MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 4

Illustration by Edel Rodriguez

In this series we have been discussing mass suicide - mass murder pacts, indicating that some of those who go along for the ride do not substantially comprehend what is really happening.

In individuals this unawareness can exist as a result of a mental impairment, naiveté, or a strong follow-the-crowd personality.

In meme complexes, such as political groups, churches, international corporations, or nations, it is more of a function of the institutionalization of dysfunctional ideology.

In the post today, we are going to focus on the institutionalization of the dysfunctional ideology associated with the addiction to oil:

But what all these climate numbers make painfully, usefully clear is that the planet does indeed have an enemy – one far more committed to action than governments or individuals. Given this hard math, we need to view the fossil-fuel industry in a new light. It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. It is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization. "Lots of companies do rotten things in the course of their business – pay terrible wages, make people work in sweatshops – and we pressure them to change those practices," says veteran anti-corporate leader Naomi Klein, who is at work on a book about the climate crisis. "But these numbers make clear that with the fossil-fuel industry, wrecking the planet is their business model. It's what they do."

(Global Warming's Terrifying New Math, emphasis added). The subtitle of that piece is "Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is".

The Jim Jones of the ecocidal / suicidal pact, which this series has been exposing, is hidden in plain sight (see MOMCOM's Mass Suicide  Murder Pact).

Further, Dredd Blog has advocated an approach that considers the oil industry to be sociopathic or psychopathic, as one other industry has been, and has therefore called for a remedy for businesses diagnosed by professionals as having dangerous mental impairment (see When You Are Governed By Psychopaths).

Yes, one key enemy of the MOMCOM trinity is the "O" in MOMCOM, the oil industry, which has been called The Private Empire by some researchers. 

The following video discusses, among other things, oil addiction in both a social sense and also in the sense of the oil industry business model being an addiction.

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Here is a time index of the video below, as well as a partial transcript of relevant comments:

07:25 - "addictions are usually considered to be a drug related issue, but looking at it more broadly, I find that addiction is any behavior that is associated with craving for temporary relief and with long term negative consequences along with an impairment of control over it so that the person wishes to give it up or promises to, but can't follow through" (Dr. Maté).

08:10 - "The addiction to oil ... at least to the wealth and to the products made accessible to us by oil ... look at the negative consequences on the environment we are destroying the very Earth that we inhabit for the sake of that addiction. Now these addictions are far more devastating in the social consequences than the cocaine or heroin habits of my ... patients. Yet they are rewarded and considered to be respectable. The tobacco company executive that shows a higher profit will get a much bigger reward ... doesn't face any negative consequences legally or otherwise ... in fact is a respected member of the board of several other corporations ... but tobacco smoke related diseases kill 5.5 million people around the world every year. In the United States they kill 400,000 people a year" (Dr. Maté).

09:05 - "And these people are addicted to what? To profit, to such a degree are they addicted that they are actually in denial about the impact of their activities, which is typical for addicts, is denial. And that is the respectable one. It is respectable to be addicted to profit no matter what the cost. So what is acceptable and what is respectable is a highly arbitrary phenomenon in our society. And it seems like the greater the harm the more respectable the addiction" (Dr. Maté).

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A final thought.

For the fossil fuel industry and the climate change deniers, the climate is "in the genes of the Earth", and humanity can do nothing to change that.

That is the denial of sociopaths or psychopaths.

Martha Stout, in her book The Sociopath Next Door, indicates:

That really seems to be the gist of sociopathy... the total lack of remorse or regard for other people. The DSM-IV criteria -- the gold standard for diagnosing mental disorders -- Dr. Stout says, lists seven characteristics: failure to conform to social norms, being deceitful and manipulating, being impulsive, being irritable or aggressive, being unconcerned about the safety of the self or anybody else, being consistently irresponsible, and being unconcerned and unremorseful for hurting or stealing. To be a sociopath, you need to have at least three of the symptoms (and not just because you're in a bad mood. If you're not a sociopath, you'll probably regret it later).

(Bookslut). The oil barons are sociopaths at best, but more than likely they are clinical psychopaths.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Colorado Tragedy

Our hearts go out to those in Colorado who suffered in yet another senseless mass murder in an Aurora movie theatre last night.

