A Foreigner Among Friends

The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, and suddenly we were all aquiver over not being vaporized under a mushroom cloud of fissionable material. Our jubilation of avoiding sudden irradiation was elevated by the promise of the “Peace Dividend”. The Cold War was over and now all would share in victory, harmony, and the reduced cost of a detente military. Where would that money go? The Cure for Cancer? Colonizing Mars? Ending world hunger? Poverty? The ludicrous idea of putting it back in the pockets of the people who earned was even considered momentarily. 

While we contemplated, discussed, and contended over how we would allocate our windfall Peace Dividend, the rhythm of war drums could be heard from beyond the horizon from half a world away. At first, barely detectable but soon their constant pounding drowned out every voice, then every other sound. Louder and closer they grew. The drums now deafening, panicking, frenzying, and driving us into madness. Madness and murder… and that’s how you get a ten year discount on crude from the Emir of Kuwait at the price of peace and her elusive dividend. 

The ubiquitous peace demonstrators waving placards reading, “Stop Bush’s Illegal War!” flooded every strategic intersection in urban America. Anti-war rallies appeared in public venues throughout George W. Bush’s two terms. It looked every bit the legitimate peace movement reminiscent of the 1960’s protests. Then, on the day Barack Obama was elected to the Oval office the protests vanished like wisps of smoke. The wars went on and intensified, but the “peace protesters” never returned. The “peace protesters” exposed themselves as political agitators willing to accept war without end when it suited their political party. With a Republican in the White House today the wars overseas have become a distant sideshow to the homegrown battle of Russian election interference. The new enemy is the only enemy we can see. I can’t decide which political faction is worse, those who use the pretense of peace for their own ulterior motives or those who denounce peace as Anti-American.  

Even the Romans one of the most militaristic empires ever to scourge the planet had a goddess of peace named Eirene. They valued peace so much that they deified her. We have no such value today, but I knew Peace and I loved her. 


Since The First Gulf War, the conflict we fondly recall as "Operation Desert Storm", there has been a change in the character of American culture. That change culminated at 8:46 AM on 11 September, 2001 when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the northern facade of the World Trade Center Towers Building 1 and changing forever in the American mind the desire for peace. From that moment we would never again stop and look back at Peace, the girl of our youth whom we knew and loved.

Instead, we marched like zombies into twenty years of war and seventy more armed conflicts. Even now the embers of those conflicts still smolder and flare into current crises. This is the predictable results of putting out fires with a baseball bat. America at war became normalized, no casualty reports, no horrors, just photo ops, and an occasional hero mourned in a fifty-word blurb on page six. Peace was not openly spoken of or considered out of fear of putting American troops at risk. Imagine that, anything but uncompromising support for constant war being a threat to "our men and women in uniform". Even a football player taking a knee in silent protest became an act of betrayal deeply wounding those who proudly fight for freedom. This is the acceptable insanity, the pervasive mental sodomy of this day some twenty years march away from Peace.

  

A whole generation of Americans has grown from infants to adulthood over these last decades. Children born of and raised on war. Children who have never know a single day of peace. They do not miss what they have never known. But we... but I knew her and loved her. 


Once in a while, in moments of weakness, I still long for Peace. Meanwhile, you want for bloody conflicts, thrilling skirmishes, and epic showdowns, all employing baseball bats. All showering embers into the tinderbox of your next fucking war. All taking us further from peace. 

I still praise Eirene. You glorify the rider of a pale horse. I have become a foreigner among friends. 

Death rides a pale horse.

Three Decades and Seventy Conflicts later... check my math: 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations

Then, I'll count your tears.

Real Priorities

It's time to think clearly and set our priorities accordingly. Think Globally, Act Intelligently, Act Responsibly, Act Truthfully, Act in Liberty...

Getting Out of Line

There is a false dichotomy implanted in our minds from a very early age. There is only day or night, only wrong or right. There is only Left or Right. A noxious false dichotomy destined to rule our thoughts for the rest of our lives. 

