Hi Malcolm,
Re: This thread is about how to survive to be able to do good. What's the point of your blind attacks? How do decent people benefit from them?
This thread has become much more that a mere survivalist's guide to how not to get squashed like a bug in a rigged game. It's become something of a forum for the discussion of the nature of the game itself. Let me be plain, there frankly is no reason for all the distress, uncertainty and rancor in this world except for the deliberate provocations of certain strong actors who create chaos and crisis in order to take advantage of the others that they see as lesser mortals. Iraq is merely the latest chapter in the history of blatant racism and exploitation that has been the hallmark of the American business system. Isn't it proper to understand the true nature of the game we are innocently or shrewdly playing? Isn't it a benefit to realize that one's place in the game may be merely an illusion that one has of its true nature?
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I'm not sure how you come to feel that I've attacked anyone personally with my post regarding the "ruthless trampling" of others. I certainly don't see anyone here who expresses the same level of disdain for humanity as TraderMERL did so infamously in that remarkable bit of candor. Rather, I see this as a water cooler for the retail trader, while MERL was describing the secretive and suspicious world of the professional traders who infest the big trading houses and the hedge funds. My mentioning this attitude is meant as a warning to the unwary that there are some real sharks in the water. None of whom do I see posting here.
You ask, how do decent people profit from my blind attacks? Well, sir, my idea is that we need to re-examine capitalism as it has been allowed to become today. The way we live now is not right, decent or just. The capitalist criminal class has just spent the last 20 years taking down the barriers to their lust to destroy the goose that lays the golden egg. The headlong race to deregulate and privatize everything has exposed a glaring defect in human nature. And that is that sociopaths tend to be the most successful players when the barriers to unethical or criminal behavior are lowered. The playing field is tilted. The Codes of Ethics of companies like Enron and exchanges like the NYSE and professions like accounting become mere pieces of puffery to be ruthlessly disregarded.
My point, and I do have one, is that "Another World Is Possible". In fact, up until the "Reagan Revolution" opened the barn doors for the crooks to rob the public blind, we did have a better, more ethical, more mature form of capitalism. It's as if we are losing our way. In the U.S. we established a very effective regulatory regime in the 1930s in response to the capitalist/criminal excesses of the Roaring '20s. It served us admirably for 50 years and made the American financial markets the gold standard for excellence. Today, we are hellbent on destroying the reputation of the U.S. markets as quickly as possible as all the major players engage in back-stabbing swindles and efforts to innoculate themselves against criminal prosecution. The SEC is sick joke today. The little guy is not represented any longer in Washington. And when a true American hero like NY AG Eliot Spitzer dares to attack the criminal excess of Wall Street, he's alternately frustrated by Federal level meddling in a state's right to protect its citizens. Or else he's bought off with promises of campaign contributions for his much rumored run at the Governor's Mansion in Albany.
My point is simply that the game that we have today does not serve us well. Another world is possible. But we can't get to it if we all act as individuals only seeking our own small advantage as Adam Smith proposed. Because we are up against combines, such as the Republican Party who are ripping the very guts out of our political, economic and financial systems. For the sake of a tiny criminally minded elite.
Another world is possible. |
