philosophy

Clever, Not Intelligent…

by MyBaconPress

For various reasons, recently I’ve been contemplating the question of human uniqueness in the galaxy. There’s a possibility that we – humans – are the only, um, “intelligent” species currently in existence anywhere in the galaxy. That’s what we call ourselves, “intelligent.” I see a lot of room for questions. We call ourselves “intelligent” because we’ve decided the criteria to our own advantage. I guess that’s clever. I’ll keep using that description, “intelligent,” since there’s no one around to debate the point. Please just understand, I’m not convinced.

Personally, I don’t really accept that we’re the only. I’m also not a big believer in aliens visiting Earth. But they must be out there. The one fact I have – a thing I know for sure – is that life finds a way. One hears scientists speculate that they can’t see how life could exist in such-and-such an environment only to find such an environment, discover life DOES exist there, and then figure out how. They found a lichen that sucks moisture from rocks! Update the records.

I currently subscribe to the idea that there are other “intelligent” species out there. They rise to a certain technological level – about where we are right now, by the way – and then do something spectacularly stupid – confident, at the time, in their own intelligence. They either wipe themselves out entirely, or knock themselves back to their own Stone Age and have to start again.

But if it IS true that we, the species, are, in fact, the only “intelligent” species ever to rise to this level, we’re sure doing a lousy job of representing “intelligence.” I mean, if we ARE the singular example – and there’s no evidence of aliens elsewhere – don’t we have a high obligation to represent better than we’re doing? Don’t we have a moral obligation to be the best we can be? Is that how it looks to you?

We’ve put ourselves directly on a path to our own destruction. We KNOW it. We’re doing it anyway. “Well, sure, Dan, we ARE going to wipe ourselves out of existence day-after-tomorrow, but we really need to maximize shareholder value today.” That suggests we’ve been FAR to generous in our own description of ourselves. We’ve been, here it is again, clever, not “intelligent.” We find solutions to common problems and we use skills in practical ways. But do we have a high level of understanding and cognitive ability?

Would an intelligent species really just continue to abuse it’s own environment, ignoring each and every warning sign as it comes up? Would a genuinely intelligent species really risk wiping itself off the planet using weapons so powerful we can accomplish that feat by accident? No, there are many, many contraindicators regarding our own, self-described “intelligence.”

The current form of human has been around for something like 300,000 years. It makes sense that, early on, we might have settled differences by trying to kill each other. But 300,000 years later and we STILL haven’t figured out a better, more civilized way? How is that “intelligent?” What we DID was come up with better ways to accomplish the same old goal. Clever.

Early on, there weren’t enough of us to affect our environment. There are now, and we’re doing it. We know we’re doing it. We care, just not enough to stop doing it. It would be very inconvenient. A storm just passed over Michigan and the tornadoes that came with it killed at least six people. The storm-front was born down near Texas and maintained it’s strength as it crossed the continent into Michigan. That’s climate change. More powerful storms. We KNOW it.

We also know what causes it. I’m pretty sure an intelligent species would realize the situation, then seek and implement a better way. We even know the better way we need to pursue! Instead, we’re doubling down on the things we KNOW we need to stop doing if we want to survive this thing. That’s a pretty high stakes game we, the so-called “intelligent” species, are playing.

If we were intelligent, shouldn’t we have left the trappings of ignorance behind by now? Shouldn’t we learn from previous mistakes and find ways to keep from making them again? But we don’t do that. We just keep making the same mistakes, over and over again. That’s not intelligent. But we repeat those mistakes more efficiently and effectively, because we’re clever. Lovely.

As a species, we have (had?) tremendous potential. Unfortunately, our potential has been overshadowed by our application. While we call ourselves “intelligent,” we’re actively involved in exactly the kind of spectacular stupidity that will roll us back to our Stone Age or possibly wipe us out, entirely. Hey, at least we’ll be clever about it…

It’s the Free Market, Stupid…

by MyBaconPress

Capitalist: 1) An investor of capital in business, especially one having a major financial interest in an important enterprise. 2) A person of great wealth. Then, thrown in to try to keep the rest of us on board, 3) A supporter of capitalism. (Uh-huh…)

It’s one of the greatest deceptions of all time. Capitalists have their victims (that’s you and me) declaring themselves capitalists and defending capitalism. And we do, too. If you ask anybody in America, odds are they’ll tell you they’re a capitalist and they believe in capitalism. You can see that one of the definitions is ‘A supporter of capitalism.’ That makes us feel like we’re ‘on the team,’ as it were – but we really, really are not.

Those first two definitions – rich people who have major financial interests in important enterprises – are FAR more accurate descriptions of capitalists, but do you know what THAT means? That means that, far and away, most Americans are NOT capitalists. (We’re the victims of capitalism.) We’re not rich and we don’t own enough to have “major financial interests in important enterprises.” We just get up and go to work, creating the wealth the capitalists keep – and then use against us…

Suddenly, I feel a need to make this point. There are NOT only two systems, Capitalism or Communism. I don’t support communism, either. It clearly doesn’t work – based on the idea that it has never worked anywhere in the world, any time in history. But this so-called ‘Free Market Capitalism’ ain’t working so hot, either, wouldn’t you say?