We are told we live within a political spectrum which also ranges from Left to Right. Like the number lines affixed to our elementary school desks running from -10 to zero, then from zero to +10, this implantation is fixed in our minds from a very early age. We can't really imagine anything outside of our paradigm. We have a hard time grasping concepts outside that number line encompassing all there is: Left or Right. 

If we follow this idea to its logical conclusion there should be a world of difference between one end on the Left and the other on the Right, but is there?

The Left taken to its “extreme” places us in a Communist Dictatorship with the means of production OWNED by the State. Not a system most people want to live under.

The Right taken to its “extreme” places us in a Fascist Dictatorship with the means of production CONTROLLED by the State. Not a system most people want to live under either.

There is no appreciable difference between these two extremes of the political spectrum we are offered. Both place the electorate in the bottom layer of an authoritarian pyramid choosing between two forms of dictatorships, which are effectively the same. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Still, these are the two choices within the false dichotomy we may choose from. Both a choice towards a dictatorship with the State in control of our production, our lives, our children, our number lines, and even our very thoughts.

It's time to think differently. It is time to be free.

Follow me

It's Our Annual Pay Octuple the Price Get Nothing Sale 

We had the American RePublic...

Who wants any kind of "public" government anyway? It's trashy. Isn't a private, exclusive government more American when you think about it? Like our own privileged country club we're excluded from for millionaires and billionaires to invite their friends and family to share in the ambiance of wealth and power without all our preying eyes and babbling mouths asking inane questions like, "Where the fuck is all our money?" Barbaric! A government of the ruling elite where only the first names change every few years and the dynasty continues. That's the kind of government we're voting for, fighting for, trolling for, and dying for... mainly because we are too uneducated to recognize it.

I may have started with a poor definition of "RePublic", but you'll never figure out the difference because you haven't so far.

We had inalienable Rights...

Why should aliens have Rights anyway? They just come here and take our jobs and live off welfare. Then, because they hate our freedom so much they blow up iconic office buildings and dance in the streets when Americans die. That's why they shouldn't have inalienable Rights so we can fly over their countries and bomb the living shit out of people whenever, wherever, and for as long as we want. That's what REAL freedom is about... the freedom to drop American bombs any size, anyplace, anytime forever without repercussions. Zero blow-back as long as we can keep a muzzle on people in the press and lock up traitors who don't keep their mouths shut when we kill the innocent. Hell, it's on the other side of the planet. Who cares? Keep it out of the news and cover it up with funny classic Trump Tweets. Covfefe!

I know we've wandered a long way off the point. That's the point!

We had the American Dream...

Which other than a brief window of opportunity between 1945 and 1965 has always been more delusion than fulfilled prophesy. We had it, at least for a little while. Who really wants a goddamn white picket fence anyway? We need a border wall. A gigantic 700 foot tall white picket fence from the Gulf of Mexico (Made in China) to the Sino-Pacific Ocean (Made in China). Think of the thousands of jobs we will create painting that motherfucker every three years. That's going to be a lot of hard work in a hot, humid climate working under dangerous conditions... Yup, that sounds like a lot of work... for Mexicans. Come to think of it, if it's Mexicans doing the actual work, then we'll only need a crew of about twenty. One must be semi-fluent in English and have a valid drivers license. 

How much can we save on the Mexicans if we buy them on Amazon from China? 

Free shipping?

I know it seems like I'm way off track here, but that's how far off track our American economy has run. It's like watching a nineteen trillion dollar train wreck. You're gonna' want to see this because you'll never see another one like it. Sure, the stock market is doing great but that's with the cost of borrowing money to throw into equities at effectively zero percent. Smells like a bubble to me.

You follow me?

Thank you, Julian.

I'm a supporter of Julian Assange and his Wikileaks tell-all journalism platform. I have a hard time understanding how flag-waving Americans could not support both.
I'm a little over fifty years old now, and I lived (Thank you, Jesus!) through the Cold War. I was raised on the ideal of American freedom. Back in the day, we were told freedom was the thing that made us better than our old Cold War adversary the Soviet Union. Freedom is better than totalitarianism. No one had to explain this to me. Thomas Paine would call it "Common Sense". 

Truth is better than lies.

