random notes

Self-Control and the Future of Capitalism

...
Slowly the level of smoking declined, and by now,
smokers are increasingly isolated and ostracised. Soon they may join other addicts in
prison.
...
The previous great period of globalisation, from 1870 to 1914, ended with the
disaster of the First World War.
...
The war was
followed by bolshevism, fascism, the Great Depression, the Second World War, the
Cold War and bloody violence in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
...
Denial comes in three forms: 1. “It’s not really happening” (rational denial); 2.
“I don’t want to know” (emotional denial); 3. “Something will turn up” (technological
optimism).
...
The prospects are asymmetric. All three forms of denial leave us
unprotected from disaster.
...
Technical innovation may mitigate
shocks but might inflict some itself in the form of a runaway technology like the
recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Technology can go wrong in ways we cannot
easily imagine, such as the emergence of the atom bomb at the end of the Second
World War.
...
The enemy in this case is ourselves: our reliance on resource-
hungry lifestyles and our reluctance to face the consequences of their depletion.
...

... sure, smokers tobacco is competing on the market ...
... with wall street one trillion a year drug money laundering business ...
... wall street hates competition ...
... they even invent opium wars when it comes to business as usual ...
:)

... technology applied to fossil energy makes only the process worse ...
... just like technology applied to finance ...
... both help to reach the collapse point faster ...
... but the Jekyll island vultures make a few bucks in the process ...
... so everybody can feel happy in the nation under godfeller ...
:)

... c'mon, the biggest genius of geopolitics of every century ...
... the one that with his brightness has even eclipsed in history ...
... Julius Caesar, Louis the XIV, and even Napoleon ...
... told you that "the American standard of living is not negotiable" ...
... promptly echoed by the scribes of the white man with the skirt in Rome ...
... so about towards the end of 2007 ...
... we have seen the mission accomplished ...
... the "real" mission was emptying your wallets to keep their chairs going ...
:)