Thursday, June 08, 2023

 

What I hope our children will reject from our past

 Just to remind all you good searchers ( cf the 'found and the confounded at the ABC )that our hope should never be in the press ( sorry Sky News Australia )and those who wannabe famous for telling us things , but on those who study things to show themselves fully able to weigh up real life tensions.

Its now nearly 15 years since our very own professor Ian Plimer told us why we should not worry about C02 . Time to listen to him again Some of the key reasons for not worrying are the known determinism between C02 and photosynthesis, demonstrated in the curves of content in gelogical history and the known quick freeze scenario if incoming radiation didn't hit the earth daily .Explore more with Ian in his 500 page outline, full of citations and relevant and accepted science on this complex business. Why educated people respect the press more than those whose study has shown them " approved " beats me , When you come from the bush ( et al Nazareth ) , it seems, the system thinks you know nothing. This blog , and it seems Sky News Melbourne exists to show otherwise. There are a lot of challlenges our children will face ( eg Higher costs of energy ,debt from diversion by my generation into old and ineffective technologies , very few fossil fuels, dumb debt to allay false fear ) but my generations unwise worrying about what damage our CO2 production will do is not one of them . Our children will at least have enough sense to burn alkanes made from algae and keep growing things on this parched Savannah for the rest of the world to eat . Let's hope they do it with some sense of justice for all in their use of the commonwealth of earth's resources. Most serious of all for our children , is that , unless my or their generation insist on properly training the young to do the integration of the physics , chemistry , physiology ,engineering, geology, fluid and radiation science on the ground , our children won't realize for some time yet that MY generation have been misled into the wasted space of fear guilt and misanthropy by those who virtually know nothing. ( but the power of the media ) Our dear children, friends and ground truthers here on the land could be doing much more rewarding and interesting stuff right now , by working more closely with the resilient earth than they are now. Be very careful how you vote young people and once you have studied the risks, take them, wisely, as nature does . http://designwithnature.blogspot.com

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Tuesday, June 06, 2023

 

Nothing urkes me more about my generation than their simple faith in one vote one value -----it means the city knows best

 Its simplicity suits politicians and it suits the city and Labor but its neither right or the only way to run elections . Its taken a foreigner to remind Australians and Greenlabor that ITS WRONG 
more from AC GRAYLIN G later 

here is some earlier stuff  Clearly Grayling and those smarting at Trumps survival have finally realized _their beloved system is not working. 

Tied up like the Bull in a rope of their own making 


Wealth and Want


... because democracy, alone, is not enough to produce widely shared prosperity.

Near the window by which I write, a great bull is tethered by a ring in his nose.

Grazing round and round, he has wound the rope about the stake until he stands a

close prisoner, tantalised by rich grass he cannot reach, unable even to toss his head

to rid him of the flies that cluster on his shoulders.

This bull, a very type of massive strength, who, because he has not wit enough to see

how he might be free, suffers want in sight of plenty, and is helplessly preyed upon by

weaker creatures, seems to me no unfit emblem of the working masses.

But until they trace effect to cause, until they see how they are fettered and how they

may be freed, their struggles and outcries are as vain as the bull. Nay; they are

vainer. I shall go out and drive the bull in the way that will untwist this rope. But who

shall drive men into freedom?


- Henry George: Introduction to Protection or Free Trade (1888)


PROLETARIANISM v. SLAVERY


[By A. J. O.]


(This is perhaps one of the greatest essays ever written!)

[It is suspected that the author is Mark Twain]


THE SLAVER


Suppose I am the owner of an estate and 100 slaves, all the land about being held in

the same way by people of the same class as myself. It is a profitable business, but

there are many expenses and annoyances attached to it. I must keep up my supply of

slaves either by buying or breeding them. I must pay an overseer to keep them

continually to their work with a lash. I must keep them in a state of brutish ignorance

(to the detriment of their efficiency), for fear they should learn their rights and their

power, and become dangerous. I must tend them in sickness and when past work. And


the slaves have all the vices and defects that slavery engenders — they have no self-

respect or moral sense; they lie; they steal; they are lazy, shirking work whenever they


dare; they do not care what mischief their carelessness occasions me so long as it is

not found out; their labor is obtained by force, and given grudgingly; they have no

heart in it. All these things worry me.


