The rather complex concept of human slavery

These days, we are all taught to see human slavery as a great evil, perhaps the greatest of evils, certainly right up there. However, historically, the concept of slavery has certainly always had its ups and downs in terms of its social acceptability. Slavery is probably an invention of human civilization, one of its earlier inventions. Social hierarchy is inevitable in large, complex societies, there is unequal distribution of resources, because there is unequal distribution of ability. Some people will be more capable than others and so, ideally anyway, they will be rewarded more resources to work with to benefit society with. At the bottom of the social hierarchy were the slaves, often a great many of them, to serve those with more "ability" to control resources usefully for society, as a whole. In theory, anyway. Of course, historically, there have always been degrees of slavery. Indentured servitude, serfdom, forced prison labor, even marriage up to a point. Society controls people, one way or another. Wage-slavery is a somewhat ironic term, but, there is certainly something to be said for the concept. Historically, slavery has been the traditional role of anyone who was totally destitute. The idea being, with no resources, you would have no way to survive in society. Why not simply become a hunter gatherer again, like our ancient ancestors? Firstly, most people no longer had the skills ot survive as a hunter gatherer. Secondly, the world was too crowded with people now to support hunter gathering for all, or most, or even many human beings. Slavery in the old American south was something rather unique. Americans were well aware that slavery was becoming very unpopular worldwide, and that slavery was rather inefficient in terms of generating an efficient industrial economy. So, southern states made sure no more than one third of the population was black. They knew that, otherwise, a successful insurrection was very likely indeed, and the whites might not survive it. In Haiti in the 1790's, black slaves outnumbered the 40,000 white colonists and soldiers ten to one. A successful rebellion wiped out the entire white population, to the last man, woman and child. Basically, the days of black slavery were coming to an end it was no longer practical. Black slavery itself was a rather odd phenomenon, probably caused by the congruence of a number of different factors -- the racial visibility of black people in Caucasian nations, the discovery of a great, unpopulated New Rorld, and the presence of slavery in various forms in some African nations. So, Europeans could import a pretrained underclass from Africa, use them to do all the labor needed in this huge underpopulated hemisphere, and hold them by their appearance alone. Great deal! Actually, slavery had largely disappeared in Europe by this time, because of its inefficiency and church objections, but, the New World created a new incentive! #history #sociology #economics

Tamerlane the Great

Tamerlane the Great is a somewhat difficult character for historians to deal with. After all, he single-handedly was responsible for the deaths of some 5% of the total world population of his time. He had his soldiers build towers of skulls with mortar, very systematically, in order to act as "billboards" for what cities that wouldn't surrender to him would expect. He was certainly the most systematic in world history with this particular strategy of psychological warfare. And, he was invincible in battle. He defeated the Muslim Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, the Mamluks, the Russians, the Mongol Golden Horde, the Poles, the Indian Empires. And, at the time of his death, he was on the verge of attacking, and probably annihilating the Chinese Ming Dynasty, which had made the mistake of attracting his attention, he hadn't known about them before they sent ambassadors demanding tribute, who he made short work of. Likely, if he hadn't developed terminal pneumonia, being an old man, on the way, he would have made very short work of the Ming Dynasty. In terms of military skill, really, he should be rated number one in all of world history, no one ever so successfully destroyed so many enemies so completely as Tamerlane the Great did. However, he's usually ranked about number ten, by historians, as a general. I think this is probably because he was so incredibly violent and destructive. And, because his empire dissolved immediately upon his death. Historians simply don't want to acknowledge that someone so purely destructive, who really left little behind of much value on his death, could have been the world's greatest conqueror. After all, many conquerors are profoundly honored by our society. If they won, and we were on their side. Prosperity, even now, is largely based on conquest. So, to associate these "honorable" conquerors, with someone as obviously violent as Tamerlanethe Great, whose dominion no longer exists, goes against the grain of historians, who, after all, are professional academics, and, therefore, to some extent politicians. They fear discrediting these "noble" conquerors, OUR noble conquerors, who we, to some extent live off. These brings up the broader question of what human society, and to some extent human life is really about. And, that is a difficult question indeed! There is enormous competition in human life, and, there always has been. Modern man apparently outcompeted Neanderthal man 40,000 years ago, so Neanderthals went extnct. So called "civilized" societies outcompeted older hunter-gatherer societies, despite the fact that up until the last couple of centuries, hunter-gathers actually had healthier lifestyles, and lived longer than most people in the civilized world. Where are we heading, and why? To what extent does the mass murdering sociopath Tamerlane the Great represent the human ideal, in a sense? Is there a better way? What is it exactly? #history #philosophy #sociology

Elon Musk's great, unheralded, unmatchable achievement -- losing half a trillion dollars in just six weeks!