Likewise our thoughts go out to all those around the nation who have been harmed directly or indirectly by a fellow human who somehow lost touch with humane sentiments, and for some mysterious reason chose to kill innocent people.

Perhaps some day we will develop better techniques with which to identify and treat such storms within the human psyche.

The Future Isn't What It Used To Be - 2

Keep an eye on the future

On this date in 2009 Dredd Blog addressed the attitude of the U.S.eh? with regard to space travel.

Since then, the House of Representatives has become composed mostly of republicans.

The t-party members are in large part anti-science, even being substantially composed of global warming deniers, who think that global warming is the greatest hoax ever fostered on the American public (see Has The Navy Fallen For The Greatest Hoax?).

So they have squeezed money out of space travel missions, even as the greatest imperialist military in history wants to grow larger, and is growing larger.

Meanwhile, a Mars mission (funded prior to the republican take over) to place a car-sized super rover on the surface nears the landing date of August 5, late at night.

Anyway, here is the text from that 2009 post just to remind us that some things in our national policies are lagging behind:

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Can the emotional and visionary health of a nation be discerned by its attitude toward the universal space beyond the earth?

One article scratching the surface stated:

Today, the reasons for Americans to pay attention to the ground, rather than the heavens, can be rattled off like a parody of a Billy Joel song. Terrorists. Global warming. Swine flu. Economic collapse. Nukes in North Korea and mass shootings in the heartland.

(Ted Anthony). This seems to advance a notion that the United States on the whole pays attention to one or the other, but not to both.

The tenets of the secular side of Ecocosmology point out that the attitude a species has about space and space travel will determine its survival, because all species must pass or fail "The Test".

It could very well be, then, that the United States will not be the future main player in the search for a new home world for the human race.

That may be good for the future of the human species, because the United States Military does not see peace when it looks into space, and thus there is yet another fundamental struggle for another U.S. President.

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The Graphs of Wrath - 4

In the first post of this series about two years ago Dredd Blog began to notice graphs which tracked the increase of wealth of the 1%.

Regular readers know that we discussed how the increase in military spending closely matched the increase of wealth of the 1%.

In the second post of this series we quoted various economists who indicated that ongoing serious impairment of the economy.

Included were warnings that cities would begin to go bankrupt if the imperialism did not subside, and in fact more and more cities are filing bankruptcy as the policy continues to take a toll.

In the third post of this series we displayed a graph which shows that the income of the 99% has been decreasing as the wealth of the 1% increases.

In a parallel series about plutonomy in a plutocracy, we pointed out the stark reality of what has happened:

Let's revisit some numbers before we get into the dynamics of how this plunder of America has taken place:

Upon closer inspection, the Forbes list reveals that six Waltons — all children (one daughter-in-law) of Sam or James “Bud” Walton the founders of Wal-Mart — were on the list. The combined worth of the Walton six was $69.7 billion in 2007 — which equated to the total wealth of the entire bottom thirty percent!

(The Few, the Proud, the Very Rich). This "30% of Americans" equates to about 100,000,000 American people, who have collectively as much "wealth" as those 6 Wal-Mart children.

(The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy - 3). This trend has been continuing at a rapid pace:

The six heirs to the Walmart fortune are worth as much as nearly half of all American households.

(Huffinton Post). One would expect, then, that imperialistic military adventurism of the type that bankrupted the Roman Empire, would have also continued:

Despite the rhetoric of consolidation and closure that went with this plan, in the post-9/11 era the Pentagon has actually been expanding its base infrastructure dramatically, including dozens of major bases in every Persian Gulf country save Iran, and in several Central Asian countries critical to the war in Afghanistan.

(The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 7). Military imperialism and its bankrupting runaway military spending continues unabated.

The nation continues in the W direction, the wrong direction, down the ill fated Highway 61.

The City Limits of Their-Topia - 3

In the first post of this series Dredd Blog we mentioned the then upcoming official gathering at the White House to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to various recipients, including Bob Dylan.

That event took place a while back, which we posted about here.

Regular readers know that we post now and again information concerning how Their-Topia perceives Dylan's work (e.g. Bob Dylan Sings In "China", Bob Dylan's New "Non-Mystical" Album, War Is The Highway 61 of the 1%, Blind Willie McTell News, or Happy Birthday Bob Dylan).

