Slavery, by Sanctioned Deceit and Theft:
Human Nature at Work

CAVEAT: This article is one of a series of editorial articles that express personal opinions and views. They are written with no pretensions to be error free. I will gladly correct substantial errors of fact. This article may change, depending upon my awareness and understanding of changes in factual information and errors of my expression. It is my intent to remain focused on specific public issues, regarding the personalities involved. For all I know, all the characters are saints, concerning their private lives and other public business...

Changes may be requested by e-mailing the details to pmarkham@manistique.org



01/17/09

Years ago, a blind ol' geezer, Grandpa Christiansen, living alone on M-94, just south of Stoney Cut, north of Manistique, Mi., once paraphrased the following verse, while I visited him during a service call. Relative to the context of our conversation, we both understood the poem's meaning, though we were barely acquainted with each other, and were from different planets.

"So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas on him that prey
And these hath smaller fleas to bite 'em
And so proceed ad infinitum"

From Jonathan Swift's "A Rhapsody"



               Where's the Wealth?
A View of Slavery, Economics, Justice, and Fleas 


dominate: to be in control

slave: Someone entirely dominated by some influence or 
       person

theft: The act of taking something from someone 
       unlawfully, or without permission

fraud: Intentional deception intended to gain an 
       advantage


Stealing a product of someone's life, by any means, is
to make the victim of theft a slave for that period of
the victim's life required for the victim to make,
barter, purchase, or earn the product stolen.


If we are all God's creatures, then, to those that know
it's God's will that they be enslaved, and that it's
God's will that their slavers be forgiven, I suggest
they perform serious penance by turning the other cheek
and soliciting more victimization of themselves.
Hopefully, that penance will attract those victimizers
eying my wrinkled cheeks, and, at the same time, warn
other God fearing folk to stop spreading the word that
encourages more of the same.

Furthermore, I suggest that unrepentant mystics read no
further, as nothing I have to say or consider has any
magical connection to any mythical or supernatural
diety or character. It's all about evolution, our
ancestors, me, and those with whom I share the planet. 


The following article is prompted by my
substantiated personal perception and conclusion
that humans, as a general rule, are no more "good"
than what each individual perceives to be in their
best interest to survive, achieve particular goals,
enjoy life, and avoid the consequences of violating
various organizational rules. It took many years for
me to conclude, from experience, that which I had
understood in a vague intellectual manner, from
my youth. The inherent "goodness" of the human
species is fiction peddled by con artists, for
the sole purpose of convincing the ignorant and
stupid that the deliberate victimization of others
is isolated and bizarre behaviour; not an inherent
behaviour of the human species, evident, too often,
in our everyday choices and decisions.

The logical suspicions of potential victims are
denied, disarmed, or rendered impotent, by many
forms of deceit, practiced by various amoral, immoral,
and ambitious, "authority figures", with little
concern for the lawful and ethical due process
requirements of business and government in a
civilized representative democracy. Many, if not most,
of those influential predators, with no credentials of
meritorious, academic, or professional value
regarding well established rules of ethical and
lawful conduct, victimize others under the guise
of one with the acknowledged responsibility to the
contrary.
      

The record of my perception and substantiation for
this article is recorded, to a great extent, in
other articles on this web site. Those articles
concern the microcosm of competitive people, forces,
and influences in the City of Manistique and
Schoolcraft County, Michigan, that I witnessed or
documented from the early 1980's. That record
formed the basis of this articulated reasoning
concerning my perception of that which I was only
barely aware of, at an intellectual level, earlier in
my life, because I chose to ignore or avoid its
impact on my daily life, as much as possible.

I have few regrets in my life, given the lot dealt me,
but... had I been taught to value my youthful perception
of the world, uncolored by the various, disparate, and
patently false claims of those that had the
responsibility to know better, and teach me accordingly,
my life would be vastly different than it is now. My main
personal regret, regarding a personal failure, is that I
did not seek the answer to the "no credit" question, on
an 11th grade final high school history test, "Who is
John Galt?".

It was not until 1968, when I was at Da Nang, Vietnam,
that I received a copy of Galt's life, and during the 
years following, I became familiar with associated
writings concerning epistemology. It was then that I
first understood that most everyone else could be
"wrong", for very well articulated "real" reasons,
and my inability to see that which doesn't exist was
not my failure; and I owed few apologies for that
which I did see and understand.

From then to now, peer reviewed research has confirmed
what I first came to understand, in a rudimentary manner,
two lifetimes ago. 
 

It is my understanding that each individual in the
world is different from every other, physically and
intellectually, to one degree or another. Those
differences, due to genetic and environmental variable
influences, effect each individual's perception,
knowledge, and comprehension of their environment.
That variable understanding of the world, determines,
to a great degree, the choices that each individual makes
throughout their life regarding that which they consider
is necessary to survive, prosper, and be "happy".

Without considering arcane science, research, and
theories, there are universal phenomena and concepts
that almost everyone understands in an almost identical
manner, such as gravity, and 1 plus 1. Regarding other
phenomena and concepts, such as a round Earth, or a
chair, understanding varies, markedly. Some folk know
the Earth is an irregular flat surface, and, depending
on context, a "chair" might be a chunk of ice, a rock,
a log, or pig, or grandma's rocker. So it goes for
every individual of the human species.

Given differences in perception, if two people enter 
into a conversation concerning a chair, and one person
is talking about a pig, and the other, grandma's rocker, 
it is highly unlikely that any meaningful communication 
will take place between the two, if there is no attempt
to consider the mutual differences in perception, and
understanding. So it goes in Manistique, and the rest
of the world.

My awareness of differences in individual perception
is nothing new. It is portrayed in a poem I read,
understood, and enjoyed, as a child in England. I never
forgot what it meant. See The Blind Men and the Elephant, 
written by American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)
who based this poem on a fable that was told in India
many years earlier, long before modern science and
research studied the workings of the human mind.

