*An Opinion Piece*
In the 19th century Karl Marx came up with the term “capitalist” to describe a nation in which the most power is in the hands of those with the most capital (a.k.a money), and that is surely what America has become. One major issue with capitalism is that it is fueled by pure desire, and extra smart capitalists have figured out pretty clever ways to engineer our desires through advertising, advertising which is mostly regulated by other capitalists only seeking to turn a profit. This has manifested itself through streams of random penetrating advertisements on your television, and even worse through clever marketing algorithms used by companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. Trust me, it is no coincidence that you have started receiving more spam mail since creating social networking accounts, nor is it a coincidence that you googled “puppy” last night and this morning saw nothing but “puppy shampoo” ad’s alongside your Google searches. Edward Bernay taught advertisers how to use Freudian psychology to mold the minds of consumers in the late 20’s and it has held strong ever since. Bernay is quoted as saying “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” This rise of propaganda has engineered our country into a new breed of humans known by most simply as consumers. As consumers, we must constantly consume to keep the system going; this is essentially how capitalism works, through an endless cycle of spending. When you aren’t spending you should of course be working, that way you will have more to spend later. As a matter of fact, most of us work at consumer hangouts like Starbucks, Walmart, Jcpenney, Applebees, Mcdonalds, etc. and are often given incentives to spend more money at said place, such as a discount. By doing this an organization can ensure that a portion of the money they give you will end up safely back in their own pockets, that way they can pay you again of course! In short, as long as capitalism flourishes, we will continue to live mainly as consumers, but you can however think for yourself within this system. The next time you see an advertisement and think to yourself “I want that”, ask yourself if you would have wanted it if not for the way the advertisement made you feel. Was there something in the Ad that made you feel like not having the new shoes would leave you feeling left out, or make you less cool? If this is the case, maybe the decision is worth reconsidering. And remember kids, to pledge allegiance to our country is to pledge allegiance to brands! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ut93YYZu8 Read more @ www.realmoneymechanics.weebly.com Visit www.bonfireofthebrands.com for more information on consumerism. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays Propaganda (1928) bonfreofthebrands.com *An Opinion Piece*
If you happened to turn 300 in the past ten years you might feel a certain sense of déjà vu when you look around you. You would watch a planet crippled by bankers who regulated inflation/deflation cycles as they see fit, and who loan out fiat currencies to the people’s governments with attached interest. It would be hard to witness a planet full of people so supremely dependent on money, yet so completely ignorant of where it is coming from or who is profiting the most from it, and not wonder to yourself “Have these people forgotten King George III, the founding fathers, Andrew Jackson, previous central banks, and history all together?” The phrase “history repeats itself” would prove to be true right in front of your very eyes as you, along with the rest of us, toil away at work to be rewarded with menial amounts of debt currency. As you look at your paycheck and count down from $400.00 to $100.00 after subtracting your bills and rent, then again down to $60.00 after subtracting your groceries, and again to $20.00 after you subtract gas money, you would look back on the fall of the previous money monopoly and wonder what happened. King George III’s Currency Act of 1751 forced the colonies of New England to stop paying off merchant debts with a currency of their own creation, and the following Act of 1764 restricted them from paying taxes and other public debts as well. The fiat currency the colonists were using began to harm merchants who were forced to accept their depreciated currency for private debts, but since their supply of gold and silver was in short supply there was no other way to pay off military debts for the French and Indian War. Ben Franklin is quoted as saying “The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, was probably the prime cause of the revolution”. This revolution of course spawned the nation we live in today, but we have to ask ourselves what went wrong after this revolution? During James Madison’s tenure the Second Bank Act of the United States was authorized for a full 20 year period. Andrew Jackson’s entire political platform revolved around ending this bank and is quoted at one point saying to the bankers “You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!” After ridding the nation of this central bank Jackson completely paid of the national debt in 1835 (although it was short lived, it is the only time that can be said since then). Meanwhile the industrial revolution was roaring along, these amazing industrial inventions of course mostly being used for monetary gain (more on this in part II). The federal reserve act was of course signed into existence in 1913 ringing in the era of the current central bank, a major proponent of what has went wrong after the revolution as it once again allowed a small group of people to control the nation’s money (exactly what people like Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Andrew Jackson were afraid of). Since the Federal Reserve act, we have been forced to submit to a new tax, a tax on our very income. We have also been put through a great depression which has