FLASH! ....


Suddenly a brilliant idea strikes me. I reflect that there is no unoccupied land in the

neighbourhood, so that if my laborers were free they would still have to look to me

for work somehow. So one day I announce to them that they are all free, intimating at

the same time I will be ready to employ as many as I may require on such terms as we

may mutually and independently agree. What could be fairer? They are overjoyed,


and falling on their knees, bless me as their benefactor. Then they go away and have a

jollification, and next day come back to me to arrange the new terms.


THEY BELIEVE ...


Most of them think they would like to have a piece of land and work it for themselves,

and be their own masters. All they want is a few tools they have been accustomed to

use, and some seed, and these they are ready to buy from me, undertaking to pay me

with reasonable interest when the first crop comes in, offering the crop as security. As

for their keep, they can easily earn that by working a few weeks on and off on any of

the plantations, or by taking a job clearing or fencing, or such like. This will keep

them going for the first year, and after that they will be better able to take care of

themselves.


HOLD ON, NOW!


“But,” softly I observe, “you are going too fast. Your proposals about the tools and

seed and your maintenance are all right enough, but the land, you remember, belongs

to me. You cannot expect me to give you your liberty and my own land for nothing.

That would not be reasonable, would it?” They agree it would not, and begin to

propose terms. A fancies this bit of land, and B that. But it soon appears that I want

this bit of land for my next year’s clearing, and that for my cows, and another is too

close to my house and would interfere with my privacy, and another is thick forest or

swamps, and would require too long and costly preparation for me who must have

quick returns in order to live, and in short that there is no land suitable that I care to

part with.


THE BENEFACTOR


Still I am ready to do what I promised — “to employ as many as I may require, on

such terms as we may mutually and independently agree.” But as I have now got to

pay them wages instead of getting their work for nothing, I cannot, of course, employ

all of them. I can find work for ninety of them, however, and with these I am prepared

to discuss terms.

At once a number volunteered their services at such wages as their imagination had

been picturing to them. I tell the ninety whose demands are most reasonable to stand

on one side. The remaining ten look blank, and seeing that since I won’t let them have

any of the land, it is a question of hired employment or starvation, they offer to come

for a little less than the others. I tell these now to stand aside, and ten others to stand

out instead. These look blank now, and offer to work for less still, and so the “mutual

and voluntary” settlement of terms proceeds.

But, meanwhile, I have been making a little calculation in my head, and have

reckoned up what the cost of keeping a slave, with his food and clothes, and a trifle

over to keep him contented, would come to, and I offer that. They won’t hear of it, but

as I know they can’t help themselves, I say nothing, and presently first one and then

another gives in, till I have got my ninety, and still there are ten left out, and very

blank indeed they look. Whereupon, the terms being settled, I graciously announce

that though I don’t really want any more men, still I am willing, in my benevolence,


to take the ten, too, on the same terms, which they promptly accept, and again hail me

as their benefactor, only not quite so rapturously as before.

WAGE SLAVES? ...


So they all set to at the old work at the old place, and on the old terms, only a little

differently administered; that is, that whereas I formerly supplied them with food,

clothes, etc., direct from my stores, I now give them a weekly wage representing the

value of those articles, which they will henceforth have to buy for themselves.

There is a difference, too, in some other respects, indicating a moral improvement in

our relations. I can no longer curse and flog them. But then I don’t want to; it’s no

longer necessary; the threat of dismissal is quite as effective, even more so, and much

pleasanter for me.

I can no longer separate husband from wife, parent from child. But then again, I don’t

want to. There would be no profit in it; leaving them their wives and children has the

double advantage of making them more contented with their lot, and giving me

greater power over them, for they have now got to keep these wives and children out

of their own earnings.