It was six men of Hindustan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might satisfy the mind.

The first approached the Elephant
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side
At once began to bawl:
"Bless me, it seems the Elephant
Is very like a wall".

The second, feeling of his tusk,
Cried, "Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear".

The third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Then boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake."

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Hindustan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
And all were in the wrong.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!


Individual differences exist in varying degrees, 
regardless of how much they may be ignored, or denied, 
to the detriment of collective goals, worldwide. 
Contrary to the wishful thinking of those that tried to 
brain-wash me, through my primary and secondary 
education, all individuals are not "created" equal. For 
similar reasons, all indigenous geographic populations 
are not "created" equal, regardless of how "politically 
incorrect" that perspective may be.

What can be stated, as a true generality, is that the 
effects of an almost infinite possible combination of 
actual genetic and environmental variables, results in 
individuals, and populations, of all races and 
geographic areas, outstanding in certain 
characteristics required to survive, breed and maintain 
a healthy population consistent with the demands of
the particular environment in which the evolutionary
process takes place.

The well established concepts of evolution and natural
selection, that I learned and understood as a high
school student, are, with few minor exceptions, as
valid today as they were when Darwin and Wallace first
articulated them, and all attempts to convince me
otherwise, by the witch-doctors of the world, have
failed. 


Consistent with Darwin's and Wallace's observations,
reasoning, and conclusions, I learned that most human
endeavours are consistent with the implicit premise
that the strong have the natural imperative and right
to dominate and exploit the weak. That right is
limited to whatever degree that an organization, or
other individuals, tolerate any particular predatory
behaviour.

It is my personal opinion, based upon my personal 
experiences and understanding, and at times, 
misunderstanding, that the degree of society's 
tolerance of predatory behaviour has injured, severely, 
the ethical philosophical backbone of this nation's 
government, economy, and society. There are objective 
reasons and an historical record, Dorothy, that 
substantiate my misanthropic perception of humanity, 
and dystopian view of the future, regardless of whether,
or not, you understand my perspective.


The title of this article represents nothing new.
Folks such as Karl Marx and John Kenneth Galbraith,
and others labelled as "communists" or "socialists"
of various stripes, have criticized the ills of
democracy, laissez-faire capitalism, and free will,
since the premises underlying such concepts were
articulated, clearly.

Economists such as Adam Smith to Milton Friedman,
and other proponents of "free markets", criticized the
ills of government regulation of business affairs,
based upon the premise that the long term rational
self-interests of those in business would limit
destructive excesses, and promote a dynamic economy
that would benefit everyone. The articulate and 
influential philosopher-author, Ayn Rand, incorporated 
most aspects of a civilized, intelligent, and rational 
life in her objectivism philosophy, but it too is held 
hostage to the effects of the generally predictable, 
yet infinitely variable, predatory opportunistic human 
nature. She, and so many others, failed or refused 
to consider the extent to which that evolved and
pervasive human nature influences so much human
behavior.

As a general rule, most people do not act in their
rational self-interest when that interest extends beyond
the requirements of understanding the immediate and
basic requirements of survival, and enjoying their
chosen recreational interests. They either fail to
perceive or understand more complex issues of cause and
effect, or choose to ignore that which they do
understand, because it is in their perceived short term
self-interest to do so.

In a complex technological world, many adults refuse to
admit that they "don't know", and in the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan, I learned that, to many
"Yoopers", "ignorant" was an epithet, equivalent to
"stupid", "idiotic", "deplorable"... I have seldom
been as surprised by an idiom as I was when I heard the
exclamation, "That's ignorant!", in the context that
the action of an ignorant person made the person
despicable for a consequence of being unaware of
some specific part of an immense quantity of collective
human knowledge.
  

For many reasons, including avoidance of a "despicable"
and subjective "ignorant" label, many ignorant folk
will readily accept the plausible reasoning of others,
consistent with their perceived personal self-interest.
It is far easier, acceptable, and expected, that most
individuals, to avoid "wasting" that part of their life
to determine what is true, or not, claim someone else's
reasoning as acceptable, or as their own, consistent
with being an individual member of a society built upon
shared knowledge.

It is a requirement of a competitive collective of
specialized individuals, that most are ignorant of many
other specialized skills and knowledge required for
others to be productive in their areas of expertise; be
those other specializations creative or destructive in
nature or effect. It is a direct consequence of the
creation of productive collectives of specialized
individuals, with varied degrees of intelligence,
knowledge, and skills, that most individuals will be
ignorant of most knowledge, and, consequentially, be
vulnerable, more or less, to those that choose to hone
and use their specialized skills and knowledge for
predatory purposes.

To admit one's ignorance is to admit a weakness that 
may be considered or corrected, if necessary; or
ignored, and allow others greater opportunity to
victimize. Ignorance unrecognized, ignored, or denied,
makes it easier to be deceived, manipulated, and
victimized by others.

Most individuals do not have an awareness of all that
may be injurious to their well-being, or have the time
and intellectual resources to determine all that may be
dangerous. Therefore most folk will mask their ignorance,
as a protective measure, with a deception of choice, be
it of their own creation, or that of others with the
goal of victimizing the ignorant, and those that
choose to deny that which is.


The consequences of the admirable libertarian 
philosophies that formed the basis of American 
independence from Britain, have an historical dark 
side, up to and including the current world-wide mess. 
In the U.S., it is political suicide to address root 
causes because they represent the ignored or denied
atavist in everyone that is at odds with pervasive
influential religious mythology, and other
superstitious beliefs. The "dark side" consequences
are the direct result of human nature manifest in
the inherited survival behaviour of one individual's
opportunity to profit at the expense of the
environment, including other individuals, to whatever
degree society permits, or advocates.

