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Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Greed Factor
“The gap in our economy is between what we have and what we think we ought to have - and that is a moral problem, not an economic one.” - Dr. Paul Heyne (Economist)
Greed is the force that drives world markets as it corrupts the human heart. The accumulation of wealth is the motivation behind some of the world’s greatest achievements as well as some of its greatest atrocities. Greed is facilitating the demise of the very system that it is alleged to animate. Masked as advancement and technology, materialism rules the Western world while propelled by greed. Some say that greed is the ultimate motivator for competition, self-reliance and individualism. Cutthroat competition is inhumane at its core while self-reliance is the misguided phantom ideal of capitalism.
THE FACE OF GREED
As evidenced by recent headlines, the capitalistic free market is in a fight for its very existence. Fatal stock market & housing market collapses have challenged the economic norms of the Western powers. The elite civilized nations have been severely tested along with the competence and character of those deeply entrenched in global markets. The unquenchable avarice of the wealthy has finally surfaced troubling questions of morality onto the economic horizon. The practice of selling market derivatives on a person’s home mortgage is gravely immoral. Those buying such assets are essentially betting against the home buyer and hoping the mortgage will default due to delinquency or nonpayment. The infamous ‘credit default swap’ is one human being profiting from the downfall and utter failure of another human being. The basic livelihood of the common man is now a casino money chip in the hands of those who can afford to play. Those who profit from immoral greedy investments do so at the risk of fomenting fear and birthing a cataclysmic economic avalanche. The lavish destruction of all economic infrastructures is the path of greed.
It is not only the wealthy who have been conquered by their materialistic lust, but also the impoverished. Greed is a lurking menace that darkens the hearts and minds of those living in meager means. Even the simplest cases of armed robbery in lower-income inner cities attest to this dynamic. There is usually no significant wealth gap between the assailant and the victim. The thief is robbing his already-impoverished neighborhood for the acquisition of fluid capital that flows through the area but never rests there. This capital never seems to penetrate the deepest workings of these neighborhoods. Substantial volumes of currency and commodity move through the poorer areas but always end up in the hands of wealthier individuals outside. Greed is the fleeting illusion of grandeur for the poor.
Ambition and profit drive market competition that compels one business to outperform a rival and provide a better product or service. Competition remains healthy as long as it improves the lives of consumers and the business owners and workers involved. As greed enters the picture, competition usually turns cutthroat and immoral. It degenerates when a business looks to monopolize its market and maliciously attacks or forcibly purchases its competitors. Institutional conglomerates such as banks may fall prey to bureaucratic clutter and immobility during times of crisis. The regional monopolies of these banks decimate all competition and suppress new banks from rising. A monopoly in any market will generally lower the quality of the product/service for the consumer, lower the wages for the worker, and maximize profits for the owner. This will inevitably damage the quality of life for the society at large.
The extensive use of cheap labor, child labor, and outsourcing are all different heads of the same leviathan of greed. These practices may increase profit margins but they hurt the fabric of the business by undercutting its workers. They weaken and disband labor unions and guilds while trampling upon their rights. In the cases of job layoffs or pay reduction, it impedes individuals from being able to respectfully provide for their family.
THE HEART OF GREED
Greed feeds the faulty notion that one’s own desires and well-being always supersede those of the society. Greed destroys altruism in the segments of society where it is most needed. It weaves disunity and pins a man against his fellow man. It violates the dignity of human work whose value emanates from the person, not from the nature of the work. Greed is blind to the concept of a just wage which is always an exact number based on specific inflation and cost of living, among other factors. Those ensnared by the lure of greed may even be willing to take crippling short term losses for a promise of vast riches in the long run. Greed kills empathy and nullifies sympathy. It is a flawed myopic vision with oneself in the center.
Greed is born out of an underlying pride & arrogance that touts individualistic self-reliance. Self-reliance is a virtuous concept as long it does not become self-centered and vain. At times, the individual desires wealth, power and praise, detached from their own family and peers. One must acknowledge that true self-reliance is a launching point for a person to help those who are still lacking. This implicit generosity is a foreign concept for the capitalist paradigm. The sensitivity towards a commonly shared human experience is declining in mankind today. In an era where financial independence is fading, it is human virtue that will bring prosperity back, not stimulus packages and bailouts.