My men are now as eager as ever to come to me to work as they formerly were to run

away from work. I have neither to buy or breed them; and if any suddenly leave me,

instead of letting loose the bloodhounds, I have merely to hold up a finger or

advertise, and I have plenty of others offering to take their place. I am saved the

expense and worry of incessant watching and driving. I have no sick to attend, or

worn-out pensioners to maintain. If a man falls ill there is nothing but my good nature

to prevent my turning him off at once; the whole affair is a purely commercial


transaction — so much wages for so much work. The patriarchal relation of slave-

owner and slave is gone, and no other has taken its place. When the man is worn out


with long service I can turn him out with a clear business conscience, knowing that

the State will see that he does not starve.

Instead of being forced to keep my men in brutish ignorance, I find public schools

established at other people’s expense to stimulate their intelligence and improve their

minds, to my great advantage, and their children compelled to attend these schools.

The service I get, too, being now voluntarily rendered (or apparently so) is much

improved in quality. In short, the arrangement pays me better in many ways.

REJOICE! I AM CAPITAL AND I EMPLOY PEOPLE!

But I gain in other ways besides pecuniary benefit. I have lost the stigma of being a

slave driver, and have acquired instead the character of a man of energy and

enterprise, of justice and benevolence. I am a “large employer of labour,” to whom

the whole country, and the labourer especially, is greatly indebted, and people say,

“See the power of capital! These poor labourers, having no capital, could not use the

land if they had it, so this great and far-seeing man wisely refuses to let them have it,

and keeps it all for himself, but by providing them with employment his capital saves

them from pauperism, and enables him to build up the wealth of the country, and his

own fortune together.”


Whereas, it is not my capital that does any of these things. lt is not my capital but the

labourer’s toil that builds up my fortune and the wealth of the country. It is not my

employment that keeps him from pauperism, but my monopoly of the land forcing

him into my employment that keeps him on the brink of it. It is not want of capital

that keeps the labourer from using the land, but my refusing him the use of the land

that prevents him from acquiring capital. All the capital he wants to begin with is an

axe and a spade, which a week’s earnings would buy him, and for his maintenance

during the first year, and at any subsequent time, he could work for me or for others,

turnabout, with his work on his own land. Henceforth with every year his capital

would grow of itself, and his independence with it, and that this is no fancy sketch,


anyone can see for himself by taking a trip into the country, where he will find well-

to-do farmers who began with nothing but a spade and an axe (so to speak) and


worked their way up in the manner described.


ENTER THE LANDLORD ....


But now another thought strikes me. Instead of paying an overseer to work these men

for me, I will make him pay me for the privilege of doing it. I will let the land as it

stands to him or to another — to whomsoever will give the most for the billet. He

shall be called my tenant instead of my overseer, but the things he shall do for me are

essentially the same, only done by contract instead of for yearly pay. He (not I) shall

find all the capital, take all the risk, and engage and supervise the men, paying me a

lump sum, called rent, out of the proceeds of their toil, and make what he can for

himself out of the surplus. The competition is as keen in its way for the land, among

people of his class, as it is among the labourers for employment, only that as they are

all possessed of some little means (else they could not compete) they are in no danger

of immediate want, and can stand out for rather better terms than the labourers, who

are forced by necessity to take what terms they can get. The minimum in each case

amounts practically to a “mere living”, but the mere living they insist on is one of a

rather higher standard than the labourers’; it means a rather more abundant supply and

better quality of those little comforts which are next door to necessaries. It means, in

short, a living of a kind to which people of that class are accustomed.