Throughout the Cold War, we were told the American Free Press informed us of the truth. While back in the USSR the Communist propaganda mill spun a web of lies to inject its own people with the venom of deceit. 

Truth is better than lies. 

No one ever spelled that out for me. It seemed obvious. So, you can imagine my dismay, hopefully, because you share it, when Wikileaks exposed the lies of the United States government. Lies meant to cover up murder. Not just one murder, but between eight and twelve murders of unarmed reporters mistaken for insurgents. None were armed with anything but a camera. Cameras expose the truth.  So, the group of truth telling reporters were gunned down to a man. When the Department of Defense was asked about the incident the DoD spokesman disavowed any US involvement in the incident.  That's where public knowledge of the mass shooting would have ended in a perfect cover up. After all, it's only murder if you get caught. That's the lesson I learned from Uncle Sam's. . leadership by example.

To solve a problem you must first admit there is a problem. The Department of Defense lied and innocents died. Lesson learned...

Truth is better than lies.

A few minutes after the slaughter, a van driven by a good Samaritan arrived on the scene. The driver seeing the dead and dying stopped to help. With two young girls visible in the front seat of the van an Apache opened fire as the driver and another unidentified man carry one of the wounded reporters to the side door of the van. No one was engaging the helicopter. No one fired a single round at the crew. No threat of any kind was made towards American troops. These were angels of mercy, these were good, decent men helping wounded civilians. For their humanity, they too were gunned down in the street. 

If it happened to our soldiers there would be outrage, but these aren't soldiers. These were all unarmed  civilians. Live and let live is better than shoot first and cover it up later. 

Truth is better than lies. 

Now, imagine if some foreign power invaded America, gunned down civilians, and the civilians attempting to rescue the wounded while two little American girls sat in the line of fire. How would you react? Would you want it buried beneath the velvet words of denial from the perpetrator's military spokesperson? Would you accept, "Accidents happen?" Would you believe the aggressor was doing everything in their power to minimize civilian casualties? 

What we did was arrest the man and attack the platform who exposed out lies. That's another important lesson I learned from Uncle Sam's leadership by example. Silence those who expose your propaganda mill, and rally support back home for your venom of deciet. Cover your murder in Red, White, and Blue. Heavy on the Red. 

There is no patriotism less American and more Communist dictatorship than the blind variety. Heavy on the Soviet Red. Yes, accidents happen in wars, but neither wars nor lies happen by accident. 

Truth is better than lies. 

Throughout the Cold War, we were told our right to peaceably assemble and petition for the redress of grievances allowed the American People to publicly dissent. The Soviet Union's police state crushed dissent anywhere it was found. Free expression is superior to heavy-handed repression. No one had to spell that out for me. It also seemed pretty obvious. So, you can imagine my dismay, hopefully, because you also share it, when Julian Assange became a hunted man on trumped-up rape charges after showing the American People they had cause to dissent.

Truth is better than lies.

I'm not angry so much that my government is out doing heinous things. I come to expect that as par for the course. I'm angry that while they are out wreaking havoc and making of us mercenaries for merchants they still maintain the pretense of this...

That pisses me off because it advances the woefully wrong idea that Life and Liberty are only things we offer, not take. 

Let us offer truth...

Truth is better than lies.

I'm angry and I am more than just a little confused about what IT is "We the People" stand for in the Land of the [To Be Determined]. I feel like I'm on the Right side of the Wrong war. I feel like a foreigner among friends. Friends who are okay with just going along to get along and accepting whatever they're told by our perpetual warlords in Washington. Warlords who have taught me another valuable lesson: It's alright to commit any heinous act so long as you justify it the words "...to protect our Freedoms". That's the truth.

Truth is better than lies.

I don't know about you, but this isn't what I signed up for. I hope you didn't either, but I am coming to terms with the truth. The truth is I have a long history of being wrong about what America stands for. 

Truth is better than lies.

I can empathize with Julian Assange more than most. We're both coming to terms with the truth and how little truth is valued outside rhetorical banter within political forums. The word truth is spewed within state houses, people's assemblies, politburos, legislatures, and parliaments the world over. Wherever the powerful and preeminent gather the word truth will be heard like a banging gong and a clashing cymbal amidst the rest of the sounds emanating from their maws like sweet honey with the value of vomit. 