Just this year, Elon Musk has achieved something that really, until very recently, no one would have even thought possible. Indeed, I do believe this may be what Mr. Musk is most remembered for, by historians, as being, without question, his greatest, most unquestionable and unswerving achievement in his entire illustrious career. Mr. Musk has just managed, this very year, very recently indeed, to lose half a trillion dollars, in just six weeks! Has anyone ever managed to do that before? Of course not! You see, Mr. Musk has managed to single-handedly reconceptualize what used to be called "junk bonds", as "high-yield bonds". And, that's exactly what SpaceX certainly is, and to a large extent Tesla is too, now, and these are Mr. Musk's primary assets. While taking ridiculous risks on impossible ventures used to be considered rather a bad thing to do, Mr. Musk has made himself -- for the moment anyway -- by far the richest man in the world by doing just that! Now, is this a sign of Elon Musk's great prophetic genius, a sign that he knows how to get things done, a sign that he is a great scientist? Or, does it merely mean that Elon Musk is a pathological liar and manipulator leading a bunch of other very rich, pathological liars and manipulators over a cliff? You see, these days, most capital in the world is tied up in some super-rich individuals who really don't know what to do with it. So, rather than trying to do anything useful, which they really don't have a clue how to do anyway, they just sniff the air, and follow the scent of what they think might be more money. And, sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. They will of course, insist that what they are doing is highly productive, but, actually, there's very little evidence for that, at all. #philosophy #economics #technology #business #capitalism

Iran is closing the trap on Donald Trump

Oil prices are rising sharply into economically deadly territory, as Donald Trump unwisely escalates his confrontation with Iran, in a forlorn hope of some kind of impossible, ultimate victory over the new masters of the Middle East. Now infrastructure throughout the Middle East is being attacked by both sides. Potentially, oil prices could rise to 200 dollars, even 300 dollars a barrel, if this escalates, unchecked. While, for the moment, this has not caused the collapse of GOP support in the elections in November -- indeed, the GOP has closed the gap with the Democrats by a point or two, perhaps because of aggressive public messaging by Trump himself, who knows he is, quite literally fighting for his life now against Iran -- how long can GOP support be sustained, once it becomes clear to all Americans that Donald Trump is destroying the entire economy by his unnecessary and pointless saber rattling in the Middle East? Today, we see an attempt at recovery in the Stock Markets being stifled by rapidly rising oil prices worldwide. The markets are literally going "tilt, tilt" as the price of oil makes economic recovery impossible. Will Americans, even Republicans, really want to see this continue, as Donald Trump single-handedly destroys their livelihoods, and probably even his own? I suppose anything is possible, but, actually, I sincerely doubt it. Iran is closing the trap on Donald Trump, a trap he created for himself, through his own arrogance, and stupidity. #politics #geopolitics #economics

Israel has failed in its primary mission

When the British encouraged Jewish settlement in Palestine with the Balfour declaration in 1917, their objectives were not altruistic. What they had in mind, was that a Jewish state in the Middle East could keep an eye on the Arabs, act as a disruptive influence, and discourage the reestablishment of an Islamic superstate after the Ottoman Empire was dismembered at the end of WWI. And, Russia, France and the US joined with Britian in this primary geopolitical objective. Ever since the time of Muhammad, Islamic superstates had been a threat to the West, for almost 1500 years -- first, the Muslim Caliphate, and then, the Ottoman Empire. The West wanted to make sure this would never happen again, and, up to a point, they saw Israel as a means to assist them in this very practical, and rather ruthless objective. And, for several decades, after the state of Israel was founded in 1948, they did manage to keep the Arab world off balance and divided, which the West appreciated, and rewarded them for, with material aid and diplomatic support. However, with the rise of the power of an Islamic superstate of Iran, spreading its tentacles throughout the Middle East through proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis and the Iraqi militias, it is becoming quite clear that Israel has failed miserably in its primary mission, from the standpoint of the West. Hence, support has largely evaporated in Europe for Israel, and is now on the verge of being eliminated in its last bastion of support, the United States. Israel's use of brute force to suppress Muslim opposition to its presence in their midst is no longer fashionable, or acceptable to the West, simply because the costs are becoming too great to the international community, in terms of conflict with the emerging Islamic superstate of Iran. The West is now realizing that they will have to get along with Iran, and, so, the original function of the state of Israel --preventing this uncomfortable contingency from ever occurring --has ceased to exist. From the standpoint of the West, Israel no longer has any function at all to them, so, they are discontinuing their support. If Israel wishes to survive, they must learn to adapt to this new geopolitical reality -- the Islamic superstate of Iran -- and to find some way to make itself sufficiently useful to the world as a whole, that it may continue to exist as a Jewish State. #geopolitics #history #Israel #Islam