Now we join the crowd to mention the new album Dylan is releasing on September 11, 2012, entitled "Tempest", containing these songs:

Duquesne Whistle
Soon After Midnight
Narrow Way
Long and Wasted Years
Pay In Blood
Scarlet Town
Early Roman Kings
Tin Angel
Tempest
Roll On John
(Official Announcement). All of these listed songs are said to be new and original works by Dylan.

Enjoy.

The previous post in this series is here.

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The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 7

"I wanna hold your hand"

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has posted various pieces over the years concerning the various aspects of the dark cloud of oil, along with its addiction that has been forced upon the people of the world, the people who make up current civilization.

Currently, oil wars have been going on for some seventy+ years --addressed later in this post.

Oil wars that bring death and destruction directly to weak nations who have oil under them, "making them evil" and therefore in need of rescue so as to bring them "democracy":

Yet Washington still easily maintains the largest collection of foreign bases in world history: more than 1,000 military installations outside the 50 states and Washington, DC. They include everything from decades-old bases in Germany and Japan to brand-new drone bases in Ethiopia and the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean and even resorts for military vacationers in Italy and South Korea.

In Afghanistan, the U.S.-led international force still occupies more than 450 bases. In total, the U.S. military has some form of troop presence in approximately 150 foreign countries, not to mention 11 aircraft carrier task forces -- essentially floating bases -- and a significant, and growing, military presence in space. The United States currently spends an estimated $250 billion annually maintaining bases and troops overseas.
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However, in the early months of 2001, even before the attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a major global realignment of bases and troops that’s continuing today with Obama’s “Asia pivot.” Bush’s original plan was to close more than one-third of the nation’s overseas bases and shift troops east and south, closer to predicted conflict zones in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The Pentagon began to focus on creating smaller and more flexible “forward operating bases” and even smaller “cooperative security locations” or “lily pads.” Major troop concentrations were to be restricted to a reduced number of “main operating bases” (MOBs) -- like Ramstein, Guam in the Pacific, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean -- which were to be expanded.

Despite the rhetoric of consolidation and closure that went with this plan, in the post-9/11 era the Pentagon has actually been expanding its base infrastructure dramatically, including dozens of major bases in every Persian Gulf country save Iran, and in several Central Asian countries critical to the war in Afghanistan.

(The Lily-Pad Strategy). This should clue most readers in to the reality that the attack on the poor and middle class U.S. citizens is an attack under a guise of propaganda using words such as "entitlements" (Your Health Care Is Their Number One Enemy?).

The reality, however, is that the oil war schedule is reaching its peak soon because the largest oil grab in history is under way.

Then the booty of the oil wars, the poisonous booty with which oil-civilization makes extinct some 200 species of life per day, some 73,000 species per year, is being used to enrich the 1%, as it poisons the source of life of the 99%.

One of the Dredd Blog series deals with the prospect of addicting society to a finite (non-renewable) substance, and the consequential health impact of that policy on billions of people (see The Peak of Health and The Peak of Oil).

Recent events in Iraq (see Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer?) bring up long-held concerns:

Are you in good hands with Oil State?

Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP -- the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and Other smaller oil companies -- to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalization during the years when the oil producers [Iraqis] took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than forty other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia.

"There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract," Andrew E. Kramer wrote in the New York Times.

(Making The Future, by Noam Chomsky, 2010, p.87). To understand the meaning of  "long term" in this context, take the statement made in a 1944 book for one clarifying example:

The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells.

(Bully Worship: The Universal Religion, quoting 1944 book). A policy that goes back to 1944, almost seven decades, is a long-term policy, a policy older than most national policies still in effect today.

Oil addiction and destruction cannot be separated, whether it concerns the destruction of nations or the destruction of the Earth's ecosystem itself:

IT’S past time to tell the truth about the state of the world’s coral reefs, the nurseries of tropical coastal fish stocks. They have become zombie ecosystems, neither dead nor truly alive in any functional sense, and on a trajectory to collapse within a human generation. There will be remnants here and there, but the global coral reef ecosystem — with its storehouse of biodiversity and fisheries supporting millions of the world’s poor — will cease to be.

(A World Without Coral Reefs). National laws are generally ineffective against these mass murderers because those oil criminals have created a Private Empire that circumvents the regulatory reality that can guide sane ecological policy.

Powerful forces are keeping oil policy virtually the same from one U.S. administration to the next.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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