China Bashing and the big picture. The "Us" of it.

eminent domain in China

dwindling democracy in China?

relocation for water diversion

comrades in self-destruction

the fate of "intellectual property" in China

low-wage strike in China

the familiar face of concentrated wealth... in China

"Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours" Noam Chomsky lecture at University of Maryland, January 27, 2012.

Chomsky answers questions after U of M lecture

China bashing. It's not just about China. It's about what any of us choose to do. For example, you may choose to shop at Walmart to save money while at the same time lament the jobs your family lost to cheaper labor in another country. In other words, you have to choose to look at the big picture, and break the pattern we initiated ourselves, which has now backlashed upon us. Do we all simply choose to want for less then? Maybe. Or force "less" on those who want for more? I'd say, a "Right To Work for Less" movement is a little incongruous with Obama's Rise to the Top, don't you think? So, China vanquished the middle class through abrupt violent revolution; and America is demolishing the middle class through the so-called freedoms of democracy to self-destruct through greed. Which is worse? I don't know anymore. But forget about nominal forms of government as determining the presence or origins of tyranny, and certainly resist blaming cultures or races of people. Either way you look at it, you have to see that around the globe common human beings are being wrestled from their homes due to "progress", "development" and the desire for amassing wealth through land acquisitions. The big picture is an awful composition of eminent reintegration of power. Don't look now but we all are living on a diminishing parcel of earth.

Autism has brought uncanny clarity of vison and memory to some of us and "Why Societies Collapse"

Stephen Wiltshire

Temple Grandin on TED

templegrandin.com

What I'm thinking is that the pace of online networked society is bringing us all closer and closer to this need for speed and isolation in order to feel connected. In this sense we are shedding our real community contact for an elusive one. This is why I say we are becoming societally autistic (perhaps in the same way corporations can be typed as psychotic). We shun a direct contact because we have less control over what happens in realtime face to face relationships. The other thing going wrong with this is that we can begin to visualize better our demise and spread viral dread! Today I will predict that we will see an increase in autism (and ADHD diagnoses) as well as doomsday prophesies. Just be ready to know the difference between the charlatan's wielding the power of the establishment and real visionaries.

An abbreviated version of Jared Brown’s Why Societies Collapse 5 point checklist":

1. human impact: depletion of resources.
2. climate change.
3. relations with friendly neighbors―reduced supportive conditions.
4. relations with hostile societies more embroiled.
5. political, economic, cultural, social factors (citizens’ awareness of true conditions: combination of ignorance and cognizance of the fact that the status quo is unsustainable).