For a moderate reduction in my profits, then — a reduction equal to the tenant’s

narrow margin of profit — I have all the toil and worry of management taken off my

hands, and the risk too, for be the season good or bad, the rent is bound to be

forthcoming, and I can sell him up to the last rag if he fails of the full amount, no

matter for what reason; and my rent takes precedence of all other debts. All my capital

is set free for investment elsewhere, and I am freed from the odium of a slave owner,

notwithstanding that the men still toil for my enrichment as when they were slaves,

and that I get more out of them than ever. If I wax rich while they toil from hand to

mouth, and in depressed seasons find it hard to get work at all; it is not, to all

appearances, my doing, but merely the force of circumstances, the law of nature, the

state of the labour market — fine sounding names that hide the ugly reality.

If wages are forced down it is not I that do it; it is that greedy and merciless man the

employer (my tenant) who does it. I am a lofty and superior being, dwelling apart and

above such sordid considerations. I would never dream of grinding these poor

labourers, not I! I have nothing to do with them at all; I only want my rent -- and get


it. Like the lilies of the field, I toil not, neither do I spin, and yet (so kind is

Providence!) my daily bread (well buttered) comes to me of itself. Nay, people bid

against each other for the privilege of finding it for me; and no one seems to realise

that the comfortable income that falls to me like the refreshing dew is dew indeed; but

it is the dew of sweat wrung from the labourers’ toil. It is the fruit of their labour

which they ought to have; which they would have if I did not take it from them.


* * * * *


This sketch illustrates the fact that chattel slavery is neither the only, nor even the

worst, form of bondage. When the use of the earth — the sole source of our daily

bread — is denied unless one pays a fellow creature for permission to use it, people

are bereft of economic freedom. The only way to regain that freedom is to collect the

rent of land (instead of taxes) for the public purpose.

Once upon a time, labour leaders in the USA, the UK and Australia understood these

facts. The labour movements of those countries were filled with people who fought for

the principles of ‘the single tax’ on land at the turn of the twentieth century. But since

then, it has been ridiculed, and they have gradually yielded to the forces of privilege

and power — captives of the current hegemony — daring no longer to come to grips

with this fundamental question, lest they, too, become ridiculed.

And so the world continues to wallow in this particular ignorance — and in its

consequent poverty and debt.


The above article was gleaned from


http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/ajo_slavery.html


info@wealthandwant.com


Monday, December 11, 2017

 

Pride goes before a fall

Pride is a important thing to have in your spirit , but so is humility .
We are so unworthy of claims to either that the mere mention of it , by anyone,  is scary.



Presumably because we want to believe more in ourselves than we warrant ,its tempting , especially for leaders to jockey up the people with talk of things we can be proud of . The tempataion when parties hold office on a knife edge is huge . Ultimately though the peope and the politics must reject the talk and face the deeper truth


This distortion of reality seems to be worse when there are heaps of thing we can't be proud of .  (eg The well being of one generation of Aussies and the poverty of the next )
Politicians and even our public broadcaster , use the talk to distract us and make us feel better about ourselves -Cynical positivists
Malcolm Turnbull like many pasted up progressives, has been doing a bit of that talk too .By pasted up I mean someone who puts on a front instead of really understanding and dealing with the first two sentences.
Modern leaders would do well to think of leaders who pass the test of working towards true commonwealth Like Queen Victoria - who held the tension  that we all have to do in our families - keep a balance between noise and real need.

Leaders like her whose "defiant humility lay at the heart of her empire" GK Chesterton .

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Thursday, December 07, 2017

 

When Consensus is a welcome surprise

- but is probably a  quick fix without substance   . Short term gain long term pain?

When a sense of inertia is our  key problem, we may well jump on the nearest thing that seems to be moving forward , Also at issue can be the  need to feel better about ourselves as we are made to feel guilty daily for keeping warm and moving around.  We don't talk about it , but we know its there-- e deep down inside

In a society used to a sense of progress,  a sense of political inertia is stifling. Its clearly enough for the people to break out in anger or song at some simple solution to get the train moving again - or even get a sense of movement. Trump has done that  for USA . whose trying to do it here ?