Consider the historical effects of unbridled human
nature, some of it witnessed by me, recorded in my
lifetime, in black and white and technicolor, along
with the personal written, printed, and recorded words
of victims and victimizers, along with the debris and
bones that still exist. I have no doubts about the
"milk of human kindness"* when victimizers are allowed
to hold sway. With no historical perspective
whatsoever, those that deny the obvious are belied,
today, by journalists and news sources of professional
integrity, around the world.

*From Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1623:

"Yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o' th' Milke
of humane kindnesse."


Evolutionary pressures molded human nature, over eons, 
to that which favored the survival of individuals, 
families, and small groups of foraging predators. 
Regardless of the desire to foster the civilized 
behaviour required to reap the benefits of specialized 
labor, and collective efforts, no degree of enlightened 
self-interest, or superstitious dogma, has changed 
basic human nature, one iota; and within the context of 
the foreseeable and predictable future, it is doubtful
that it ever will; wishful thinking, or not.

Specific human behaviours may be modified with a set of 
enforced rules, but rules of civilized behaviour 
without enforcement means that opportunistic predators 
rule to whatever degree the rules of civilized 
behaviour may be avoided, or unenforced; thereby 
encouraging further human predation.

Many species of ants and bees evolved as species that 
require innate focused collective effort to survive. 
Each individual has a DNA defined purpose in the 
collective organization, that guarantees the success of 
the collective in a relatively favorable steady-state 
environment. The human species evolved with no such 
individual purpose in any collective effort outside of 
those required for food, shelter and procreation at the 
most primitive levels, in a variety of environments, 
not too far removed from the current requirements of 
some of our great ape relatives. 

Unlike humans, individual ants and bees, in their 
respective collectives, cannot make choices, based upon 
their individual perspective, that will injure the 
collective. The primitive individual choices of ants 
and bees may result in the individual's destruction, 
but will be of little to no consequence to other
individuals of the collective. Individual humans can,
and do, make conscious intellectual choices that impact
the overall health and survival of the minor and major
collectives of which they are part.

Unlike other forms of Earthly life, individuals of the
human species have the ability and option to choose
whether their basic nature will prevail, or not.


Outside of various forms of slavery, most civilized 
human collective efforts result from mutually agreeable 
individual choices to achieve common goals. Assuming 
that a collective goal is rational, achievable, and 
sustainable for the period of time considered, that 
common goal is doomed when sufficient individual 
influential choices are made that result in 
consequences that neutralize the collective goal 
oriented efforts of others. Unlike the primitive 
choices of individual ants and bees, that have little 
to no effect on the predefined goal of the collective 
effort, in today's human collectives, relatively 
few people can, and do, make choices that destroy or 
appropriate the individual and collective gains of 
others.

Not only do humans choose to prey on other species,
and the Earth, they prey on each other as simply and
obvious as an individual armed robber, or in the most
subtle, devious, and more effective ways of an
organization of political, religious, or business con
artists that hunt with words, a prey of varying
intelligence and knowledge.


Some of the "magic bullets" used by proponents of 
various forms of predation, to promote their well being 
and silence, or kill criticism of their particular 
variety of predation, are variations of the following:

"Instead of engaging in destructive criticism, why 
don't you do something constructive to change the 
status quo?" or, "Nothing prevents you from gaining the 
"good life", as I do." "The business at hand is the 
consequence of mutual agreeable choices, based upon 
free will." "It's God's will." "It's the will of the 
people." The litany of excuses to justify an 
individual's form of predatory behaviour is as varied 
as the forms of predation available.

As I cannot change human nature, and ruling predators 
have little interest in enforcing laws against predation,
then, short of slaying most of the human race, I have
few civilized choices beyond becoming a predator, or
silent victim. As I choose to be neither, local
predators label me a "Citizen Against Virtually
Everything", while the silent victims consider me
"wacko". Sucks to be me...

Beyond the obvious self-interests of a common thief,
it matters not to those specialized human predators
that most folks choose, or are forced by environmental
pressures, to develop the specific skills and knowledge
required to create wealth, rather than take it for
little to no value. It matters not to predators that
their existence depends on their choice to develop
skills, and acquire knowledge, to exploit "human
resources", no different from others that might
exploit "natural resources" such as wildlife, or coal,
or wood, or metallic ore,... to achieve a desired goal.

Beyond the impact upon their personal gain, it matters
not to predators what impact they have upon their
victims' quality of life. It matters not to predators
that, given the Bell curve of human intelligence and
other abilities, in a specialized, complex, production
driven world, most folk do not have the time, or the
ability, to master and use all the world's knowledge
to protect themselves from those that specialize in
various forms of simple and sophisticated predation.


Most individuals, in a civilized society, find it more 
necessary to engage in creative efforts to support 
themselves and their families, instead of learning how 
to catch, kill, cage, or train predators. Others' 
necessity to create should not encourage increased 
predation if the creators of wealth pay specialized 
sworn professionals to control or eliminate human 
predators.

It doesn't take a mental giant to understand that
the relationship between those that create wealth
and those elected or employed to protect wealth
and its creators is seriously broken. Too often,
the protectors are paid to sanction, or become
predators. There is a reason why that famous quote
rings true with so many,
"
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
  

Too often, the arguments from human predators, and 
their supporters, is based upon their claim that all 
have the same choices. They claim that if one 
individual exploits a weakness in another, for gain, 
the party that gains the most in a "voluntary" 
transaction should not be singled out to be denied the 
product of their efforts, because "It's the victim's 
fault!" for being too greedy, or stupid, or ignorant, 
or careless, or hungry, or lusty, or poor, or...
There is no limit to the reasons for one person to 
screw another, be they next door, or oceans away.


In a civilized society, there is a huge difference 
between understanding and articulating a clear 
perception of an obvious problem, and having a
socially acceptable, politically correct solution
to offer; it is the difference between goals,
perception, chosen specializations of knowledge,
skills, and professions. In most cases of predation,
though it may take time to become evident, it is a
no-brainer to recognize, and bash in the head of a
predator. The obvious solution is no longer a
civilized response to uncivilized behaviour, because
too many individuals have chosen to be part of, and
sanction, too much uncivilized behaviour, for too long,
close to home and in other nation's backyards.