Greed is the force that drives world markets as it corrupts the human heart. The accumulation of wealth is the motivation behind some of the world’s greatest achievements as well as some of its greatest atrocities. Greed is facilitating the demise of the very system that it is alleged to animate. Masked as advancement and technology, materialism rules the Western world while propelled by greed. Some say that greed is the ultimate motivator for competition, self-reliance and individualism. Cutthroat competition is inhumane at its core while self-reliance is the misguided phantom ideal of capitalism.
THE FACE OF GREED
As evidenced by recent headlines, the capitalistic free market is in a fight for its very existence. Fatal stock market & housing market collapses have challenged the economic norms of the Western powers. The elite civilized nations have been severely tested along with the competence and character of those deeply entrenched in global markets. The unquenchable avarice of the wealthy has finally surfaced troubling questions of morality onto the economic horizon. The practice of selling market derivatives on a person’s home mortgage is gravely immoral. Those buying such assets are essentially betting against the home buyer and hoping the mortgage will default due to delinquency or nonpayment. The infamous ‘credit default swap’ is one human being profiting from the downfall and utter failure of another human being. The basic livelihood of the common man is now a casino money chip in the hands of those who can afford to play. Those who profit from immoral greedy investments do so at the risk of fomenting fear and birthing a cataclysmic economic avalanche. The lavish destruction of all economic infrastructures is the path of greed.
It is not only the wealthy who have been conquered by their materialistic lust, but also the impoverished. Greed is a lurking menace that darkens the hearts and minds of those living in meager means. Even the simplest cases of armed robbery in lower-income inner cities attest to this dynamic. There is usually no significant wealth gap between the assailant and the victim. The thief is robbing his already-impoverished neighborhood for the acquisition of fluid capital that flows through the area but never rests there. This capital never seems to penetrate the deepest workings of these neighborhoods. Substantial volumes of currency and commodity move through the poorer areas but always end up in the hands of wealthier individuals outside. Greed is the fleeting illusion of grandeur for the poor.
Ambition and profit drive market competition that compels one business to outperform a rival and provide a better product or service. Competition remains healthy as long as it improves the lives of consumers and the business owners and workers involved. As greed enters the picture, competition usually turns cutthroat and immoral. It degenerates when a business looks to monopolize its market and maliciously attacks or forcibly purchases its competitors. Institutional conglomerates such as banks may fall prey to bureaucratic clutter and immobility during times of crisis. The regional monopolies of these banks decimate all competition and suppress new banks from rising. A monopoly in any market will generally lower the quality of the product/service for the consumer, lower the wages for the worker, and maximize profits for the owner. This will inevitably damage the quality of life for the society at large.
The extensive use of cheap labor, child labor, and outsourcing are all different heads of the same leviathan of greed. These practices may increase profit margins but they hurt the fabric of the business by undercutting its workers. They weaken and disband labor unions and guilds while trampling upon their rights. In the cases of job layoffs or pay reduction, it impedes individuals from being able to respectfully provide for their family.
THE HEART OF GREED
Greed feeds the faulty notion that one’s own desires and well-being always supersede those of the society. Greed destroys altruism in the segments of society where it is most needed. It weaves disunity and pins a man against his fellow man. It violates the dignity of human work whose value emanates from the person, not from the nature of the work. Greed is blind to the concept of a just wage which is always an exact number based on specific inflation and cost of living, among other factors. Those ensnared by the lure of greed may even be willing to take crippling short term losses for a promise of vast riches in the long run. Greed kills empathy and nullifies sympathy. It is a flawed myopic vision with oneself in the center.