From those whose words we honor, from the mouths of those whose commands we obey, from those whose scribbles we call the law, the truth will always be nothing more than a theoretical tool. Like God, freedom, love, justice, honor, good, virtue, and all the other things we hold sacred. Those who issue the orders will invoke these theoretical tools properly to incite men to kill other men as a means to their own ends. 

Truth is never to be actualized or applied in respect to the words, thoughts, or deeds of our rightful god-kings. Never. 

Julian Assange is coming to terms with that truth as he sits a disposable hero in the Bastille of angry god-kings now. He will be made to pay dearly for his misguided misuse of truth.

Truth is better than lies.

Julian has shown me this truth... The best prophets walk you up to the curtain between ignorance and understanding. Then, allow you to peer through. I have peered through, and I will never believe their lies again.

Thank you, Julian, for showing me the curtain.

Truth is better than lies. 

Thank you, Julian.

Post-it Notes from a BIG Country

There are distinct disadvantages to living in a big country. Doubly so for a big country isolated from the other ninety-five percent of the world’s population. We can come, or jump, to some pretty strange conclusions. Big countries allow for a lot of jumping space. We might assume that the other people on planet Earth are out of their minds for not playing ball with us, instead preferring to play a far more exhausting form of “football”. Obviously, they’re only doing this to piss us off and threatening our interests overseas. One of the conclusions we don’t come to is those “interests overseas” are really other people’s. Other people’s countries, other people’s children, other people’s families, and other people’s lives. That’s what we’re talking about when we use the phrase, “our interests overseas.” In a big country they seem so remote, it’s as if they aren’t real people like us. They are more inanimate objects, even abstracts, but certainly not real people like us. As I said, some pretty strange conclusions.

Much of our foreign policy is driven by the need to protect our interests overseas. It seems perfectly reasonable. After all, they are ours. Personal property is the cornerstone of freedom, right? Pretty strange conclusions.

It’s a big country. So big we can forget where our boundaries lay.

10 Years Later...

It's been a decade since the Credit Crisis of 2008 which gave birth to misery for millions of Americans. The terms Under water (Negative home equity), The 1% (Richest 1% of society), and The 99% (Not The 1%) took on new meanings. As a result of the financial hardships suffered by the 99% (allegedly at the hand of the 1%) the Occupy Movement was born. Occupy was supposed to remedy the conditions which caused the hardships and hold those responsible for the Crisis accountable. Let's take a look at how successful Occupy has been ten years later...

(Click the image to enlarge)

Personally, I don't believe that most of these demands would have been beneficial, desirable, or even attainable, but what I am certain of is Occupy was an epic failure. Not only did the movement fail to have one of its demands met, it also served as a pressure relief valve which channeled the much justified frustration of the American people away from productive action. The bottom line results were a massive loss of momentum for real change. Keep in mind this was the largest grass roots movement America has had in living memory and it accomplished nothing. No change for the better whatsoever. The biggest criminals in the nation laughed at the bankrupt cliche, "Crime doesn't pay." 

One of the greatest errors of the Occupy Movement was aiming for the wrong target. Wall Street is not accountable to the People. Wall Street is only accountable to equity shareholders. Angry non-shareholders hold exactly zero weight on Wall Street. The Occupation target should have been Washington, D.C., which is (or should be) accountable to the People. The laws which allowed the Credit Crisis to implode were written in Washington D.C. Were the laws written at the behest of Wall Street? I'm sure they were, but don't lose focus on who can be held accountable to the People. Occupy never had that clarity of focus and look at the results. I can't decide which Occupy was more shame or sham. 

Today, ten years later, we sit and wait while wringing our hands for the next ticking time bomb to explode knowing it's not a question of "if" but "when"? 



Author's Note: As for the demands the only one I would agree with would be number ten. I would have also demanded that those responsible be charged with fraud, which is exactly what happened. They did it in Iceland successfully. As a "Rule of Law" nation we should have done it here in the United States, but our actions will always speak louder than our words. Our actions say the only Law we have is the "New Golden Rule". 

