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One of the frequent threads that run through emails found in my inbox, is the expressed desire to “change the system”. Capitalism isn’t working, so why can’t we find something better?

For many years this was my own view. The idea of a relative few, privileged, people holding all the wealth and power is anathema to any sane individual, and a system that allows it to happen is surely one to be turfed out with alacrity?

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to devise an alternative that would work. Communism, the great theory of equality of the masses, has been introduced in various guises, all of which have either eventually failed, or gradually metamorphosed into some form of dictatorial powerbase, with the most ruthless holding all the cards, and the money.

The reason no fair financial system can be devised is actually quite simple once one realizes the fault is not with the system, any system, but with those who use it, namely ourselves.

The species, Homo sapiens, for whom all financial systems on the planet are devised, have an inherent defect that prevents any system designed to provide equality for all, from functioning efficiently.

It’s called greed.

We tend to regard greed as a vice – indeed, it’s religiously immortalized as one of those seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride, that the early Christian fathers were so keen to remind us of while themselves indulging the vices to excess – but that doesn’t stop us from acquiring material wealth at every opportunity. The problem for Homo sapiens is that we can’t all acquire it uniformly.

Competition rears its ugly – or, perhaps, reptilian – head almost from the moment we’re born. Nowhere is this more patently obvious, of course, than in the land that lauds competitive capitalism as its greatest triumph – if you ignore the atomic bomb.

Americans prize winning more than anything else. One only has to watch TV during the Olympic Games to understand this, or feel the gut-wrenching misery of the sports commentator when a famous baseball, or football, player is discovered using steroids. The competitive edge is the engine that drives the American Dream, opening up the road that eventually will allow a tiny minority to reach the very tip of the wealth pyramid that is modern day American capitalism.

In fact, to call it ‘American capitalism’ is misleading. Like a disease, it has spread unchecked around the world, and is now more accurately described as ‘International capitalism’.

Even if a new system could be devised that was foolproof and would ensure a fairer, and more efficient, means of distributing wealth, Homo sapiens would be incapable of making it work.

We might stand a chance if we had God on our side. Creationism and intelligent design, were they true, would simply allow us to ask God to revoke the damnation placed upon us by the harlot, Eve, for daring to eat a forbidden apple, and lo, our vices would be removed, allowing us all to live in financial fraternity for evermore.

Unfortunately, Darwin has the edge when it comes to evidence of our origins, and anyone foolish enough to try and argue that point here will find themselves on dodgy ground.

Our reptilian brains evolved with one primary function – to assist survival, not just against other species, but in competition with our own. Natural selection may have been a theory of Darwin’s, but science – that’s the discipline that doesn’t rely solely on one not-so-very-old and rather dubious book for all its facts – has now determined it to be far more than just a concept.

We are the product of millions of years of evolution, whatever William Jennings Bryan may have believed back in 1926 (Scopes trial), or Ted Haggard preached (until recently) at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

We are hard-wired to individually survive. It’s those primitive and deeply-entrenched instincts that drive the greed and avarice responsible for corrupting the systems we set in place to run our societies efficiently, whether they be capitalism, communism, or any point in between.

At this stage in our civilization, attempting to ‘change the system’ appears a hideously complex challenge, and it would seem there’s little point until we change ourselves.

And that is much, much, more difficult.

Filed under: Blame the dinosaurs

Do you ever get the feeling Republicans are still in control of this country?

While President Obama is running his socks off trying to persuade the party that lost the election to vote for his stimulus package, members of that party are busy ensuring their wealthy constituents aren’t going to be too financially inconvenienced by it.

Oh, heck, you know what? I don’t want to write about this crap anymore. Americans deserve the politicians they elected, and almost half of America wanted the party that was impoverishing them back in power. It says a lot for the average US brain cell, now doesn’t it?

Republicans are whining that there’s too much pork in the stimulus bill. They want the part that pays off the states’ debt to be trimmed, saying it won’t create more jobs.