Greed is born out of an underlying pride & arrogance that touts individualistic self-reliance. Self-reliance is a virtuous concept as long it does not become self-centered and vain. At times, the individual desires wealth, power and praise, detached from their own family and peers. One must acknowledge that true self-reliance is a launching point for a person to help those who are still lacking. This implicit generosity is a foreign concept for the capitalist paradigm. The sensitivity towards a commonly shared human experience is declining in mankind today. In an era where financial independence is fading, it is human virtue that will bring prosperity back, not stimulus packages and bailouts.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Times of Tyranny
The origin of tyranny can be credited to Greece, the same geographic land that is credited with the birth of democracy. Tyrants in archaic and classical times were viewed by the Greeks in a neutral shade and colored by the temperament of the ruler. In essence the word “Tyrant” was used by early Greek city-states as a title in the same manner we use the titles “President” and “Prime Minister” today. Plato and his pupil Aristotle were the first ones to present tyrants in a negative light. They deemed a tyrant to be "one who rules without law, looks to his own advantage rather than that of his subjects, and uses extreme and cruel tactics -- against his own people as well as others.” Henceforth, “tyrant” was no longer a neutral term that denoted administrative executive power, but rather, reflected the deep character of the man in power. Tyranny, as we think of it today, was born 2400 years ago.
Tyrannies have grown more ruthless and damaging to the fabric of humanity in recent centuries and have degenerated in linear fashion. History has seen many ruthless tyrants over the ages, from Caligula, Nero and Genghis Khan, to Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Technological advances and the weapons arsenals available to modern oppressors put the vaunted Roman legions and Mongolian cavalry archers to utter shame. The propaganda tools and media control in the hands of Fidel Castro and Kim Jong Il would be the envy of Atilla The Hun and Ivan The Terrible. The hordes of “barbarian” clans that pillaged and raped Europe after the fall of Rome have been put to shame by Soviet tactics and aggression in the last century. It is safe to say that mentally unfit rulers with psychotic tendencies have risen and continue to rise throughout history. However, tyrants who seize power in these times are capable of wreaking unfathomable havoc upon their own population as well as the entire globe.
THE MODERN WORLD
Tyrants thrive on the vulnerability and fear of their people. In our times, the aftermath of World War II has left the entire civilized world in fear of new dictators that employ ruthless methods of governance. History records that the League of Nations was born after World War I to prevent any future large-scale global conflicts. Unfortunately, the brutality of the Treaty of Versailles put an end to the hopes for lasting world peace. The treaty imposed a crushing war debt on Germany, leaving it humiliated in the global community. This would eventually lead to the rise of National Socialism (Nazism) and the Third Reich. In the same manner, the United Nations was birthed after World War II, in order to avert future global wars. The nations of the world swore to never let another Hitler rise from among them. They vowed to never let another tyrant consume an entire continent as Hitler had consumed Europe, but instead, the world became soft.
The trend of concession began with policies of appeasement towards the tyrannies of Stalin and Chairman Mao. Clash and confrontation with global juggernauts such as the Soviet Union and Communist China was not deemed advisable for world peace. U.N. recognition of dictators such as Fidel Castro and Pol Pot is further evidence of the world’s descent into darkness. The cloak and dagger tactics of the Cold War brought out the worst in humanity. From frenzy in food ration lines and torture in the notorious Gulags of Russia, to rampant McCarthyism, black-listing, interrogation and imprisonment in the West.
THE POST-MODERN WORLD
The guise of global and universal “tolerance” has proven effective for a new form of tyranny to rise. It is the moral tyranny of relativism, which is cementing into a dictatorship. This tyranny is born out of fear and a taboo of offending others. No individual is permitted to make any form of judgment about another individual’s actions or lifestyle. Even if the actions may be abhorrent and/or leading others to follow a destructive behavior. Any individual or media outlet found in violation is harshly reprimanded and sometimes ostracized. Tyrants of these times feel very liberated in admonishing others not to judge for the sake of freedom. This is not freedom for all; this is open license to follow one’s own whims and passions, without any objective truth. The advocates of this open license have transformed into the oppressors themselves
Unbridled subjectivism is the greatest movement towards human egotism in the history of the world. Compounded with the exponential rise of technology, the culture of immorality has become a direct threat to the progress of humanity. Our early human ancestors toiled over thousands of years to advance our species out of caves, jungles and savannahs; now human progress is truly threatened as we fall into the lull that our technology can protect and save us from every threat. Moral tyranny today enforces this lull and impedes any uniform objectivity, considering it a relic of primitive, ancient times. Any universal code of ethics has been discarded, especially the religious and institutional.