Democrats can make the dreams of the Founding Fathers come true

Donald Trump has proven so totally incompetent, that he has provided with the Democrats with a unique opportunity to make the dreams of the Founding Fathers of the United States come true. While demanding massive increases in military spending, Trump has failed miserably as commander in chief, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in a totally failed campaign to dominate the Middle East, which has merely confirmed Iran's total domination of the Middle East. Every American is well aware of this, although they may deny it, if they are traditional supporters of Donald Trump. Hence, there is no mandate or desire to waste more money on Donald Trump's ridiculous military games against Iran. Politically, the Democrats are actually in a position to implement now, the original conception of the founding fathers of the US -- no permanent standing military at all, ever! Now, of course, the Democrats cannot come right out and say that, that would be politically incorrect, given the traditional militarism of American foreign policy. They can't say we're not going to approve any military budget at all. However, Trump's stupidity has made possible something quite close to this. The Democrats can, for the first time in US history, make it impossible to spend a thin dime of the US military budget without the explicit approval of 60 American senators, and, that is exactly what they are going to do! Americans are perfectly happy for them to do so, to effectively have a US commander in chief who is totally hamstrung by Congress, who cannot lift a finger militarily without them, and in which all, or almost all military funding, is effectively frozen, indefinitely. So, Democrats can claim they didn't cut a cent from the budget, while effectively freezing the entire military budget, and making it impossible to spend it. Now, what this means, is that the Democrats can simultaneously realize the dreams of the founders of the US, and also cut the US budget by a full 20% at a stroke! What could possibly be better? What could possibly make more economic sense, when the US President wastes this budget to actually undermine the world economy fundamentally, because of his utter stupidity and incompetence? So, the problems in funding social security suddenly disappear, as a trillion dollars is freed up to support it! Suddenly, everything is possible economically, in the US budget, as the utter waste of money on US military incompetence is revealed, and liquidated, quite painlessly, by simply making it impossible to spend it. #politics #geopolitics #history #military #economics

Trump's behavior goes from bad to worse.

Trump's saber rattling has driven oil prices up to a level higher than they've been at in more than a month, and, once more, the Strait of Hormuz is fully closed to traffic. There doesn't appear to be any clear off ramp here, since neither side is even slightly inclined to compromise. Trump wants full control over the region, and, so do the Iranians. On the whole, the Iranians are in a better position to enforce their claims, largely because of geography. They are there as a nation, all Trump has is vulnerable aircraft carriers in the region, at terrific expense. The longer this goes on, the more economic problems the US and the world will have, and Iran's government and social structure largely make them immune from these kind of pressures. It seems likely that Trump will pay a very steep price in November for his military antics, which have little chance of actually impacting Iran to any significant extent, as we have seen, over and over again. So, Iran is likely to "win", simply because Trump's power base is evaporating for further action against Iran, while the Iranian regime is actually being stabilized somewhat by Trump's indiscriminate attacks on it. On the whole, Iranians prefer their own government to Trump's bombing campaigns. Simple enough, really!