It doesn't take a genius to understand that, given the 
simple historical view of justice, there would be far 
fewer predators. If someone takes your created wealth 
that helps you to ensure your survival and thereby 
endangers your health and life, then, if you catch them, 
enslave them to pay back with interest that which they 
stole, or break their fingers, hand, or head - whatever 
is most effective to heal, to whatever degree possible, 
those injured by the thief, and whatever is most 
effective in discouraging repeat predation or similar
offenses by others.


Regarding my perception of the burgeoning
international mess, as a general rule, white
collar criminals walk, with all their body parts intact
and healthy. Too often, they keep much of their loot,
and, too often, they walk with reputations as pillars
of government, society and business; touted by whatever
organizations they supported with the products of
other peoples' lives. Not so for "blue collar"
predators. It is as if theft with words and numbers
is an admirable career, while theft with a gun is a
reprehensible vocation.


From my perspective, the solution to all problem 
predators is not trying to understand them, or 
warehousing them, or finding constructive career 
options for them, or supporting them, or educating 
them, or training them, or all the irrational options 
practiced to convert predators of choice to "desirable
and productive members of society". My "wacko"
solution for the prevention of victimization is
something like this:

Educate everyone, from an early age, how to think
crtically, in a logical, rational, and objective manner.
Educate everyone, from an early age, that there is
no such thing as magical, or real, supreme beings
that condone or forgive any victimization.
Educate everyone, from an early age, concerning
the true nature of our species.
Educate everyone, from an early age, concerning
a rational and substantiated set of rules for
civilized behaviour in a social collective.
Educate everyone, from an early age, concerning
the basic requirements of a sustainable civilized
society.
Educate everyone, from an early age, that nothing
in the world is secure, or free, or without
consequences, including any and all choices to
violate established rules of civilized behaviour.
Educate everyone about the meaning of "Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you." in
the context of a civilized productive society of
specialized individuals.


Then, enforce the rules of civilized behaviour to
hold all violators fully accountable, in a manner
that discourages similar behaviour and ensures no
one profits from one person victimizing another - 
and ensure that society is not burdened with
supporting predators after the nature of the
predation has been identified, and the predators
caught.


Here are a few punitive proposals for those that 
care not to coddle and encourage major predators of 
wealth. For those that choose to enslave others by 
stealing the product of their victims' labor by
fraudulent means:

For serious predators, strip them of all assets, exile
them to some "Shoot on sight!" guarded, fenced-in
barren armpit of the world, like central Australia, or
the Sahara desert, or an area of the American West,
with no survival infrastructure and no resources to
pillage, and let them survive together, or not.
Victimization in excess of a given "amount" and
significantly less than a life's production, deserves
a bar code tattooed on a predator's forehead, plus
whatever compensation is possible to the victim(s),
within the shortest immediate period of a
captured predator's likely remaining lifetime.

For those that victimize close to, or in excess of one 
victim's lifetime income, that want an alternative to
exile, then whatever compensation is possible within
an immediate short period of time, including
confiscation of any and all assets that have 
been financed in any way by the theft or fraud, 
regardless of in whose name they may be, plus, a
public painful death after which the body parts
are sold for patient use or research. The sale price
of a specific criminal's body parts are used to
compensate the specific criminal's victim(s) of any form
of major unlawful enslavement.

If nothing else, in many cases, some significant degree 
of compensation to the victim is possible by killing a 
major predator in a public, painful, and cost efficient
manner, and selling the body parts. Needless to say my
constructive and reasoned suggestions are considered as
"wacko and bizarre" by those motivated by superstitious
mythology, popular psychology, cultural "norms", wishful
thinking, or various forms of guilt due to their
association with various forms of predatory behaviour.

To those that consider major destructive predatory
behavior deserves a humane and painless punishment, I
suggest public execution by guillotine. Personally, I
figured out that a free and painless pass to oblivion
would not discourage me, if I chose to be a predator.
The thought of doing time in the Schoolcraft County
jail, or having my nails ripped out, or being sodomized
by "Bubba", every night, for the rest of my life, does.

We all must die, and, most likely, it will not be in a
painless and humane manner.

Just like taxes, the application of law should apply to 
all legal entities, blue or white collar, no 
exceptions. It makes no difference to the victims why 
they are victimized, by whom, or how; the damage is the 
same and so it should be for the victimizers. An eye 
for an eye, a dollar for a dollar, life for life,
to whatever degree that can be realized in a civilized
context without trying to avoid treating worse than
animals those that choose to prey worse than animals.

Needless to say, there are a number of community
predators, whose choices result in deliberate or
consequential victimization, about whose lingering 
deaths, or painful ill fortune, I would rejoice.


Those that take and play with other peoples' money have 
the responsibility to understand that, in effect, they 
play with other peoples' lives, and, consequently, 
should meet their moral, ethical, and fiduciary 
responsibilities - or suffer the consequences. Slavery, 
major or minor, deliberate or otherwise, public or 
private, condoned or not, is serious business for which 
there should be serious penalties for those that take
or squander, with impunity, the equivalent of pieces of
other peoples' lives.

As far as I am concerned, all form of behaviour, based 
upon the free association of individuals, should be 
permissible, as long as there are no victims, 
deliberate or consequential. Beyond the requirement of 
taxes, and the degree of slavery required to produce 
the tax wealth that finances the required 
"infrastructure" of a civilized society, those that 
wish to impose their will upon others are nothing more 
than predatory victimizers that have chosen to 
represent their best interests as the arbiters of 
others' choices.

To me, those folk are better off dead that wish to 
impose their will upon me, based upon the premise that 
I exist for their well being, outside of the historic, 
well established laws of a government that is designed
to exist for the individual, rather than the converse.