On the surface, the concept is masked to be noble and just. Making a damning and final condemnation against any person is not acceptable by all the major religions in the world today. Those tyrants fearing judgment use this false premise as a foundation for their fight against objective moral values. The world, especially the West, has failed to promote the family values system exercised by the “greatest” generation of WWII.
Humanity has become weaker, more sensitive and afraid of being labeled, judged or categorized. The new tyrants of humanistic relativism are moving to obliterate the moral ethics code and create a chaotic world where everyone is their own guide and their own ultimate god. This is the tyranny that will plague the current generation for many years. It is imperative to resolve these tyrannies before the time comes for us to lead humanity into the future.
Tyrannies have grown more ruthless and damaging to the fabric of humanity in recent centuries and have degenerated in linear fashion. History has seen many ruthless tyrants over the ages, from Caligula, Nero and Genghis Khan, to Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Technological advances and the weapons arsenals available to modern oppressors put the vaunted Roman legions and Mongolian cavalry archers to utter shame. The propaganda tools and media control in the hands of Fidel Castro and Kim Jong Il would be the envy of Atilla The Hun and Ivan The Terrible. The hordes of “barbarian” clans that pillaged and raped Europe after the fall of Rome have been put to shame by Soviet tactics and aggression in the last century. It is safe to say that mentally unfit rulers with psychotic tendencies have risen and continue to rise throughout history. However, tyrants who seize power in these times are capable of wreaking unfathomable havoc upon their own population as well as the entire globe.
THE MODERN WORLD
Tyrants thrive on the vulnerability and fear of their people. In our times, the aftermath of World War II has left the entire civilized world in fear of new dictators that employ ruthless methods of governance. History records that the League of Nations was born after World War I to prevent any future large-scale global conflicts. Unfortunately, the brutality of the Treaty of Versailles put an end to the hopes for lasting world peace. The treaty imposed a crushing war debt on Germany, leaving it humiliated in the global community. This would eventually lead to the rise of National Socialism (Nazism) and the Third Reich. In the same manner, the United Nations was birthed after World War II, in order to avert future global wars. The nations of the world swore to never let another Hitler rise from among them. They vowed to never let another tyrant consume an entire continent as Hitler had consumed Europe, but instead, the world became soft.
The trend of concession began with policies of appeasement towards the tyrannies of Stalin and Chairman Mao. Clash and confrontation with global juggernauts such as the Soviet Union and Communist China was not deemed advisable for world peace. U.N. recognition of dictators such as Fidel Castro and Pol Pot is further evidence of the world’s descent into darkness. The cloak and dagger tactics of the Cold War brought out the worst in humanity. From frenzy in food ration lines and torture in the notorious Gulags of Russia, to rampant McCarthyism, black-listing, interrogation and imprisonment in the West.
The global community and its lone superpower have no firm moral footing for its political endorsements. This is demonstrated by their support of the autocratic rule of the Shah of Iran and in the same breath, validating the oligarchic theocracy of the Saudi royals. Military or political alliances are mostly forged due to economics, resources, or geography. In forming alliances, the moral measuring stick has been thrown out in favor of a utilitarian approach. Certain tyrants are tolerated due to perceived advantages by their allies. Oppressive regimes who do not overtly demonstrate conquest or imperial expansion remain unchecked. Tyranny continues to thrive inside the borders of “civilized” nations while global unrest foments.
