[GJM] Budgeting is cruelty to humans

[Dan Parker]

I budget myself for all sorts of things, in which I could take
more if I wanted. 

I am well aware that pollution did not begin with industrialization,
and I suspect most people who are even moderate readers are
so informed.

I don't know what you're going on with regarding the killing
and so on, nor how you get this out of the Jeffersonian maxim.
Nor for that matter why you equate the European mindset with
pollution. It doesn't make sense in light of the the history of 
the Easter Islanders, the experience of early Central American 
civilizations etc. etc. etc.

I'll leave it at that, other than to say I don't think my work 
would become more productive by joining with you.

Dan
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Consilvio 
  To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net 
  Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 1:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [GJM] Budgeting is cruelty to humans


  Dan and Radu,


  I think you are both missing the fact that "budgeting" is what people do to others, but not to themselves.  If you budget yourself, it is only because someone has already budgeted you previously.


  As far as Jefferson goes, he was the typical intellectual fascist.  He was quite willing to budget who should live and who should die, and he budgeted his slaves carefully I suspect.  I did not say that there needed to be a class of wise-men as rulers; I only implied that people needed to be wise.  In contrast, Jefferson believed that the people were wise enough to choose leaders to rule over them, and then wise enough to kill them.  That strikes me as a political absurdity.  I doubt he would agree that I should kill him because he was unwise according to my standards, only that he should kill me if I was unwise according to his standards.


  If we have zero trees and zero clean rivers, then that is the result of budgeting, because they have no value in anybody's budget.  In Massachusetts there are zero clean lakes, excluding the reservoirs.  No fish taken should be eaten.  Should we blame Hamilton and not Jefferson for this situation, or the forces that drove men to pollute?  The Europeans brought their troubled minds to the American soil.  These lakes were not polluted before their arrival for thousands of years.  Pollution and raping the land did not begin with industrialism.


  How we treat people and how we treat the environment is a reflection of how we think about numbers, and in that order.  We will never treat the environment fairly if we cannot treat one another fairly, and we will never treat one another fairly as long as we are living under the fear or fascination of numbers.  If we must choose a number, zero fits best.  It represents both nothingness and somethingness.


  A better world is not possible until people think differently.  Only when people think differently can they act differently.  Killing people, hoarding wealth, stealing from the rich, suppressing the poor, using fear to gain political power, creating a new currency to supplant the old currency; none of these are new ideas.  These techniques have been tried over and over and over again.  History is scattered with the remains.


  It isn't enough to just change; the correct path must be followed.  Change can be for both the worse or the better.  The assumption that we can budget our way safely into the future is what is preventing the better world.  We are on the wrong path.  From federal budgets to state budgets to business and organization budgets to personal budgets.  Nobody is living in the moment; everybody lives in fear and with false hopes for a safe numerical future.


  Join me in the present.  It's a beautiful day, with zero troubles.


  peace,
  steve consilvio
  www.behappyandfree.com




  On Oct 1, 2007, at 2:00 PM, discussion-request at globaljusticemovement.net wrote:


      1. Re: Budgeting is cruelty to humans. (Dan Parker)

       2. Re: Budgeting is cruelty to humans. (radu Seserman)





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