been shown to have been caused by the Fed, and our currency has been devalued by a whopping 96%. Man will always hold their own best interest at heart, and currency has given us a great way to do that. If currency is to be used at all there must be strict regulations in place on how exactly it is created, and we must have a multi branch system that uses both citizen based and government based discretion when printing and distributing said currency. The Federal Reserve isn’t the only problem with today’s economic system though, tune in for part 2 as we peer into American consumerism and it's effects not on the economic system itself, but on the decisions of those within it. Part II (Bernay’s Brainwashing Machine) to be posted tomorrow! More at www.realmoneymechanics.weebly.com Sources: http://books.google.com/books?id=cYQVuQca7K4C&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=king+george+iii+interest+free+currency&source=bl&ots=PEYEPoHTCl&sig=TsfjbQUzg7NStz9XNbVvdNyO21I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=z5iAU9SmMMmcyATvkYLYAQ&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=king%20george%20iii%20interest%20free%20currency&f=false http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_capitalism Sound the Alarm
*An opinion piece* One look at the trend the US dollar is taking is enough to make you question why exactly we still use it. As many of the world's largest economies push to rid the dollar of it reserve currency status, I would like to consider three questions on the topic for this article. Is currency something that only the government is allowed to create and regulate? Is it a necessity to our living on this planet? What is currency really? Is it merely a game we have created that everyone agrees to play by? Bitcoin has defeated the idea that only government or government appointed agencies can create money, and is worth a staggering $496.13 as i type this article. Its creator is still a mystery, but one thing that we know is that it wasn't created by one of the Worlds governments. Bitcoin is obviously far too volatile to use as a backup currency, but it does raise the question, why is it worth so much more than any other currency, and why is it worth anything at all? The answer is quite simple, we, together, as a planet, agree that bitcoin is a currency. There are many of us here on this planet that want to own bitcoin, but there aren't hundreds of billions of them in existence, because of the large amount of faith in the currency compared to the amount that exists, it is worth a large sum of money. Do we need currency? Hunter gatherer societies thrived without currency, and merely traded for what they wanted or needed, but in a world as big as the one we have today it is hard to say that a system like that would work without a form of currency to boost trading incentives. Imagine for a second that you supply coconuts, and you want some chickens from a neighboring farmer who happens to have no interest in coconut. This means he will either have to suck it up and take the coconut (which isn't likely to happen) or you will have to trade for something he does like and then trade this new item for the chicken, where as both of you could probably agree on trading a currency, that others will also want, for the chicken. So is currency merely a game that we all agree to play by? Yes, it definitely is, and that isn't necessarily wrong but let me ask you this; If you and i were to play a game of Monopoly but i started out with 90% of all of the resources in the game, how much fun would it be for the rest of the players? That is what we are dealing with in the US, a game of Monopoly we all agree to play together, in which there are multiple bankers who get ridiculous handicaps. This could of course be compared to a game of Monopoly in which we all shared the role of banker, and no players were given any handicaps. Much more fun, eh? All that currency is, at the end of the day, is an incentive. That is why we use currency, to provide incentives for people to do what we want for each other; or to put it on a broad scale, it is how governments and banks provide incentive for us to do what they want. What i am here to say is that it does not have to be that way. On November 27, 1989 a two hour general strike was held by all members of Czechoslovakia which prompted the entire top leadership of the Communist rule to resign. This is the power we hold in numbers, America. If we as a country, and when i say as a country i mean all or at least most of us, protest the continued use of the US dollar, and simultaneously use a currency of our own creation amongst each other, you would be amazed what we could accomplish. This does of course mean that all farmers and small business owners have to be on board, it wouldn't be easy but it would be achievable. In closing i will say only this; we stand at the brink of an awakening, more and more people are beginning to question what is going on around them, but we are still only at the brink. This is our role, those of us that see already what is going on, our mission is to continue to educate those around us no matter how they choose to accept or deny the news. Our mission is to not feel disheartened by what we are saying because it makes people sad. Our mission is to understand that people must be forced to look outside of their current ideological state, and that what they see will be hard for them to take in. Our mission is education. Education really is the first step to revolution, but sometimes that same education may hurt those around us, but i am here to tell you IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Props to those of you already strong in the info war: Apathy Apocalypse Awaken the mind. Global Awakening Occupy the Federal Reserve Americans Against the Republican and Democratic Parties The War On Ignorance and many many more!! (for some reason i couldn't tag a few of you) |