The (Not So) Brave New World

As you are no doubt aware, Facebook has been caught out conducting "mind" experiments on their customers. The results of these experiments showed that people who received nothing but negative feeds became negative themselves. Pictures of dead dogs it seems creates a negative outlook. But was this experiment really necessary? Didn't we already know that? Governments and people in power have been using similar technique for centuries. Just take a look at today's Israel as an example. The Government of Israel run a strict regime and carefully manage the information they allow their citizens to have access to. From the moment they start learning, they are taught about the evils of Palestine and the threats Palestinians pose to Israel, their families and their friends. Their leaders highlight the evil nature of Hamas and the need to rid the world of all Palestinians. In fact all Arabs are evil according to the Israeli leadership. All Arabs present a very real ...

Corporatization - Why we forgive and forget I still remember when gold was worth something. These days though the focus is on shares, not gold or silver. The value of silver, once a major asset, is now set at little more than a junk material. An ounce of silver is today worth a little over $20. Silver hit its peak in March 2011 with a price over $46 an ounce but since then the fall has been relatively steady. Gold prices in 2011 were at $1,800 an ounce for a period in July. Since then the value has been in steady decline and today an ounce of gold is worth around $1,300. The prices in 2011 represented investors wariness of investing in anything other than tangible, real assets. So where is the money going now if not to the normally solid investment of gold and silver? Back into shares of course. The performance of shares since the depths of the so called Global Financial Crisis, is easily highlighted using the Dow Jones Index. The Dow, as it is called, is a price-weighted aver...

If current events are a guide, next year's Presidential Election is likely to revolve around two main issues: Foreign Policy - the escalating situations in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, caused by heavy handed mismanagement by the US War Machine, have highlighted the failure of the Government to maintain control over their expanding empire. The surveillance of both the enemies and allies of the US, required to maintain a dominant position in world affairs and ensure US safety is now both infringing on the people's privacy and draining the economy. The Economy - the ever widening gap between the rich and poor and the slow disappearance of an American Middle Class is becoming a very clear reality to many and the cost of maintaining the largest force in the world is becoming prohibitive. Money spent on the US War Machine in their quest for global control and the extensive spying and surveillance apparatus is now biting into welfare and pension payments. Something had to give ...

Monopoly is the game of Capitalism and we are taught at a young age how to play. The rules are simple, take everything, own everything, laugh with delight as a player goes bankrupt and the last person with all the money is the winner. But Monopoly has no social conscience. When Chance says you must pay a Poor Tax you groan and you win only at the expense of the other players. You have all the money, the opposition have been forced out of the game and you own EVERYTHING - you win! That is Capitalism at its core - a small group of winners and a very large group of losers. Capitalism, by it's very nature, forces one to think only of themselves as the single player. It directs the human populace to shy away from thinking about collectives, communities and societies unless it is a short term collusion to increase ones own wealth. It creates a competitive nature that requires lots of losers. It stifles, if not removes, thoughts of social justice and community spirit and we p...

IRAQ – BRILLIANT STRATEGY AND PERFECT IMPLEMENTATION INTRODUCTION Iraq is back in the media spotlight as the Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS), born from the ashes of the 2003 US invasion, moves towards Baghdad. What is common in most media articles on the subject is a tacit agreement that the 2003 Iraq invasion was a disaster, either in the strategy or the implementation or both. But what if the strategy was well thought out and its implementation perfect? Why are we so quick to believe that the US government and its allies from Europe, Australia, UK, et al, went from one bad decision to the next in a series of seemingly reactionary and shortsighted moves that has resulted in a bloody chaos that will continue to bleed innocents' blood for generations? Why won't we consider that this is part of a grand plan, the execution of which has so far been successful? REASONS FOR THE 2003 INVASION? The 2003 Iraq invasion and the current escalating situation is comp...