher-kings-hunger-games-come/

And then Tsipras accepted EU austerity and bailouts just 5 months later.

Our own analysis here is light years beyond this sort of shit we see in the media.

Fuck Tsipras.

And fuck the media too. I love how they're freaking out now about how they shouldn't "normalize" (big word for them) Trump... yeah, for 50+ years they've been normalizing war, violence, lies, debt, murder, mass consumerism, cancer and disease, child abuse, religious insanity, but they suddenly have a problem with it when it comes to "Trump said some mean stuff". Unbelievable.

Trump just says whatever occurs to him. That's why people like him. Even when he is somewhat of an asshole, it's not illegal to be an asshole, and it seems to have helped Trump quite a bit, considering every other politician is a colorless, docile, politically correct anti-human.

Fixed Cross wrote:

Parodites wrote:

I But America, destined to become its own separate power and host the US as a new nation-state, utilized a colonial system of inter-regional independent economies (true colonies) and its oceanic access to both the Atlantic and Pacific- a new economic model which the old Empire simply could not understand, (it thought it was just going to use us as another slave zone, gather some spice to import and export back to other temperate zones, and that would be that, maybe grab some gold too)

Fascinating. We dont learn this because the very idea that thew US has colonies is taboo, so any colonization we see is 'bad bad bad'... but I am beginning to see your point with the third phase.

Quote :

itself being limited to exchanging between the two types of zone on the earth, and thus America became the new hegemon, leaving Europe behind to become basically a banker society.p

I rather see banking as an Anglosaxon phenomenon. The wests biggest investment banks are English, Scottish, and American. Continental Europe has a manufacturing axis that easily rivals that of the US. It runs from Italy up to Sweden, Italy alone is a pretty good match for the US if we weigh value production surplus extra as it should:

Italy - Exports: $0.53 trillion, imports $0.47 trillion
U.S. exports $1.6 trillion, import $2.4 trillion.

the US needs to become a producer nation again, and this need has been recognized by the people. Trump stands for Make America Great Again

Right now the main exporting product is Military Intelligence. We're inside that product. The internet is the US economy. Its an economy as Capable mentions of values that cant be reduced to money, or capital - values that cause people to go paths that matter to the monetary economy unless or until one of them discovers a marketable aspect of the Holderlinean questing that the wests glory is made of...  why the Chinese web is walled in.

The US can withdraw a lot of its military from the worlds shitholes and gain a lot of power in the process. it wont have to pay for idiotic iron firsts,but it can allow civil wars to bring about consensus and democracies to rise. But it can only do this if it is itself a producer nation. It must have an export surplus. That is the only way for a nation to exist independently.

China: export 2.37 trillion, import 1.53 trillion

It's important to remember that the US exports a lot that's not quantifiable into dollar units for the purposes of a convenient numerical analysis. Cultural exportation, exporting ideas, exporting influence, exporting habits, exporting knowledge, exporting trends, exporting affects, all of that is pretty much non-quantifiable. We don't want to end up like China, with a huge trade surplus simply because we "do all the dirty (inhuman) work". Imagine if we could measure intangible, immaterial exports, how much of a trade surplus the US would have (and how much of a trade deficit China and others would have).

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But with the transition to the globalist system of international debts, the US is in danger of losing its status as world-hegemon and becoming nothing more than a banker state as well, and there is a possibility of this new power, the globalist system, that is not a political government or an economy or a nation-state, of gaining superiority. Thus Trump is here to prevent us from losing hegemony and to stifle the globalist power from supplanting our position. Being a nationalist, I desire my nation to succeed above all others, but all the developed nations are threatened by globalism equally so they should want to opt out of it too as with Brexit's example.

I dont think the US has even the capacity tro be a banker state --- it requires very obedient citizenry, clerks, shopkeepers.... it requires Englishmen, who have found a way of being proud in petty things. Jews can also do it very well, granted. But they have one or two big investment companies, on a population of 15 million certainly above average - but the British Empire has organized such as to have their entire capital (The City of London) purged of anything besides banks and investment companies. Well save some pubs and a swanky restaurants. England is Banksternation. Germany is Calvinistic Producernation. They just dont have a scope for things, where the Brits may have a bit too much of a scope of things. Who knows what theyre up to now, I cant begin to fathom. I could sooner speculate on the Chinese than the Brits, and least of all the relation between the English and the Swiss. (The Austrians produce Glock (US police service weapon),US firetrucks and the feds money printing presses at the core of that axis, Sweden has Ikea, to begin with)

This goes to what Parodites was saying about how the geographic, cultural and economic differences that sustain trade were condensed in the US, into a maximum potency. Britain and Germany can balance each other out somewhat, the whole of Europe and its extended colonies is a huge organism with a complex body that achieves this kind of mutual balancing, but the US recreated that same logic within one nation... it's simply not in the US's nature to be any one thing, or even any one kind of majority thing with other fluctuations allowed. US is a vast "everythingness" because of how the logic of difference was made co-extensive with the logic of sameness, to replicate the structure of self-valuing at the level of a society and nation to an extent previously unimaginable.