THE POST-MODERN WORLD
The guise of global and universal “tolerance” has proven effective for a new form of tyranny to rise. It is the moral tyranny of relativism, which is cementing into a dictatorship. This tyranny is born out of fear and a taboo of offending others. No individual is permitted to make any form of judgment about another individual’s actions or lifestyle. Even if the actions may be abhorrent and/or leading others to follow a destructive behavior. Any individual or media outlet found in violation is harshly reprimanded and sometimes ostracized. Tyrants of these times feel very liberated in admonishing others not to judge for the sake of freedom. This is not freedom for all; this is open license to follow one’s own whims and passions, without any objective truth. The advocates of this open license have transformed into the oppressors themselves
Unbridled subjectivism is the greatest movement towards human egotism in the history of the world. Compounded with the exponential rise of technology, the culture of immorality has become a direct threat to the progress of humanity. Our early human ancestors toiled over thousands of years to advance our species out of caves, jungles and savannahs; now human progress is truly threatened as we fall into the lull that our technology can protect and save us from every threat. Moral tyranny today enforces this lull and impedes any uniform objectivity, considering it a relic of primitive, ancient times. Any universal code of ethics has been discarded, especially the religious and institutional.
On the surface, the concept is masked to be noble and just. Making a damning and final condemnation against any person is not acceptable by all the major religions in the world today. Those tyrants fearing judgment use this false premise as a foundation for their fight against objective moral values. The world, especially the West, has failed to promote the family values system exercised by the “greatest” generation of WWII.
Humanity has become weaker, more sensitive and afraid of being labeled, judged or categorized. The new tyrants of humanistic relativism are moving to obliterate the moral ethics code and create a chaotic world where everyone is their own guide and their own ultimate god. This is the tyranny that will plague the current generation for many years. It is imperative to resolve these tyrannies before the time comes for us to lead humanity into the future.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The State Of Manhood
Each generation throughout time experiences various crises and defining moments as it matures. In such times it becomes imperative to revisit certain fundamental elements of humanity to find a guiding frame of reference. The state of manhood is the imminent issue in dire need of a thorough examination and critical dissection. If one fails to brush with broad strokes, the issue at hand becomes isolated and may reach a point of irrelevance and disregard.
Traditional patriarchal hierarchies have been the norm throughout the history of humanity. The smooth passing of this patrimony from one generation to another is in severe jeopardy. Recent social trends, family dynamics and media messages in the Western world have attempted to usurp and transform the definition of masculinity. It has been blatantly mocked while attempts to secretly subvert it have gained much ground.
Masculinity in its purest form has been the rugged and dominant force governing humanity for several millennia. The classical image of the man as the iconic ruler of society and the head of his household has been severely distorted and in some cases completely lost. The male identity as protector and provider is eroding down to its fibers. Logic, reason, and calm critical thinking have been the fortes of the male gender. These traits are either weakened or entirely missing in most men today.
Traditional patriarchal hierarchies have been the norm throughout the history of humanity. The smooth passing of this patrimony from one generation to another is in severe jeopardy. Recent social trends, family dynamics and media messages in the Western world have attempted to usurp and transform the definition of masculinity. It has been blatantly mocked while attempts to secretly subvert it have gained much ground.
Masculinity in its purest form has been the rugged and dominant force governing humanity for several millennia. The classical image of the man as the iconic ruler of society and the head of his household has been severely distorted and in some cases completely lost. The male identity as protector and provider is eroding down to its fibers. Logic, reason, and calm critical thinking have been the fortes of the male gender. These traits are either weakened or entirely missing in most men today.
THE MAN OF THE HOUSE
First and foremost, a man must get his own house in order. Adult males age 40 and under, in America and the West, are becoming poor fathers with poor guidance on fulfilling that role. These men still maintain the personal tendencies of an impulsive, immature adolescent boy. In some cases, these tendencies are becoming overly emotional and effeminate and directly undermining the man’s authority. Many men raised exclusively by single mothers possess this feminine trait of being extremely sensitive, moody and impulsive. An abnormally emotional or hypersensitive man is universally perceived as a weak man.
Absentee fathers have been the plague of the Western world for decades. The cowardice and ineptitude of these men has degenerated the society at-large for centuries to come. In the impoverished neighborhoods, the promotion and glorification of incarceration over family life has deteriorated the man’s standing in his immediate household. No one is suggesting that men become cold, indifferent, chauvinist Neanderthals but serious action is needed for men to return to a position of honor.