He who has the Gold makes the Rules, even Ten Years Later.  

Hunting Objectivity

I believe that truly objective news is a mythical creature. There is always bias in reporting because the stories are composed by people. People come with their own biases, views, and perspectives. These are the hermeneutics through which we view the world and all that happens in it . Absolute neutrality can only occur serendipitously if a journalist has no opinion on the topic, which probably means they don't know enough about the subject matter to inform others. Ignorance is blissful objectivity, and makes for poor journalism.

Rather than seeking the rare Jackalope Unicorn species of objective news, I try to get a broad spectrum of reporting on the same subject from many different sources, (CNN, Fox, Reuters, Associated Press, Russia Today, India Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Beijing Times Japan Times, etc.) from as many different mediums as possible (print, radio, internet, alternative media). The more viewpoints from which you can gather information, the closer you are to truth.

A few lessons I have learned over the years:

#1. The more heart rending or emotional a story is, the further it is from truth. Many times this is sensationalism sold as journalism. Who, what, when, where, and why are the queries that must be answered.  When they offer facts, as a prima facie case for how to interpret or how you should feel about the facts is when journalism dies and propaganda begins.

#2. Never dismiss a news source as being pure propaganda. This would eliminate all news sources. Even propaganda is informative as long as you have the counter-propaganda at your disposal. You can "triangulate" the truth with enough data points (sources).

#3. Whenever the media has you myopically focused on one thing, look everywhere else. Something big is happening elsewhere and everyone else is missing it.

Good luck. You're on your own,

Michael

Tag. You’re it.

Today, fielding a massive standing army fully equipped with the latest tools of belligerent war is only a short march to bankruptcy and decline. Ultimately, the weapons that win wars are not nuclear warheads or nerve agents, they are barbecue grills, movies in DVD or MP4 format, leather handbags, insurance policies, basketball hoops, shoe laces, salad forks, breakfast cereals and every other useful thing we need in life manufactured by the millions. Trade is conquest. Goods and services are the weapons of modern war in the 21st Century. The ability to bring the highest quality weapons of war to market at the lowest cost is victory. The soldiers of the future are consumers by the millions and billions. Feed these soldiers, make them beautiful, cloth them, house them, relieve their lower back pain, maintain communication between them, train them, guarantee their pizza on time, earn their loyalty and you will conquer the world from your point of sale checkout. In the words of Sun Tzu, “Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.” The Art of War III-2. What Sun Tzu is describing is winning the hearts and minds by cultural superiority, and such superiority can only be accomplished by aggressively engaging in international trade. Exporting an idea packaged in a lifestyle filled with useful things and, most of all, purpose. Provide soldiers with these things and they will follow you anywhere.

As much as the Polish were caught unprepared for the future when they committed wave after wave of their finest mounted cavalry as sacrificial offerings before Panzers and Stukas in hope of forestalling defeat, America is unprepared. The rules have changed, the game board transformed, and national alliances once like familial bonds broken. The post war years are over and the Pax Americana with it. Military dominance has given way to market dominance. The oceans at our flanks which protected us throughout the Second World War have become the walls of our isolation. Most of the world shares a common landmass and we are not part of it. This geographical fact puts our island-like national trade at a serious numerical disadvantage.

If you think distance doesn't matter in a shrinking world, ask yourself how often have you paid $4.99 for a gallon of milk at a convenience store rather than $1.99 at a grocery store ten blocks down the road? Many more times than you can remember.

Now, ask yourself why don't we get our bottled water from Tajikistan when the labor and packaging costs are so much lower than American bottled water? Shipping costs would outstrip any savings. The end result is high priced foreign water few would buy. I can't account for Perrier. So, I'm labeling it an anomaly and moving on.

In America, we are still playing Post-War/ Cold War games with a Second World War mindset. The near surreal administration of President Trump is living proof of our disconnect from reality. Take an objective look at the President's actions. Imagine, if you can, these actions being performed by someone who has taken the Oval Office while you were in a decade long coma. Imagine. How would you perceive this President...

