[GJM] Lurban Kohler on The Inner Structure of "the machine?"

[Wesley S. Burt]

Hello again Lurban,

A warm thank you to you and Marguerite 
for joining the discussion and for a new 
subject heading which rings a bell with 
every one.  "The machine" conveys a sense 
of dealing with an automated system that 
performs in accord with its design, but 
is now operating under new conditions the 
designers may not have anticipated.

You write below, Lurban:
"Unless we can agree and act in 
unison, any attempts to begin change 
are "picked off" -nipped in the bud .. ."

I agree completely, and wonder if the 
published data on the performance of 
"the machine" from 1789 to date, as 
presented on attached Fig 2-3e.gif, is 
correct, in your opinion.  I know that 
list Fix-Gov does not distribute 
attachments and John Gelles has 
rejected my visusl-aids.  But it seems 
to me that if we shared the same 
numerical data our readers might 
conclude that we are all talking about 
the same machine.  

Every time I look at that steady 
3.3%/year inflation between 1980 
and 2003, I wonder why the two step 
increase in the M1 money supply did 
not disturb the inflation rate.  

My best hope for a change in the machine's 
performance is the notion that today's 
designers will change their minds, and 
modify the design to reverse the century 
old trends.  There seems to be no natural 
limit to those trends, except system failure.

If we know how to design "alternative 
systems, cooperative instead of 
competitive, horizontal organization 
instead of hierarchical," it might be 
easier to fix the existing machine.

Kind regards,

Wes Burt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: lurban kohler <lurbankohler at yahoo.com>
To: FixGov at yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 05:18:15 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [FixGov] "the machine?"

~~~~~~~ Brief Snip ~~~~~~~~~

As I see it the problem is that our way of generating
currency, creating money, is an ongoing bonanza for
the financial elite who then use a substantial amount
of the "free money" to preserve the status quo.
(feeding the machine even as it gets uglier and
nastier)

The elite, as I see it (but oversimplified,) are well
compensated servants of the "machine." They've 
learned that success depends on not looking too 
closely at it--avoiding attention to certain things . . .

So what needs to be done is change the money 
system in a way that stops giving a cut off the 
top of every effort and enterprize to the servants 
of the machine (the visible LORDS of our economy 
& politics).  As mentioned before, the machine 
has no body to die nor soul to damn. Its chief 
mandate is to create as much profit as possible 
regardless of social, environmental, etc. . . . . 
consequences.  Its chief goal is to perpetuate 
itself and grow! (same as a cancer)

The MACHINE was somehow created by 
humanity but is not what individual humans 
want, or should want.  The money system is 
used by the Machine to gain and keep the 
support of humans at every level.  Humans 
must gain the awareness of what is enslaving 
us and setting our priorities --priorities which 
disregard consequences.
. . . . . .

we can talk about details and symptoms 
forever without getting at the fundamental 
problem. As long as we use money in the 
current way, getting it from current sources, 
its power over us and our choices of what 
to do with earth's treasures and human 
kind's efforts will remain the same and the 
destruction will continue.

This seems clear enough to many, but in 
spite of all the ink spent describing better 
systems we have not articulated a plan 
to escape from the faulty system which 
has us in its thrall. We are so bound to 
this sytem, especially those who have 
any power, that escape requires drastic 
action. Unless we can agree and act in 
unison, any attempts to begin change 
are "picked off" -nipped in the bud .. . 

I think parallelism --rejecting as much as 
possible the toxic system wherever we 
can, building (along side existing institutions) 
alternative systems, cooperative instead 
of competetive, horizontal organization 
instead of hierarchical etc., holds promise 
as a way of seeing & exploring a different 
path. . . . . anybody with me on this analysis? 
--Urban
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