In Japan, libeling the dead is a crime

In Japan, libelling the dead is a very serious crime. Really, it is! Now what are the implications of that, and what does it mean, exactly? Why does Japan make it a very serious crime to libel the dead? I think it probably is related to WWII, and the really horrific war crimes committed by the Japanese during the war -- vivisecting allied prisoners of war, doing horrific medical experiments on untold numbers of live human subjects, as if they were rats in a cage, which is exactly the way they were treated. The Japanese viewed all non-Japanese as sub-human, quite literally. Basically, the Japanese made Himmler, Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann all look like choir boys. And, General MaCarthur and the Americans never touched them, once they surrendered. They even forgave them Pearl Harbor! Anything to get a loyal ally against the USSR. But, if you think about it, it's pretty darn hard to study history, if you can't libel the dead. How do you study history without saying mean things about the dead? Are there historians in Japan? What exactly are they allowed to say? Anything? And, what about the legal system? If it's a very serious crime to say mean things about dead people in Japan, wouldn't that rather tend to skew the the nature of Japanese Justics? I mean, how can "justice be blind", if it's a very serious crime to say mean things about the dead? Where is the objectivity, the reality, the justice there? I think what this really tells us, is that societies will do anything to protect themselves, and shield the powerful from any and all criticism. And, truth, justice, reality itself become irrelevant, when social power and structure are at issue. And, this is obviously the case, when looking at the past, in Japan. #Crime #law #wwii #philosophy #Japan #history

Democrats handled the Graham Platner situation very well

Although Republicans are desperate to see "disarray" in the Democratic Party's dismissal of Graham Platner, in fact, they handled the situation brilliantly. Unlike Republicans, who cling to their mentally ill "leader" exactly like rats on a sinking ship, the Democrats are perfectly happy to jettison a mentally unstable candidate. This was done firmly, but fairly, and now they can select the perfect candidate in terms of electability, and they will do just that. Which is precisely why the predictions markets are favoring the Democrats taking Maine by 2:1 now. This pretty much guarantees a Democrat pickup of a couple of Senate seats, in Maine and North Carolina, and with several other vulnerable Republicans, it seems at least 50:50 at this stage that Democrats take the Senate majority in November. Certainly, it seems more than likely that the Democrats can tie up the senate at 50 seats for each party, making effective control of Congress in the hands of the Democrats, since they will almost certainly take the House by a comfortable margin. #politics

The Iranians are at it again

#geopolitics #politics #history Once more, Iran is attacking the strait of Hormuz, once more the price of oil is rising, once more the stock markets are falling, as Iran continues to make a quite intentional mockery of any peace process between the US and themselves. The Iranians will never let Trump off the hook, God love them! Make no mistake, the Iranians will continue to pummel the Western economies to undermine Donald Trump's power in the United States, and in the world as a whole, they will never stop. The Iranians know their only path to safety is in the utter destruction of their enemies, and Donald Trump is their enemy. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-us-war-strait-of-hormuz-trump-nato/

Truman Capote's short story jewel "Miriam"

Truman Capote is known for his brilliance in discriminating the nature of human social deviance in works like "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- perhaps because of his own homosexuality -- but, I think his astonishing short story "Miriam" takes this to a whole new level. This story is so unique and subtle that it remains rather ambiguous on a number of levels. First of all, it's not clear what exactly is happening in the story. The story begins with an "elderly" widow -- she's only 61, but, at the time, that was quite old, perhaps equivalent to mid-70's today -- who's living a quiet life in a city apartment, alone with her canary. She decides to go to a film and sees a beautiful, elegantly dressed little girl there, who seems a bit lost. The little girl approaches her to buy her a ticket, which the widow does, and then the girl disappears into the theatre. A few days later, the girl appears at her door, without explanation, demanding food. The widow is nonplussed, but, provides the food rather unwillingly. While she is doing this, the girl steals her favorite piece of jewellery from her jewel case, which the widow tolerates under protest. After eating her food, she says she likes more sweets, and complains about the artificial flowers in the widow's vase. As she leaves, she breaks the vase and takes away the artificial flowers. The widow for some reason feels compelled to purchase sweets the next day and gets a new vase, and fresh flowers. Then, the girl appears at her door, ringing relentlessly, with a large box containing a beautiful doll. The widow notices that the "girl" actually looks older than she thought, and might not be a "girl" at all, perhaps a small young woman. She says she's moving in with the widow. And widow goes down to some neighbors she scarely knows on a lower floor, complaining about the intrusion. The woman in the apartment comes up to see what's going on, but, the girl has totaly disappeared, as if she was never there. The widow sits down, stunned, but relieved, altough somewhat disappointed to be alone again. As she sits collecting her rushing thoughts, the girl appears before her, and says "hello". End of story. Now, what is this all about? OK, this is an old woman, equivalent in today's years to a woman in her mid-70's. Did she imagine this girl named "Miriam", is she suffering from dementia? Is the girl some kind of a ghost, a supernatural phenomenon? At the end of the story is widow possibly suffering from a stroke, or has she actually died? Why do she and the girl have the same first name, which, apparently they do? While all of these possibilities are fairly consistent with the story itself, I really don't think that's what Trump Capote has in mind at all. Rather, as is typical with Mr. Capote, he is very interested in unusal, deviant behavior. This "girl", or possibly young woman, is an extraordinarily adept social manipulator, so adept, that to typical, socially conformist individuals, she appears almost to have supernatural powers. Now, her powers appear to be limited to manipulating elderly people to provide for her basic needs, but, she is a kind of "genius" at that. Proably, she would tend to be classified as a criminal and a sociopath. But, perhaps not. After all, she is providing some basic needs to the widow -- companionship, excitement, variety, novelty. The girl is undoubtedly a aware of this. Is this a parasitic social relationship or a symbiotic one? Is the girl providing he widow with essential needs that the widow herself would be totally incapable of fulfilling without her, that will allow her to have a more fulfilled and longer life? Society is full of social manipulators working in highly esteemed professions whose actual utility is very much open to question. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, politicians, journalists, businessmen of all types are all very aggressive social manipulators, who intrude on people's lives, making demands while pretending to "help" people. The only difference between the girl and these professionals is that the girl is making no pretense to actually be helping the widow, is openly using her, but, is this really entirely a one-way street? If so, why is the widow putting up with it? Does she have a choice? Do any of us really have a choice, when we are being manipulated, and used by society? #literature #philosophy #psychology #sociology #crime