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So with Capables model we have the iceberg of which the tip is the economy of monetary transactions, which rests on the greater mass,  below the surface of numbers, of value that is simply human excess - 'nature' as it plays out among us; in fact those that advertise their art with great $$reward are often deeply miserable, - they are being fucking robbed. For some measly millions they are made to part from themselves, merge with Sopciety in rock conerts, those awkwardly stale and draining experiences...

Sex drugs and rock and roll just depletes people, it doesn't uplift. Not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with sex drugs and rock, that's all just fine and good. But it's no substitute for having a soul, for a philosophy.

The only good feeling that can come from an artist selling his art for money, is the feeling of knowing he achieved a degree of respite from starvation. The price of a work of art is entirely arbitrary, every work of art should rationally sell for $1 as equally as it should for $100 million. This examples the absolute abyss between economic value and human value. The higher the price of a work of art, the more absurd and satirical it all becomes. I'm sure plenty of artists derive a good amount of secret joy from this satire, as the self-important affluent walk through the artist's gallery, nodding quietly to themselves and opening up their check books.

People buy art because they want to buy a soul for themselves, they want "soul things" and are willing to engage in an absurd travesty to get them. Then they're convincing themselves it's just because they are philanthropists and supporters of the arts... lol.

A true supporter of the arts hands a fat check to an artist while at the same time refusing to purchase any of his work.

Given what we know now about the US, globalism, and the logic structure described by Parodites, how do we theorize a new socioeconomic possibility? What could the future of capitalism look like, beyond the current bullshit?

Capable wrote:

China: export 2.37 trillion, import 1.53 trillion

It's important to remember that the US exports a lot that's not quantifiable into dollar units for the purposes of a convenient numerical analysis. Cultural exportation, exporting ideas, exporting influence, exporting habits, exporting knowledge, exporting trends, exporting affects, all of that is pretty much non-quantifiable. We don't want to end up like China, with a huge trade surplus simply because we "do all the dirty (inhuman) work". Imagine if we could measure intangible, immaterial exports, how much of a trade surplus the US would have (and how much of a trade deficit China and others would have).

Germany is almost as big as China with its exports. So this single axis in Europe is bigger than China and the US combined. This is why the Euro remains so strong: with the Brexit, no manufacturing, no actual value was lost. Indeed as we discussed the monetary enconomy is but a fraction of the true economy, but a  surplus does simply point to a strong self-valuing.

Chinese and German cultural values are also easily a match for US cultural values. Nietzsche alone, ore Einstein, or Freud, the whole yin yang culture of California -

America is the greatest nation  but not by that much distance. Had Clinton won, it would have snapped the spine of its selfvaluing and degraded to a second rate nation by simply drowning in war and debts like any old empire.

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But with the transition to the globalist system of international debts, the US is in danger of losing its status as world-hegemon and becoming nothing more than a banker state as well, and there is a possibility of this new power, the globalist system, that is not a political government or an economy or a nation-state, of gaining superiority. Thus Trump is here to prevent us from losing hegemony and to stifle the globalist power from supplanting our position. Being a nationalist, I desire my nation to succeed above all others, but all the developed nations are threatened by globalism equally so they should want to opt out of it too as with Brexit's example.

I dont think the US has even the capacity tro be a banker state --- it requires very obedient citizenry, clerks, shopkeepers.... it requires Englishmen, who have found a way of being proud in petty things. Jews can also do it very well, granted. But they have one or two big investment companies, on a population of 15 million certainly above average - but the British Empire has organized such as to have their entire capital (The City of London) purged of anything besides banks and investment companies. Well save some pubs and a swanky restaurants. England is Banksternation. Germany is Calvinistic Producernation. They just dont have a scope for things, where the Brits may have a bit too much of a scope of things. Who knows what theyre up to now, I cant begin to fathom. I could sooner speculate on the Chinese than the Brits, and least of all the relation between the English and the Swiss. (The Austrians produce Glock (US police service weapon),US firetrucks and the feds money printing presses at the core of that axis, Sweden has Ikea, to begin with)