What total crap!

Paying off the debts owed by the states may not create new jobs, but it will certainly help keep jobs that would otherwise be lost. Is that too complicated for Republicans to understand?

Likewise, for the same reason, they want to trim social programs like healthcare and education. Well, who the hell needs them anyway? Oh, yes, I forgot. The poor need healthcare and education. But, Republicans are quite right: technically it won’t create jobs, so let’s scrub it from the stimulus package, because who cares about the poor anyway?

California state workers are on strike over job losses and short-time working. California has the biggest state deficit in America. As yet, no-one is daring to suggest it might just be down to the ineptitude of the Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who seems hellbent on terminating California as an economic viability.

Well, Goddammit, we mustn’t criticize those warm-hearted, generous to a fault, Republicans, now must we? After all, aren’t they the party of God, defending the sanctity of jackets and ties in the Oval Office?

Republican Andrew Card, the Chief of Staff to George W Bush, today criticized President Obama for not wearing a jacket in the Oval Office, stating it “betrayed the sanctity of the office”.

Andrew Card’s wife once asked him, “Are you married to me, or George W Bush?”

It’s understood his answer was vague.

Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News tonight consoled us all with a neat little infomercial financed by the makers of that horrifically unhealthy ‘meat’ product, Spam.

According to anchor, Brian Williams, the American people will survive the economic crisis by switching to a Spam-based diet. Sales of this cheap, artery-clogging commodity, have spiraled during the recession and, as NBC Nightly assures, it will assist us in surviving to better times, even if we die from coronary heart disease shortly afterward.

Of course, that won’t worry the Republicans. After all, it’s one good way of getting rid of some of that pork, and you can be sure that Spam will not be the Republican cuisine of choice, this economic crisis.

Filed under: Marie Antoinette syndrome

The perpetrators of 9/11 believed what they were doing on that day was right, because they were absolutely certain they were dispensing the will of God.

In Volume One, Chapter Two, of his book, Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote:

I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.”

For years following the Second World War, Christian historians attempted to portray the German Fuhrer as an atheistic, devil-worshipping, satanist who led an evil force against the Christian God and all He represented.

Nothing was further from the truth. Indeed, Mein Kampf is filled with religious utterances and claims of Christian faith, as were many of Hitler’s speeches.

If we had any doubts beforehand, then the events of September 11th 2001, must surely have reinforced the conclusion that the most dangerous individuals in the world are those suffering from a misplaced belief they are acting on behalf of a divine Creator.

Indeed, tracing the history of warfare, and violence against populations, it’s hard to discover one involved ruler or leader who wasn’t convinced he was either acting on behalf of a God, or that he was God.

George W Bush was just such a leader, but thankfully his reign has ended.

So, one would think, has this man’s……

……but, apparently not, judging by a speech he made today at the Annual Prayer Breakfast in Washington. A speech in which he used the word, “God,” thirty-one times.^[1]

This is a man who helped slaughter countless innocent human beings, who admitted to deceiving the British people over his religious faith while in office – denying it as adroitly as any Judas Iscariot, assisted George W Bush in the extraordinary rendition and torture of prisoners, and like his trans-Atlantic counterpart, brought the country he purported to lead to its knees, both morally and economically.

Addressing US President Barack Obama:

Now, also, we should be as steadfast with you in the hard work, as we were in the celebration…… Sir, we offer you our friendship today. We will work with you to make your presidency one that shapes our destiny to the credit of America and the world.”

Tony Blair, today, represents no-one but himself. In the above extract he used the word “we” on four occasions. Of whom was he speaking? To whom was he referring?

Tony Blair no longer has a mandate to speak for the British people.

Or, does he, perhaps, believe he has a mandate from God?

^{[1] “Blair hails ‘God’s love’ in extraordinary speech….. “ Daily Mail, February 5th 2009}

Filed under: Blessed are the meek