Emotion as a driver of change 

What should we make of  recent legislation that is more emotion based than reason based , SSM and VAD suggests  .

as a suggestion maybe the motivation runs like this
"If we can't do anything about climate change lets do something about culture change ".
The left,  who have all their lives resisted authority as a vehicle for good,  suddenly find it is the only weapon in their toolbox. In some kind of paradox in their preaching ,  mere education  is not enough- the heavenly aim is culture change and we will coerce the laggards ( because eventually they wioll follow anyway ( according to the gospel of progress)
If progress was always positive National socialism and marxism would be our forms of governance.
Laggards and dinosaur abuse talk .  All of these non scientists  have read Shoemaker but forgotten he's talking about technical affairs not human affairs ---ABC UTOPIA is living proof that their idealistic driver of change for goods sake is still in charge and still a major mental illness amongst wannabes.

Recent Australian examples 
Emotional desperation  must be considered a key driver in both SSM and VAD  attempts to " make people feel better about themselves" .
While it is a reasonable question whether Governments can actually do that , wannabes are free to spend our money on trying ( best intention )( by reducing shackles legal impediments etc) many peoplein the audience  are ready to swallow that  medicine in the hope tat it will do some good and at least I don't think - I don't have to foot the tax bill .
A dollar for every wasted dollar on this rolla coaster . That hastily drafted legislation won't work or will have unintended consequences is simply being ignored by the self proclaimed righteous at the moment.


Emotion rather than reason as a key driver of change

I see some of these mad moments as bringing light to bear on a reality that the deeper issues have  yet to be framed very well.; In this case the many practical problems of trying to live purely rationally. This oversight is well put by one Susan Neiman who says both politics and religion operate where " reason is missing "
When you are stuck somewhere with your mind , the most attractive thing is surely to go for a walk ; to do something "keep moving'(that Tony Jones phrase); to get on a train; any train , Emotions will take you places.Thinking may not . being in Canberra may not . 


Rationalists have become a little religious

My theory is that some rationalists have recently realized that their logic maybe just mere mind construct just as they say people of faith live on mere mind constructs.
If that is true , pure rationalists have only one way forward; one basis for hope - their doctrine that everything works for good to those who trust in the machinery of progressive evolution.
Accepting the limits of reason  means that it doesn't matter what we say, or what anyone says - we just need to get on with it .Go with the flow.
No  listening or amendments needed to the plan - the salvation plan is perfect - because it the latest plan. It will do what I want it to - esp cause i am not paying for its implementation. 
Be on the train or be left behind .
It doesn't matter what we say , we just have to accept change , and hopefully be first to promote invent and trial it . Its progress . faith in progress. Again ABC UTOPIA models the method and its ultimate  insanity and destruction of sound process. 

Rather than be seen as a triumph of reason Dec 7 2017  may well 


be a "triumph" of faith  


The pressure has been building in Australia for a long time

  1. Huge political angst over climate change has not resulted in any consensus  about what to about it  .
  2. Governments are making us feel guilty by telling us what we are doing wrong.  
  3. We know deep down that many of our reactionaries have not grown up , because they are unable  to assert as authority figures ,  that getting what you want is not good for you  
  4. Young people are getting an education but the richest country in the world no longer ensures they can use that education ,  or buy/have  a house  to live in .
  5. Minor parties are exploiting the tensions from left and right and the inertia to get what they want .
  6. Urban Australians refuse to do anything to ensure regional interests are properly heard preferring to tell them that they too are doing the wrong thing--( let them be outvoted) 
  7. Minor parties may not have the interests of most people on their minds because they have the power to get what they want and they make the news because they are not just talking about sitting on their hands .  

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Friday, April 08, 2016

 

Simple slogans don't work

With Donald Trump striking fear into every thinking person in the West,  it's time to stand back and ask  "How did we get here?"

We got here because of lots of simple slogans going back even premillennial ,
-- to postmodern rejection of judgement and hate and acceptance of the heresy of the sentimental no sin blindness of tolerance .
We have a choice NOW to reject it properly OR  live with more of its disastrous  consequences. .