The myth of Alzheimer's disease

For some decades now, doctors have insisted that Alzheimer's disease is NOT just "senility", a normal age related condition. They point out and emphasize that some very old people -- not very many, of course -- have excellent memories and overall cognitive function, and also that some fairly young people -- again, not very many -- do have severe memory and cognition problems. However, this changes nothing. In general, as the body decays with age, the brain decays along with it. Exceptions only serve to prove this very general rule. Now, of course, people would very much like to retain their youthful ability to think and remember things as they get older, so, there is inevitably no shortage of doctors and pharmeceutical companies who will insist that they have treatments and drugs that will cure the disease of "Alzheimer's", and they will indeed retain youthful brain function indefinitely. Of course, none of these treatments or drugs work worth a damn. However, this doesn't stop their eager purveyors to insist that they work very well indeed. And, by claiming they are merely correcting certain very specific problems in neural function, they can actually try to make a case for this. After all, it probably is possible to correct certain neural issues up to a point. Who is to say they can't? By lowering the bar to this extent, it is impossible to argue conclusively that they aren't accomplishing anything at all. Only, that they aren't accomplishing much. But, how much is enough? Now, if instead of classifying Alzheimer's as a distinct, narrowly defined syndrome, doctors went back to simply calling it "senility", age related brain dsyfuction, it would be much more difficult to claim a "cure", for the "disease". After all, it would have to be clear that the patients were actually growing younger again, in general, something that would be obvious to see, and that we obviously cannot do. So, the reason doctors claim Alzheimer's as a distinct "disease", is because otherwise, doctors would have to admit their own utter incompetence and ineffectiveness in the face of it. And, that would tend to undermine their incomes a bit, wouldn't it? #Alzheimers #Dementia #Medicine #Health #Pharma #Longevity #Philosophy #Science

Donald Trump is now in exactly the same economic quicksand that Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter found themselves in

Donald Trump has fallen into the trap. He is in exactly the same economic quicksand that Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter found themselves in, Stagflation caused by the Arab oil weapon. The Iranians really don't have to do anything at all now. The mere fact that they can close the strait of Hormuz at will with inexpensive mines and drones creates uncertainty in the American business sector that makes realistic planning impossible, and discourages investment, for that reason. It doesn't even matter what the price of oil or gas is, they could spike and double at any time, on any day. And, there's absolutely nothing Donald Trump can do about it. He can bomb Iran all he likes, and Israel can join in. They can kill all the senior political and military leadership of Iran, it doesn't matter in the slightest, because the people, the military and the politicians all know that they have the ability to bring America and Israel to their knees, and they will never give up that power, why would they? It's not like Israel and America are all that nice if you cooperate with them, right? They will squeeze you like a ripe tomato! So, the professional economists and political analysts can make all the predictions they want about how Iran "must" submit, on the basis of their complex mathematical models, but, they don't, and they won't, they aren't total fools! They will retain their weapons and their power to crush Israel and the US, because they know their very survival as a nation, and as a people depends on it!