This goes to what Parodites was saying about how the geographic, cultural and economic differences that sustain trade were condensed in the US, into a maximum potency. Britain and Germany can balance each other out somewhat, the whole of Europe and its extended colonies is a huge organism with a complex body that achieves this kind of mutual balancing, but the US recreated that same logic within one nation... it's simply not in the US's nature to be any one thing, or even any one kind of majority thing with other fluctuations allowed. US is a vast "everythingness" because of how the logic of difference was made co-extensive with the logic of sameness, to replicate the structure of self-valuing at the level of a society and nation to an extent previously unimaginable. [/quote]

The role of Europe in the comparison is Colonial Europe, that which died with WWI and was buried with WWII - what Europe now is something relying entirely on its own production capacity. It gets choked off by the bankers, and the Germans use this tension to come out on top. Europe produces beyond question the finest and most violently desired goods in the world. Industrially, it is a very high example for the US, as Trump states. Politically though, it is a mess - but we're on the precipice of change it seems, as Le Pen is commanding the polls.

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So with Capables model we have the iceberg of which the tip is the economy of monetary transactions, which rests on the greater mass,  below the surface of numbers, of value that is simply human excess - 'nature' as it plays out among us; in fact those that advertise their art with great $$reward are often deeply miserable, - they are being fucking robbed. For some measly millions they are made to part from themselves, merge with Sopciety in rock conerts, those awkwardly stale and draining experiences...

Sex drugs and rock and roll just depletes people, it doesn't uplift. Not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with sex drugs and rock, that's all just fine and good. But it's no substitute for having a soul, for a philosophy.

Ive never managed to integrated the three - sex and drugs yes, drugs and rock yes, but sex and rock, no. Precisely why I dont like concerts, unless they are setting some really big fires.

Anyway, indeed that paradigm is a pale shadow of nothing. Philosophy is where its at, always has been, and it is philosophy which prevents the true artist from selling out, and often from selling at all.

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The only good feeling that can come from an artist selling his art for money, is the feeling of knowing he achieved a degree of respite from starvation. The price of a work of art is entirely arbitrary, every work of art should rationally sell for $1 as equally as it should for $100 million. This examples the absolute abyss between economic value and human value. The higher the price of a work of art, the more absurd and satirical it all becomes. I'm sure plenty of artists derive a good amount of secret joy from this satire, as the self-important affluent walk through the artist's gallery, nodding quietly to themselves and opening up their check books.

Indeed because there is no rational use-value the price is completely arbitrary - which is why works of art are the most expensively priced objects in the world.

[i mean of course to say the most expensive items (not counting huge machines) in the world are works of art - wealth-smuggling often uses paintings.]

a good analysis

Fixed Cross wrote:

a good analysis

OMFG

YES

Im saying fuck foodstamps man, we need new standards.

https://youtu.be/46ZLAT7BY_s?t=2m25s

My new standard, that I will be using to base all my future votes:

Whoever is and represents the greatest excess.

Sanders had more excess than Clinton. But Trump had more excess than everyone else... combined.

Capable wrote:

My new standard, that I will be using to base all my future votes:

Whoever is and represents the greatest excess.

Sanders had more excess than Clinton. But Trump had more excess than everyone else... combined.

Shit.... the democrats are gonna be hard pressed.

I dont have a model for how excess relates to integrity, qua selfvaluing logic, quantitatively...
I might be inclined to think excess is only possible with very strong integrity - if the excess is 'ones' excess -

if one is not simply a creature born of excess that was already about.


This fragment of heyday tv here is just fantastic. It contains all the excess in the world, a fragment of a world that still had more excess. Im sure of it, the late 80's and early 90's were mountains of accumulated excess refined to the finest fabric of rational absurdity to ever call itself a a culture.





Then it got weird.

Electoral college wisdom:

Women and children still don't know how to elect a president. But they nonetheless get their "input". Maybe they will grow from it. Or maybe not.

Excess will win, in America. Always.

Fuck quantitatively. That dead Euro positivism 'logic'.( Excluding Germans of course.)

Quote :

Excess will win, in America. Always.

But look America is also very prudent. Its still young too, and it doesnt seem wise to disavow Europe - nor realistic, nor what Trump intends to do. As a European I take offense in the name of all nations I love there, and I dont think the US quite matches the excess of Italy. Let it first produce a Ferrari or invent foods like they have it - or clothes, or buildings, or roads, or pharmaceuticals even - if Europe is put down by an outsider I feel only Caesaric pride, knowing we caused it all and still carry it all. The US and Russians put the burden of resolution on us, after all.

Yeah Europa is pretty cool . Hopefully they keep that going.