Instead of more victim blood, more predator blood would 
have prevented many past and current problems. Instead 
of more victim blood, more blood from today's predators 
would discourage predation, tomorrow. One thing is 
sure, with insufficient consequences few predators 
change their behaviour.


Directly related to my thoughtful, articulated 
perspective, is the obvious consequences of predation 
on the national economy. Decades of millions of 
predators striving for and living the "good life", 
earned by no tangible value added to existing wealth, 
fostered by the goal of avoiding the consequences of 
previous predatory economic decisions, has broken a 
Humpty Dumpty economy in a fashion that will not be 
pieced together, as it once was.

No one can take, gamble, destroy, speculate, squander,
move, or invest offshore, the equity of the national
economy, and recreate it again, in today's world, with
little more than wishful thinking and the power of the
press to print worthless currency. No one can indebt
future generations without some of those indentured
servants taking offense to being sold into slavery,
for the benefit of "investors" and other speculators of
the productivity of third party lives, current or future.

Most buying and selling, on commodity and stock
markets around the world, is little more than
speculative gambling for the purpose of gaining the
tangible wealth produced by the lives of others, with
little to no value added to the product or process by
which it is created. A significant part of the current
and speculated future productive value of those that
create today, or are yet to be born, is used to feed
the human predator in everyone that wishes to
enslave another to live the good life today, at the
expense of others' lives, tomorrow.

By purchasing, or "investing" in a piece of
another's productive life, without their permission,
an individual can own the products of that piece of
life without the responsibilities of have to house,
feed, or tend to the needs of that purchased piece
of some else's life. When all the pieces are added
together, anyone can buy as many slaves as they can
afford, without having to look into the faces of
their captives, and with no necessity to consider
the welfare of the lives purchased.

Commodity futures markets take value from the
speculated value of a product of those that produce,
while stock markets take value from the speculated
value of the productive infrastructure created by
productive lives. The value taken from both markets
feeds those that buy the equivalent pieces of
others' lives, and the broker infrastructure, both
of which add no value to the product brokered, at
the expense of those that actually produce tangible
wealth.   


Gone are the days when "leaders" of this nation 
dominated, controlled, or molded, with impunity, the
economic and military structure of most the world, to
the benefit of their political sponsors. It will be
interesting to watch my neighbors being molded as
our "leaders" pursue a more aggressive predatory
agenda, at home, to compensate for their losses
in the U.S. and abroad.

It is a characteristic of exploitative human nature
to compensate for the loss of one resource, with
another, to maintain the quality of life an individual
has become accustomed to, or to which they aspire.


Regarding the national economy, without appropriating
the wealth of, and enslaving the population of those
against whom we fight, waging war does nothing but
consume and destroy wealth. That destroyed wealth is
replaced with the worthless currency printed and placed
into circulation to "pay" for that which is destroyed,
and those individuals employed to destroy.

Governments, through their elected and appointed 
officials, and employees, do little more than consume 
and redistribute the wealth of those that actually 
produce it. They are then paid with currency and 
benefits that are little more than enforced liens 
against the value of the tangible wealth created by the 
productive entities of society. They add no value to
the economy; they drain it, "necessarily", or not.

Corporations are not the predatory, greedy, mindless, 
tax-evading brutes portrayed by those that seek 
convenient scapegoats for the nation's woes. 
Corporations are nothing more than imaginary legal
entity servants to the goals, plans, whims, efforts,
dreams, and machinations, of the executives, boards of
directors, and other individuals that control, work
for, or "invest" in corporations.

In addition to the significant productive and tax
evasion merits, corporations allow individuals to
prey upon others without incurring legal consequences.
The predatory behaviour of corporations reflects the
predatory desires of the individuals that control,
direct, work for, and patronize them.


From my unvarnished perspective, the nation is no 
longer a power unto itself, in either a military, 
economic, or educational sense.

The real cost of waging most recent wars in the far 
corners of the world is huge. Other than satisfying
the alleged interests of those that promote and
support such savage atavistic nonsense, no real gains
are achieved, at incredible cost to those productive
sectors of society that actually create the wealth for
others to destroy. Needless to say, the cynical
perspective of the United Sates, held by many folk
around the world, is earned by the costs, pain, death
and misery that we visit upon those in whose backyards
we, or our proxies, choose to teach others the "errors"
of their ways.

National military service, based upon the draft and the 
rational national necessity to project motivated and 
effective defensive military power in a predatory 
world, has been replaced with a voluntary, mercenary, 
military force, at exorbitant cost to the "private 
sector", beholden to no anti-war interest. It is 
designed not to serve and protect, but is paid to
follow the orders of elected officials, that pursue
the wishes of others, to mold the world in whatever
fantasy-image-of-the-day is held in greatest favor.

Pacific rim and European nations make it obvious that 
the U.S. is not the sole economic powerhouse of the 
world, but has become more of a customer and client 
state of others, squandering existing equity as fast as 
possible to maintain the illusion of the "good life", 
earned.

From an educational perspective, many other countries 
of the world promote significantly better educational 
programs that emphasize that which is required by 
productive collectives of individuals with specialized 
knowledge and skills. The successful related 
technologies of computers and the Internet has created 
a more level playing field, allowing the transfer of 
knowledge and intellectual tools to the disenfranchised 
around the world, providing the means for many of the
able, motivated, and hungry, to illustrate their
perspective of the meaning of "equality" and
"opportunity" to the Western World.

In retrospect, the effect of the printing press to 
disseminate knowledge took centuries. Newer technology 
does the same at the speed of light. Like it, or not, 
the concept of "equality of opportunity" has changed 
the world in a manner that Martin Luther, George Bush, 
and their acolytes, could not imagine, control, or 
respond to in a manner consistent with the long term 
goals they tried to impose upon others.

Our historic and basic form of government, the best 
working for responsible civilized individuals, has been 
corrupted to a serious and obvious degree. I, and 
others with some understanding that there is a 
crippling political pandemic, voted for a presidential 
candidate that could offer little more than some stated 
recognition of, and promises to change, predatory 
policies that encouraged that which has become 
ingrained and destructive at all levels of government, 
and the unsustainable "American Fantasy" way of life
that so many seek.