Any argument that presents men as having intrinsically more dignity than women is a foolhardy one. The societal roles of the two genders have been lost. A man can no more act the part of a mother than a woman as a father. Therefore dubbing a single parent as “both mother and father” to his/her children is a fundamentally flawed idiom. A mother’s strength lies in her patience, nurturing, compassion and resilience. A father’s ideal strength is his stern, steady hand guiding the course of his family and ensuring their complete well-being.
In most households, capitalistic market economics forces both the man and woman to be employed just to maintain a certain standard of living. Most often this external dynamic carries the heavy costs of child neglect, family disunity and spousal discord. The power of acquiring money rules the household instead of a consistent, core family values system. The ideal of the man as protector and provider has become blurred and distorted. Without exemplary strong fathers guiding the next generation, manhood will lose its identity. The basic unit of humanity is a family. Men need to establish, understand, and affirm their role as fathers and husbands in their family.
THE HEART OF MAN
Due to the tremendous strides made by Western feminist movements in recent decades, women in Europe and America now dictate to men the terms of sexual power and prowess. More women look for men with an increased sensitivity to their emotional needs and a caring, nurturing heart. It is widely known that women are naturally gifted with these traits. Men are consciously or subconsciously driving their personalities to conform to this effeminate ideal. So in order to attract women, men are becoming more like women. Manhood in all arenas is being weakened due to the fault of men who subscribe to this paradigm.
The art of respectful, systematic courtship between men and women has degenerated into sexual frenzy and promiscuity. In this age of instant gratification, men are still chasing fleeting sexual pleasures with no intention and foresight to establish a firm line of patrimony or legacy for the future. Most men no longer project strength, character and resolve in their romantic relationships with women. They are infused with the materialistic obsession to use women as objects not as persons. They exhibit behavior that is infantile and excessively impulsive. In these cases, the men are more susceptible to manipulation by their partners since they possess no strict core discipline or morality. This deep inner confusion provides men with a false sense of sexual dominance over the women they pursue. Sexual conquests become the topic of a misguided male bravado to gain the approval of other men and to attract more women.
Men are failing to provide leadership in their romantic relationships with women which forces women to take the lead. Men are to provide the necessary over-arching calm, comfort and thematic balance to a woman’s monthly physical, hormonal, and emotional cycle. Men, especially young men, afraid of any type of long-term commitment or marriage are cowards that taint the very definition of manhood.
THE MEDIA MESSAGE
The messages conveyed to men about being a man are quite confusing and directly undermine men’s roles in society. Film and entertainment media present and promote the soft, sensitive man over the rugged swashbuckling type. From effeminate pale vampires to promiscuous reality show stars, the widespread appeal of these types of characters and individuals is damaging the fabric of masculinity.
Young impressionable men watching sitcoms and popular TV shows such as “Family Guy” or “The Simpsons”, clearly see the lead male characters as inept imbeciles who are actually a liability to their family. The primary female characters in those series demonstrate superior intellect, competency, and decision-making. Even males portrayed in dramatic roles are quirky and comical failures as men. Bustling male heroes of old western films have been relegated to the annals of Hollywood archives.
The moguls of fashion have always promoted and continue to market men who look like women. With the advent of the “metrosexual man,” men are wasting excessive time on personal appearance and selfish vanity. These heterosexual men are pursuing an affirmation of their physical beauty and attention, much like women and homosexuals. Many male musicians propped up by the media as role models for boys and young men are irresponsible sexual deviants with deep psychoses. The mainstream media is facilitating the demise of traditional manhood while promoting weakened and psychologically castrated men.
THE HOPE
The concept of being a robust, tough and upright man has faded into sentimental folklore and anecdotes. Those who argue that men are evolving have failed to realize that they are evolving into women. The two distinct genders, male and female, possess great gifts and talents that are unique and proper to each. Men and women are infused with an equally magnificent internal dignity and honor. The role of men in society is under tumultuous fire, scrutiny and lies in ambiguity. The overall state of manhood is at a critical juncture. Manhood will either fall to the misguided egalitarian ideal that men and women are exactly the same in role and function, or it will be reclaimed by the authentic men of this time and set right for posterity.
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