Plutocracy Now

As Jim Hightower reminds us (over and over) that our present "Power Elite" is a relatively small plutocracy which has taken over what was left of our so-called d e m o c r a c y lock, stock and barrel. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to prove that a tiny minority is running the economy and that minority is running the media and government as well. Sounds simplistic, and is, in a sense; but true none-the-less. So what are you going to do about it, wise guy, crying in our beer?

Right now there is a brand new book out by Michael Polenti on our American history as startup plutocracy, one that has been left out of the history books, some how. Yes, it turns out that the framers of the Constitution were pretty much 100 per cent landed gentry, who could afford to be away from home and work for long enough periods of time to draw up the rules for our so-called d e m o c r a c y (don't do as I do, do what I say). And then if you followed that into our foreign expansion exploits (eg. with the Spanish colonies we took away), you are just building your way to the empire we find outselves stuck with now.

Plutocracy then, plutocracy now. And I'm not saying that I feel we haven't done anything for anyone, that our Nation has not been there when the chips were down both for us and others. We know there's an aircraft carrier off the coast of Northern Japan right now, that we are helping not only with the ever loving bandaids, but with some hard core rescue work down in the rubble and waste, contaminated by nuclear technology from the good old U.S.A., of course. The costs of empire are way too great, we have to find a better way to do things, and quick.

I told you so

I was raised in a culture (described elsewhere) where one heard the phrase "I told you so" fairly often. And then I found myself saying it occasionally. It usually gave next to no satisfaction, and thus remained one of those troublesome, echoing "inner narratives" which can threaten your sanity if not disposed of. I can well remember one of my uncles, or was it an aunt (?), being angry at something stupid I did, which hurt me, and then the somewhat predicable "I told you so" was delivered and I wanted to remind him or her that it was me that got hurt, and I made the mistake, and I paid for it already, thank you.

But they had compounded that by saying the obvious, which was not only insulting but not helpful. My understanding was that uncles and aunts were mentors, people who could back you up when you needed it. & that was usually the case, fortunately. Well, the other day in the face of all the absolutely absurd stuff going in this bewildered world the deadly phrase came out of no where, a ghost in the machine, a survivor for an incredulous past.

Well, it seems that the phase is showing up in the media, probably using other words, but more or less the same meaning. & it almost seems like a version of the apocalyptic, cross wielding christian prophet warning about the absence of a defunct
panacea which has been rendered completely obsolete by the very mentality of the wielder. Ouch, was that I swoosh I felt just over my bewildered head. & as the apocalyptics remind us there isn't much time for fooling around, especially with religious panaceas, as "we struggle toward Jerusalem...."

Buddhist Fly II

A Buddhist friend did a followup poem to my earlier post, and has approved my sharing it.

I could wind up a fly on the wall of eternity
with fantastic faceted eyes to see a thousand worlds
and no chance to make sense of any of it
waiting 'til whap!
and somebody says
"damned fly."

Dan Kemp 3/17/11

Moving along among some destructible and indestructible bugs, I want to comment on the Deer Tick. There are bugs that I sometimes spare, ladybugs, box elders, etc., but as a would be Buddhist I can't imagine sparing a bug that has put me in the hospital once, and threatened to another time. Lucky with antibiotics I was able to get along with my life. Other people, including the local Tibetan Lama have not been so lucky. Life long illness and possible serious ramifications may be the result of a bite from one of these critters. And the cousin wood tick is also a suspect here, a probable source for lyme disease as well.

from the IX - TICK tm IDENTIFICATION CARD: Treatment: If detected early, Lyme Disease is usually treatable with antibiotics."
Usually, watch out, and I don't suggest Buddhist mercy for this critter, and quick action if you suspect you have been hit.