The rest of the world may not be equal to the U.S. in 
certain areas of expertise and production, but in many 
others important to human daily life, they excel. A 
variety of countries have the knowledge, technical 
expertise, industrial and educational infrastructure, 
and able, hungry, and motivated populations to compete 
with the U.S. In some cases, like the U.S., they have 
sufficient military and economic influence to help 
"persuade" natural resource rich countries to grant 
them favorable business terms.

Consequently, others can compete with the U.S. in many 
economic endeavours, at levels of pay and benefits that 
make American union officials, workers, corporate 
executives, military leaders, bankers, pension fund 
managers, health industry executives, and government 
bureaucrats sweat blood during a continuous nightmare.
You may rest assured that nations and workers around
the world have no intent to fund the U.S. public
infrastructure, health care system, or various
"entitlement" schemes, and you can be confident that
the "leaders" of this nation understand what they
condoned, and the consequences due.


When I was a child, I knew that wealth did not exist 
for the taking, and I knew and understood the terrors 
of rampant inflation, from little more than collecting 
foreign postage stamps. Those with a far better formal 
education than mine, well tutored in the fine arts of 
deception, are not near as ignorant as they would have 
their victims believe.

Maybe, hopefully, sooner than later, the general
population will understand that enslaving current and future 
populations to provide others the promise of a secure 
good life, present and future, employed and retired, 
tax paid or otherwise, is nothing more than the empty 
parasitic claim of a confidence game - one designed to 
victimize that sector of the society that actually 
produces wealth. Slavery is what it is, regardless of 
the label given.

There is nothing in the real world that is secure, 
beyond the continuous false claims of a class of thief 
that profits by the claimed ability to provide security 
to everyone, at acceptable cost to everyone else. Those
claims reflect the basic survival nature of an
opportunistic predator-forager to strive for that which
provides the greatest survival benefit for the minimal
expenditure of effort; as in "something for nothing".

A major goal of a confidence criminal is to convince
the mark to reach for an unearned gain, thereby
trapping the victim in the mutually understood
consequences, shame, and guilt of a predatory decision.
Those well learned in the knowledge and skills of
manipulating the confidence of others, sell public
and private confidence games to the rest of humanity,
securing their well being with the shame and guilt of
their clients, at the untold cost of others' blood and
misery.

Regardless of claims to the contrary, most, if not all, 
"secure" income streams, are based upon the enforced 
claims of some to varying portions of the productive
lives of others, without the explicit permission and
full understanding of those that actually produce the
wealth that others claim.


Exploitation of others, by slavery, explicit or 
otherwise, has been, and will be, to one degree or 
another, the predator-forager hallmark of human 
behaviour. Government "Ponzi Schemes" guarantee
nothing; based upon the fiction of a constantly
expanding economy, they promise to pay in the future,
those that buy into the scams, today. Subsequently,
others are indentured, before birth, to provide the
good life for others, tomorrow. Wimpey's great line,
"I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger, today."
is how empty words are tendered as security for wealth
solicited by government, business, and individual
confidence artists of all types.

Unless human parasites and predators are rendered 
impotent to take value from the creative and productive 
work of others, those interested in creating and 
maintaining a relatively stable economy will be hard
pressed to convince folks at home, and abroad, to
invest in, rather than gamble with the U.S. economy.
Few folks are anxious to help America and finance its
crumbling infrastructure, social security, retirement
and health care plans, and other baggage of profligate
living dependant upon the explicit requirement of
taking from some to give to others within the context
of "whatever the market will bear".

As I understood, for several decades, America's "good 
times", at the expense of the rest of the world, was 
history in the making. It took a lot less time to loot 
and squander the equity of the national economy, than 
it took to create. As I understand, today, it will take 
more blood than I want to see to raise Ol' Humpty in my 
lifetime, or the longer life time of many others; if it 
is possible.


As much as I am a supporter of Obama, he cannot put the 
same Humpty back on the wall, broken or intact. He is not
the head of a totalitarian government that controls the
world.

He can encourage the further destruction of the economy,
and public infrastructure, with the same lame "Hands
off!" rhetoric of the Bush League.

He can further more predation by violating laws,
and encouraging or allowing others to violate law, and
refuse to enforce laws designed to hold thieves
accountable. 

He can continue to encourage the further printing
of worthless currency, backed by worthless paper
promises, to restore the equity of that already
plundered.

He can continue to reward multi-national businesses,
with U.S. public money, to continue their thriftless
business models.

He can promote further national debt to be paid off by
those yet to be conceived.

He can continue fostering the declining status-quo of
those holding today's inflated currency, crippled,
significantly, by the devalued wealth equity plundered,
or moved off-shore.

He can spur other domestic businesses to move off-shore
to escape the public tax burden of public infrastructure,
military, courts, police, and other bags of tax financed
goods, services, and promises.

He can further a protectionist national economic policy
that cannot undo history.

He can help reduce the common productive individual of
the world to little more than an expedient means to the
ends of those that choose to own and master others, a
piece at a time, or in the whole.

He can continue America's de-facto obsession with
creating world-wide enemies by waging or supporting wars,
within or against other nations, not for irrefutable
self-defence reasons against an identified enemy, but
for predatory national, political, economic, religious,
and social beliefs and agendas, the same as or different
from ours.

He could promote an equitable national and global economy,
taxable in a simple and equitable manner, designed in a
manner to hold liable, in a merciless, just, and objective
manner, all those involved with necessary tax slavery,
and the voluntary business of managing the product of
other peoples' lives.

He could sanction the conversion of various contracted
and unsustainable business and government "Blue Sky"
liabilities such as "social security", "retirement
plans", and health care "benefits", that cannot be
met in today's global competitive economy.