I support the middle road, once known as New Deal Capitalism. I call it ‘Social Capitalism.’ The rest of the world calls it ‘Democratic Socialism.’ That’s too bad, too. Americans have been fully conditioned, brainwashed really, to believe that the word socialism describes one thing and one thing only: communism, so the instant they hear that word, many Americans crap their panties and dive for the covers to hide their heads. But despite the stupid name, it’s really just managed capitalism, the kind that fights back against capitalistic abuse. It’s better for everyone – even rich people.

Right now, the poster child for the failure of ‘Free Market Capitalism’ is Luigi Mangione, the guy who gunned down the current poster child for capitalistic abuse, Brian Thompson. Mangione shot Thompson in the back, just gunned him down in the street. As of this writing, it appears Mangione shot Thompson as a symbol. That is, he had no personal beef with Thompson. Thompson became the poster child of capitalistic abuse because he was the CEO of the health insurance company that denied more claims than any other company.

Nobody seems to care. I see memes out there of Luigi superimposed by Photoshop into various work environments with comments about how he was there on Dec 4, on-site all day and right next to other workers. Never out of their sight, even for a moment. Why, the memes insist, Luigi couldn’t have done it. Alibi established. Obviously, it isn’t. It turns out, the police have a few photos of their own – and theirs aren’t Photoshopped.

Truthfully, when the shooting occurred, my first thought was “Someone who got denied.” I wasn’t alone. I felt badly that I didn’t feel worse about the shooting. I felt guilty that I was kind of happy to see a little guy get even for a change. As it happens, I’m not alone in THAT, either. I expected the party to end a few days later, as people got past their bubbling anger and re-connected with their humanity. So far, that hasn’t happened. Instead, there’s a “Free Luigi” movement starting.

Do you know who IS showing signs of concern, though? Corporate media. The media owned and operated by the capitalists. The message coming from both sides of the dial is the same – it’s poor form to shoot capitalists. Don’t do it. That’s not working, either. I suspect we’ve all noticed that NONE of them are promising to change their ways. They just don’t want people shooting them for the abuses. But people are really angry and most of us seem quite happy that a rich guy got his, for a change. And that’s the key.

Thompson’s program of denial likely killed thousands. THAT was just “good business.” HE was getting bonuses for increasing the bottom line so nicely. Families were planning funerals that didn’t have to happen. We ALL know this. We ALL know we COULD have decent health care in this country. But the capitalists don’t WANT us to have decent health care. They can’t profit if they can’t insert themselves into the process and all they care about is profit.

So, after forty years of living the ‘Free Market Capitalism’ life, one guy has reached the point of shooting someone and the rest of us are cheering the act. There’s even a new movement out there called ‘Board rooms, not classrooms.’ It takes the position that, if you’re going to be a random shooter that goes out and kills someone for fame – at least kill someone whose death benefits society. Don’t kill six-year olds. Don’t shoot up classrooms. Kill CEO’s. Shoot up board rooms. Go out a hero, like Luigi. (I’m only describing, and not endorsing, the movement, here.)

I think Luigi was trying to start something and I think he has. Somehow, this single act of defiance has loosed a torrent of anger at the way our economy works (or doesn’t, in so many cases). I suspect Luigi wanted other people to start shooting right away. That part didn’t happen but the anger is now at the top, not being hidden anymore, perhaps bubbling over. In fact, it’s being celebrated. There WILL BE other shooters.

And now, just to put the icing on the cake, we’re getting the richest political Cabinet in history. We’re already hearing messages from billionaires like, “You Poors are going to have to suffer,” and comments about how Joe Six-pack has it way too easy. Trump has admitted, now, that he isn’t going to bring the price of groceries down and he can’t guarantee his tariffs won’t raise prices. “Yeah, I lied. Whaddaya gonna do about it?” Hey, ask Luigi.

Consider this: So-called “Free Market Capitalism” has created a world in which people cheer when a capitalist is gunned down in the street – and all the while, there have been entities in place pushing back against the abuses of the Free Market. Now, the One Percent (and Putin) have managed to install the richest group of people in history, none of whom have even the slightest idea of what life is like for a working person. Corruption has mostly eliminated the restraints the held them back in the past – even the recent past.

Now? The brakes are off. The capitalists – the true capitalists, not the “supporters of capitalism” – are about to have their way with the economy without restraint. Do you think that’s going to be better or worse for the Small Folk? If we’re already at, “Yes, kill them!” and the capitalists are about to turn the screws even harder – and I guarantee they are – I expect blood.

To be clear, I don’t WANT blood. I wish every self-absorbed, self-serving, self-described “important” blowhard would get visits from three ghosts and see the error of their ways. But John Kennedy’s words are about to explode in front of us. The capitalists are making violent revolution inevitable…