Link to Bill Warners site
 https://www.facebook.com/billwarnerauthor/videos/539389162889353/


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Monday, March 07, 2016

 

Progressing beyond belief

From the mountains of interdependency to the dead flat territory of the desert of super efficiency ;and myopic commitments and dependency ;
---where the machines keep running but men lie dying and exhausted trying to keep up .

I don't like to say this, as I hope for better from the Conservatives,  but Malcolm Turnbull and some of his team have no idea , The wreckage that will come from their overly simple but super confident corporate approach to problem solving is yet to arrive ---but come it must ,
In convincing themselves that  government is business and best government is modelled on business,  they deny the brilliant and much more balanced legacy they and we inherited from way back .

Both parties and their dumb and blind progressive toting ideologues are rushing headlong down the same cul de sac ; blissfully unaware of the fact that they die together in the competition rush to the same end , neither party realises it could find new life if their policies weren't so blessedly equal. ; so equally simplistic .They have no idea that mere efficiency can destroy resilience

I couldn't bear to watch Minister Cash enthusiastically trot out so much business speak on Womans International day , Sure what she said works in a business tower but not where babies are born and where poverty pushes all men to be slaves for each other , In that real world we live in , there will always be inflexibility and gun toting exceptions ,Chair swapping - a game you play when the table is empty and the business of the day doesn't matter, How productive are those offices ?
It won't surprise the real economists amongst us that we may have defined the ideal working conditions in the world,  but have  no work or people willing to work through them ,

 Life is not legislated good;  its made good by freedom to innovate . Oh I know she has all the words right there , but Humpty will fall and God help us if the next person just assumes its their job to just glue the pieces together again,  Rewatch UTOPIA - the properly trained people walk out eventually

I am sure many warmed to her clear enthusiasm for the  way forward ---popular  amongst chatterers for now a very long time. She like Malcolm is quite wrong on a number of fronts ,Shes firing hard,  but missing the targets.
  1. To really achieve the goal of gender equality requires men or institutions to do things they are not naturally good at. You can't have it both ways- either you have the  one efficient sucking machine or you have the full  milking machinery .The idea of 50 % of women in leadership requires men to do something badly and woman to give up on doing something that , if we thought about it , we all want them both  to do to their very best,
    There is no economy if there is no family , There is no brain or diversity if  we swap it for the monocultural madness of mathematical equality. Strange, child sacrificing gods some people have .
  2. As anyone who is a real scientist knows , You don't , like the corporation rely on the weight of facts before you decide how to solve problems. This silly shallow subscience explains a lot of the lack of momentum in government , Mere facts  just weigh you down

    .They know what they want but like so many self appointed CEOs they don't really know how to get there . Cash wants,  like most of her kind,  to make a lasting difference but will compromise on getting there by not cutting cleanly when it counts .   Moving on so fast she probably won't even notice where/when things quite predictably go wrong, 

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Monday, February 22, 2016

 

The determinists are getting fanatical

The determinists are getting fanatical
Resist them AS  they are inflating their effectiveness and will eventually fall foul of the people who now still pay them -- but get naught satisfaction .

They are desperate enough to do stupid things like trying to control what people say ; what teachers are allowed to say in schools and what stories kids are allowed to hear at school. Overseas they want to put up walls (TRUMP ) so they don't have to expose themselves to dialogue


Secular determinism is failing even though its a dominant faith in media and the new public service ( the private worship service as UTOPIA shows ,
For all their efforts at OUR expense there MO is not working. Its not working cause it doesn't really allow CHOICE . As even Chris Ulmann ABC said last week Free speech is at RISK

-The advocates of equality deny diversity .Their view is blinkered.
-They can't have it both ways ,unless they want to play party game pedants for the rest of their lives . I have other things to do
-When they are true to their own view of "natures way"= diversity, hormones .physiology ( XX, XY ) i will start taking the reactionaries seriously . We might even get to a level of discussion which involves choice and self control and discuss their own stumbling block called physiological determinism ...or whatever they want it to be this week
.

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