Those that promoted free unregulated markets encouraged 
destruction of the economy by those who, in practice, 
acted according to basic human nature. Those pillars of
government, business, and society pursued their
"earned" right as specialized dominating predators, to
victimize the politically weaker and less influential
productive members of society, that actually created
the wealth the predators consumed.

Beyond an open mind to peer reviewed research
theories, my view of the world, from a small child,
was influenced minimally, or not at all, by the
baggage of political, religious, or societal claims
concerning that which does not exist, beyond the
desires of individual or collective imaginations.
Today, I still see the world as it is, from my niche
in the environment, and, as through most of my life,
I still fail to see the "Emperor's New Clothes"*
when they do not exist. Sucks to be a "square peg".

If and when Obama tries, consistently, to curb
current predation, I will recognize his garments
as something new; befitting one who is not an
educated and articulate variation of his predecessor,
the illiterate atavist of a hyena that led a
pack of like minded predators.

*"The Emperor's New Clothes" circa 1837 - a fairy
tale by Hans Christian Andersen concerning an
emperor who hired two con artists to create a new
suit of clothes for him.


Thieves are thieves. Predators are what they are,
and wolves in sheeps' clothing are still wolves.
Beyond the fully disclosed requirements to levy taxes
for essential public infrastructure and government
services, such as police, courts, armed forces, and
public education, there is no civilized rational
reason or excuse, for anything other than the
voluntary, conscious, fully informed, and understood
choice of one individual to share their wealth with
another, for any and all reasons, within the context
that there are no victims, deliberate or consequential.

From my perspective, anyone cavalier with other
folks' money, well-being, health and lives, should be
held accountable, in a like manner.

If I, as a dumb Limey immigrant, knows the difference 
between ethical business and blatant theft and fraud,
you may rest assured that those taking others to the
cleaners, or worse, know what they are doing, when
they do it. Thieves, con-artists, gamblers, and other
human predators, professional and amateur, have been
part of human history for millenia, and, with few
exceptions, no human predator can cop a true plea of
ignorance or accident.

For those that still fail to get the message, we, and 
future generations, reap what we sow, and it takes no 
crystal ball, or messenger from anyone's god, for any 
healthy individual to understand that the product of 
one individual's labor does not sanction an arbitrary 
claim to it by another, during the life of or prior to
the victim's birth. Theft by gun or words or numbers,
today or tomorrow, enslaves in different ways. As long
as societies sanction theft by the powers of their
leaders, enforced by police, military, and the courts,
slavery will be more pervasive today and tomorrow,
than it ever was.


In the U.S.A., you get what you choose, at the polls.
When you choose an incompetent, deceiver, or thief, or
someone that supports, incompetence, theft, or deceit,
you choose a slaver against whom you are virtually
helpless, because you choose to sanction their
behaviour with your ballot. Too often, the power of
thieves and deceivers to enslave, injure, or destroy
their victims, comes with the explicit or implicit
approval of the victim, ignorant or not. A successful
con artist always seeks the approval of a victim,
before slicing and dicing, because there is power
derived from the victim's complicit guilt, used to
control the victim's behaviour.

Who will argue, with integrity and significant
complicit guilt, against that which they asked for, or
approved, or were forced to participate in? I have met
little more than a handful of individuals in my life
who acknowledged evil and refused to approve it or
remain silent, in spite of their faults, failures, or
complicit guilt for a myriad reasons.

The vocal or silent sanction of their victims, based
upon complicit guilt, empowers and preserves
confidence artists around the world, including those
practicing in Manistique and Schoolcraft County.


The meaning of the following old saws never made
any logical sense to me, as a child. Today, I
understand why they are so important to the survival
of victimizers of all types:

"Let him without sin cast the first stone"
"Judge not, that ye be not judged."
"The pot has no right to call the kettle black."
"Those in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks."
Regardless of their original context, these, and
similar homilies, are used by many to coerce
a victim's approval of a predator's behaviour based
upon the false premise that a victim deserves to be
victimized due to their de facto guilt, and
subsequent shame for being human, therefore imperfect,
because they participated in some form of victimizing
behavior at some time in their life.

The similar old maxim "See no evil. Hear no evil.
Speak no evil." is commonly used to describe someone
who chooses to ignore the unethical or immoral
quality of that which they know of, or are involved
with. The consequences of sanctioning evil, by
default silence, gives license to those that practice
evil in the name of the public or private "good", for
which the individual victims pay with their lives in
various ways, from an unnoticed piece at a time; to
an instant bloody mess.

Edmund Burke once penned, "The only thing necessary 
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
My observations, throughout my life, have confirmed
to me that most good folk say or do nothing, regardless
of what the Marine Corps would have you believe. Those
same observations led me to the conclusion that most
victims choose to be helpless against the perpetrators
of the "long con", in which leaders of political
parties, the armed forces, corporate entities, and
religion, excel.

It is understandable, and expected by con artists, that
most individuals find it more necessary, or desirable,
to concentrate on the immediate necessities of some
form of a productive life, rather than trying to
understand the human nature that motivates others.
Consequently, they are easy pickings for those that
specialize in various forms of fraud and theft. Living
a life as a productive member of society marks the
person as a target for all forms of theft sanctioned by
the silence of a majority of past and present victims,
and their victimizers.


Why is there irrational guilt and shame that silences
and paralyzes most "good men", victimized or not? Ask
your local witch doctor, theologist, or any other
confidence professional that subscribes to any form of
the mystical mantra, "It's the will of God.", including
the variation of, "It's the will of Darwin and Wallace." 


So what about fleas? Insect or human, as parasites
living on the life blood of the host, they annoy, maim,
or kill, depending on the general health of the host,
regardless of whether the host realizes it is
another creature's meal, as a volunteer for the main
course. As Ol' Man Christiansen said, "The big fleas
eat the little fleas, and the little fleas eat the
smaller fleas."

