times in darkness (cont.)

Short day, 2 1/2 hours,,Winds threatening to rip the roof off the shop,,, now back home and ready to pick up where I left off earlier,,,, now, where was I?

Modern ‘Foods’, Obesity, Education failures, Bad Governments, hmmmmm,,,,

I mentioned Kellogg and his ilk,,, Let me tell you a story about my time in the Marines,,, Float back to the States on the USS Tarawa, LHA-1, ‘the big one’, home at sea to the First MarDiv, my unit.

We were headed back, and it was about the same time that Bangladesh was Monsooned into trouble. Massive flooding, weak infrastructure and Gov Services failing, and a lot of people dyin’,,, Our ‘fleet’ was ordered there to help with disaster relief: food and medicines, and we picked up a load of Palletized Grains enroute, somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

I was on one of the landing craft that was headed up river to some city (don’t recall which) loaded with some of those pallets, stacked two high and ONE forklift and a dozen other Marines as labor. It was hell on earth,,, We were rolling over corpses in that flat bottomed boat,,, the skipper of which told us all to ‘Just don’t look, you’ll never get this out of your head,” (he wasn’t wrong,,,)

And we get to our destination and when the locals saw WHAT was on those pallets, they told us to take it back: ‘we want food, not cattle feed!” Our pallets were loaded with Corn and corn meal.

Even back in the day, Corn was not a staple, it was an addition to a diet, and mostly as cattle/livestock feed. One line in a movie lately (The Free State of Jones), Matthew McConnaughey’s character is talking about Corn and “if you take our corn, we have nothing to feed the hogs, if we can’t feed the hogs, we have nothing to put in the smokehouse, and if nothings in the smokehouse, We starve,,,,”

Now, look around some shopping trip, read labels: Corn products rank quite high as ‘fillers, High Fructose CORN syrup is in almost EVERYTHING,,, Soybean products (another of those cattle feeds,,,) EVERYTHING. If its been through a process that required more than a butchers knife, it has some of those items added in,,,

And Chips, snacks,,, I don’t have a link to the article any longer, may be its memory holed anyways, but there was some ‘expose’ on the snack industry and how they add appetite enhancers to their flavorings,,, If you make it so people want to eat more, you sell more,,, simple logic,,, (which circles right back to that Obesity thing,,,,)

I’m not going to go all Anti-Capitalist on you, but I do recognize that there are some seriously anti-ethical things going on in Corporate America, that are ‘justified’ in the name of the Almighty Dollar, (some would say ‘America’s God’,,, But thats an argument for another post/debate) One of my readers here once said that :the problem with Communism is Sloth and the problem with Capitalism is Greed“. Such a simple statement is NOT wrong, but it leaves out so many other issues it begs to be beaten on,,, I don’t want to go there in this post, but I would like for others to pick it apart and see if you can see the many openings it presents.

The BIG problem as I see it is “top down Centralization”,,, Hierarchies that are top heavy with mal-educated morons. Corporations that have only the bottom line in sight with nary any accountability for their misdeeds, thanks to deep pockets and political moves by thier puppets. Regulations written to favor Top heavy Giants and discriminate against potential competition,,,, Competition that is the LIFE BLOOD of Free Enterprise/Capitalism. Something that hasn’t been truly seen in this world for decades,,, (for clarity, go back to the early 1900’s,,, count how many INDEPENDENT car makers were loose upon these shores,,,, Most have been abosorbed by one of the Big Three, or driven out of business for whatever reason, be it bad management, or over regulated industry,)

And who always pays? The guy at the bottom,,, He hasn’t a choice: its that or abandon all symbolance of society and retreat to the places that are farther and fewer between, or live in some Tent City on the edge of society with the rest of the dregs,,,

But somewhere in those Tent Cities, there is a seed being formed. One that isn’t new on this planet, one that may be welcomed back with open arms when things start to go really sideways.

THE VILLAGE. (Thanks Spud for the comment, take this part as my reply to such)

I recall Killary Klinton Kommunist Kitty herself saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. More rhetoric from a lawyer of course, but the premise has foundations in history: she was just using that premise as the icing for justifying further socialist intervention in famiily matters. Historically speaking, most villages were tightly family oriented: you were related to many in some fashion: be it blood relation or ‘legally’ by marriage. The village was there for when things went sideways at the personal level, but it was not the intent to replace the personal level.

I think we are going to see that make a HUGE come-back when the economy goes full potato and tanks. Giant Corporations are going to collapse and the individuals within are going to break out and repeat the efforts of that corp at local levels. (for some interesting reading on this subject, Check out Cory Doctrows works.) With the internet, which is going to take a hit at first, but is so ingrained in our world, it will be the most protected at all levels. Massive Decentralization is going to happen, is happening in lots of ways, and is in no small way, WHY we are seeing the failings of Government world wide. People can talk at all levels, and despite Media spin, truth is there for the asking. Truth IS, it requires no support, nor coddling to mainiain it. Its the plethora of lies that needs Spin Doctors,,,,

Like the lies of University,,,, Degrees are rapidly losing value,,, They are nearly as common (maybe more so in these strange times, where Freshman students in College are being required to take remedial classes for what SHOULD be basic skills passed on in lower schools.) than a High School Diploma. With the internet, I can watch, anytime I want and when I am able to focus, Lectures from Professors IN ANY SUBJECT MATTER. Even deceased professors with great reputations (so long as they were recorded and uploaded, of course.) I don’t need to spend years, busting my hump in some ‘ivory tower hall’, scheduling my time around the whims of some one else, maybe so much so, I can’t focus on the lecture, and do all of that for some exhorbitant sum of money that it will take half a lifetime to pay back.

Now, I know not everyone is going to do such,,, There are people that haven’t the drive nor willpower to sit through a 3 hour lecture, even if they can pause it, rewind it when ‘not sure’, or whatever. They haven’t that ‘curiosity’ and thats just the way it is. BUT, for those that do, this is an incredibly exciting time in the world, where the Libary of Alexandria, the Louvre, etc etc, are readily available to anyone with a computer or smartphone, and a few minutes of time.

“University” can become a website, (like Jordan Petersons online “Academy” WIth that sort of education available to anyone,,, Why would you want some micro city university that requires you to leave your Village, where your family is (unless you WANT to go elsewhere, which is not a bad thing in the bigger picture,,, But why do that and acquire a debt that takes a lifetime to pay off? Seems rather counter productive to me.)

Wow,,, I didn’t think I had much to say this mornin’,,, Cripes, I could keep on going, but I think I need to save some of this up, maybe expand on some of it in seperate posts,,, And stop chewing on your retinas with my horrid grammer and punctuation,,,,(apologies if your eyes are bleeding from my overuse of commas,,, )

Short form for the TL: DR crowd,,, our world is in a Revolution, and the deceased to be is BIG GOVERNMENT,,, They know it and they are scrambling to hold as much power as they can for as long as they can. Stick to your guns, (never give up your guns if you still have them) and we will see this through. Maybe not all of us, but enough with a few braincells that still function correctly, that maybe, just maybe, we can get this Human Race back on track away from the Devolutionary track it has been on.

Keep on livin’