More Money Tricks From Opposite World -OR- Here It Comes Again

It wasn't my idea. It certainly wasn't, at any point, my plan to be an aging, flummoxed, sputtering, dirty fucking hippie trying to reconcile what could have been to what is. I had certain expectations, a level of trust that things would progress in a more or less progressive arc. The foolish things that emanated from firebrand blowholes were strident, but surely, held no hope of being widely believed, accepted or adopted. The predominant voices and discussions tended toward advancing potentials with broad benefit to society at large.

It seems I had more faith in my fellow man than I should have. My present level of disappointment is tinged with an inner-incredulity. The extent to which I was naive and/or ambivalent to the wicked ways of the world is both my personal failing and badge of honor. Deferring the details, to those with an interest in detail work, did not abrogate my right to object. I've spent many lonely years voicing those objections, frequently, loudly and stridently against a tide of "creative destruction"; mergers, acquisitions, liquidations, outsourcings, downsizings, re-organizations, vaporizations and other fiduciary trickery. Fiduciary: adj. Involving trust, esp. with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary.

Try as I might, I simply cannot rationally reconcile the buggering that has transpired. I cannot call it unprecedented. It has all been done before. Countless times throughout history. Just not to the extent or success of current efforts. We're #1? Racking up dubious and untethered record breaking statistics of profits and losses that defy understanding and common sense. Dazzling bullshit without question, or equal, in the annals of historic history.

We're bombarded with interpretations of numbers. Biggest, fastest, in aggregate, with differentials and derivatives factored in, but since we entered the untethered zones of opposite world, the baseline for our heralded greatness is non-existent. Records may be made to be broken, but our sophisticated manipulation of data and control of information corrupts the process to the point of meaninglessness.

We are living a rare combo platter of unfettered greed, unhinged thinking, untethered policy and a guidance structure that is exceedingly dominated by corporate interests. The whole magilla seems predicated on what best can be categorized as factitious disorder.A factitious disorder is a condition in which a person acts as if they have an illness by deliberately producing, feigning, or exaggerating symptoms. Factitious disorder by proxy is a condition in which a person deliberately produces, feigns, or exaggerates symptoms in a person in their care. Münchausen syndrome, a severe form of factitious disorder, was the first kind identified, and was for a period the umbrella term for all such disorders.[1] People with this condition may produce symptoms by contaminating urine samples, taking hallucinogens, injecting themselves with bacteria to produce infections, and other similar behaviour. They might be motivated to perpetrate factitious disorders either as a patient or by proxy as a caregiver to gain any variety of benefits including attention, nurturance, sympathy, and leniency that are seen as not obtainable any other way. In contrast, somatoform disorders, though also diagnoses of exclusion, are characterized by multiple somatic complaints that are not produced intentionally.

We no longer grasp the long con, because life demands that we focus on the constant more immediate threats and concerns. We're so busy tilling and tending fields of fertilizer that we fail to notice that the ONLY seeds being planted have been genetically modified to produce more threats and concerns. If it seems to you as though nothing works as it should, and you simply accept this as a fact of modern life, that is just the current system working to its design. Optimally.

When "shift, switch and shaft" first re-emerged on the national stage, it was wrapped in the flag and touted as realizing America's superiority in the world. It fed on nationalism, patriotism and illusionism. It was predicated on the illusion that we could, should and would spend our way to prosperity. We're still not at an acceptable vantage point to gauge such wisdom? I'm there. Been there a long, long time. You may be too? So what, at this point, are our options? We're told our only bet is to put more in, pull the handle and let the chips fall where they may? Who the fuck is running this circus? Who could have predicted...?



Happy Zappadan everybody!