Regardless of Swift's poetic license, human's are not
the equivalent of choiceless and brainless fleas. With
relatively few exceptions, in this country, an
individual chooses to be, or not to be, a flea.


For those that might care for Hollywood art as a
mirror of the seamy profession of business and
government confidence games, from petty crooks to the
President of the U.S.A., I suggest watching, and
thinking about, the following five movies. "The
Grifters", David Mamet's "House of Cards" and "The
Spanish Prisoner", "Wall Street", and "All the
President's Men".



03/28/09

Early yesterday afternoon, while waiting for my wife to 
purchase a few items at a local grocery store, I 
received my weekly inoculation against rightwingitis 
by listening to less than five minutes of a vitriol 
spewing "Neal Boortz Show" on Manistique's right wing 
propaganda radio station, WPIQ. The commentator 
labelled President Obama as a Marxist who was 
responsible for the current economic mess and who's 
spending policies, (that President Bush initiated), 
were leading the nation to inevitable destruction.

(Note - 05/06/09  Today I received another inoculation
against rightwingitis, under the same circumstances
as above. This time I noted the name of the show,
"The Neal Boortz Show". When I got home, I viewed the
web site for the show, and found that "Boortz"'s
demagoguery claims to represent Libertarian values!
Whether it does, or not, my general sympathy for the
Libertarian point of view has taken a serious hit.)

Today, after a restless night that I attribute to Ol' 
Geezer pains, and dream voices considering the merits 
of, and goals, of the rhetoric I heard yesterday, I am 
prompted to articulate a related perspective regarding 
cause and effect relationships concerning the 
"necessity" of an expensive upgrade of Manistique's 
drinking water treatment facility, and the "necessity" 
of the federal government to print worthless currency 
to purchase worthless "toxic" investment assets.

The purchase of worthless assets, with no serious 
attempt to hold accountable those individuals whose 
predatory decisions created them, rewards the failures 
of those with the lawful, fiduciary, ethical, and moral 
responsibility to nurture the products of others' 
lives. The Manistique city government's and 
administration's decision to force Manistique residents 
to purchase a water plant upgrade, with almost no due 
process, and with no serious consideration of that 
which caused the necessity of the upgrade, or the 
lawful responsibilities of those related to the cause, 
rewards the failures of those with the lawful, 
fiduciary, ethical, and moral responsibility to nurture 
the products of others' lives.

Regarding the rhetoric of right wing demagogues, used 
to incite the emotions of ignorant "rednecks", north 
and south of the Mason-Dixon line, I remember that 
Marxist leaders, with Marxist enforcers, took care of 
the business of Marxist justice, with the least cost to 
the proletariat, by appropriating the assets of, and a 
single bullet to the back of the head of those 
"predatory capitalist pigs", Left or Right, that preyed 
upon the ignorant working class; or libeled and slandered
state leaders. A right wing demagogue might rate a
public execution by firing squad, assuming the state
was willing to waste a few more cartridges to emphasize
a public message.

With the recorded historical perspective that I choose
to consider, I fail to see the invisible Marxist garb
that too many "conservatives" claim is Obama's raiment.

From my perspective, a society that promoted objective 
and ruthless civilized justice, to punish those that 
prey upon others, and discourage such behavior by those 
considering predation, would reduce to a relatively 
insignificant level that which ails most "civilized" 
societies. Given the infinite manifestations of the 
predator-forager nature of the human species, and the 
current political climate, it is unlikely there will 
ever be sufficient motivation, or support for, any
serious attempt to curb that which rewards so many,
with so much, with so little risk of equitable
punishment.

The atavists' guarded natural right to victimize the
ignorant, weak, or stupid, formed the basis for much
of the dynamic history of this country, and still does. 

No doubt, if and when most folk realize they are little 
more than the means to the ends of others, and the 
quality of life, for most, has been reduced to little 
more than feudal existence, then it is possible that 
cracking the skulls of professional predators and
incompetents will become a little more acceptable,
assuming that the means to crack skulls are still
available.


I watched, with genuine disgust, a major network
morning news program, a few days ago, during which
a male and female "reporter" expressed their revulsion
of those responsible for expressing violent hatred
towards those AIG insurance executives, (and their
families) that took public tax "bailout" money as
bonuses for their failures to manage, in a candid and
ethical manner, the investments of other people's
lives!

It was as if the "talking heads" were considering the
threatened violence in a vacuum of context. The
editorializing "reporters'" showed no recognition of
the equivalent of AIG enslaving unknown thousands, if
not millions of lives, by taking the products of those
lives by means of fraud or incompetence. The
"reporters" never considered the possibility that
there might be sufficient reasons, to the victims and
their supporters, for justly deserved violent
retribution as an alternative to rewarding the
victimizers with "tax paid bonuses" that represented
the equivalent remnants of the victimized investors'
lives.

As I learned, early in life, if dire consequences are
insufficient, or unlikely, no one changes uncivilized
or undesirable behavior they perceive, for whatever
reason, real or imaginary, to be to their best interest.
Even inevitable prison, pain, maiming, or death, does
not deter those bent upon the destruction of others,
or themselves.

Rewarding predators, supporting predators, or forgiving
predators, in a civilized society, does nothing but
foster predation. Rewarding incompetents, supporting
incompetents, or forgiving incompetents, in a civilized
society, does nothing but foster incompetence. To the
victims of predatory behavior, the pain and cost is the
same, regardless of the reasons, be the predation
deliberate or the consequence of incompetence, or
ignorance, or stupidity, or any other reason
consequential to the conscious choices of others.

During the course of a conversation, recently, someone
recited the following to me, "Lord grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the
difference." Then they asked why I am so confrontational,
and a glutton for punishment, when all I had to do was
zip my lip.

My answer was, "The quote is the mantra of every coward
who chooses to let predators rule, by default." Normally,
I respond to similar inquiries with, "I am not inclined
to let the bastards win by default."
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Peter C. Markham - pmarkham@manistique.org