• who tries to unilaterally dictate terms of trade to nations with options.
• as he resurrects the specter of Russia at home and abroad.
• as he plays to national pride in a country where an increasing number identify as hyphenated Americans.
• as he strong arms Justin Trudeau, then buddy back slaps Kim Jong Un.
• as he insists we build a wall any old East German would recognize as a closed border.
• as he takes up yet another foreign war of adventure while we're still embroiled in... how many are we in now? Does anyone know? Seriously, anyone?
• as he and your fellow citizens engage in a verbal civil war over a single football players silent protest while the budget slips into a $22 trillion dollar national debt spiral?

What would you think of this anonymous President?


Now, compare that to what you currently think of President Trump. Our priorities and "ignorance is bliss" repose betray an Aldous Huxleyan disconnect from reality. Since, we have adopted this Brave New World, we better build a wall because we're afraid of criminals, drugs, foreigners, terrorists, welfare cheats, unfettered capitalism, uninsured motorists, the next bird flu, testicular cancer, creeping socialism, saturated fats, male pattern baldness, glyphosate, microaggressions, anthropomorphic climate change, and let's not forget a hundred-hundred thousand other things we don't care to recall. One of the few areas where we remain intrepid is repeating the lessons of history.

When a nation is young, it is lead by impetuous patriots filled with revolutionary zeal. Like a child they may hurt others and themselves without regard because they have short attention spans and heal as quickly as they grow. Entering maturity the nation slows down and becomes either fantastically productive and wealthy or incestuously corrupt and poor. In advanced age all nations share a single sentiment: Fear. Their place in the world is no longer growing, but diminishing. Strong enemies, real or imagined, surround them on all sides, if not from within. Like the elderly person, an elderly nation fears they may fall never to rise again. Seeking safety and security from this constant dread, the ancient nation begins to build walls. Walls to protect what little they have left. Walls to secure their uncertain future. Walls where they can sleep in peace. Walls of a nation's crypt. Some decomposing nations may linger for decades, clinging to the thinning thread of life by artificial means. They engage in fiscal cannibalism and subsist on the flesh of their children by deficit spending. They linger in agony until the reality of debt extracts their final breath.

The Chinese spent well over a thousand years building walls to keep safe a succession of temporary dynasties which lived the lives of rising and falling nations. Lives, gold, and effort squandered in an attempt to protect their world from change, from decay, and irrelevance. All failed. The many walls built, bought, and believed in over all those generations betrayed their builders. Still, so culturally revered were these walls, these final refuges of imperial denial that they found a place of honor in Communist China's national anthem...

“Arise! All those who don't want to be slaves! Let our flesh and blood forge our new Great Wall!”

The mythical regard for walls held by Mao's children prevented them from recognizing the walls of Communism which imprisoned them. In tearful Socialist pride they sang their anthem with their Father's Red Book held in hand on high. Living proof of their disconnect from reality. They were already slaves and would remain so until recently discovering how to tip walls over and turn them into roads. These recovering wall builders are sending armies of commerce down those newly laid roads to the battlefields of the marketplace.

Meanwhile. Back in America, we’re reversing this uplifting tipping trend by erecting walls and restricting trade again. It’s the World War Two mindset that we can’t seem to shake. So, let’s build some more tanks, huh? World War Two ended with one very abrasive man spending his final days shouting orders to barricade the roads from a bunker in one grand disconnect from reality. Then, after nearly taking his adopted nation with him, he committed suicide. Yes, reality always catches up with the disconnected. Let’s not follow in his hoof marks. When translated into English, “Deutschland Uber Alles” sounds a lot like “America First”. The global game we’re playing is called Capitalism, not nationalism. Remember the rules? It’s about meeting and exceeding Consumer demand, not building walls and making battle plans. History demonstrates with cyclical regularity that reality always catches up with the disconnected.

America… Tag. You’re it.

The Hippocratic Oath Decoded

I swear by Apollo the Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture. (A subjective oath sworn before false gods. That's something to bet your life on.)

To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood; when he is in need of money to share mine with him; (Welcome to the first Multi-level marketing scam!) to consider his family as my own brothers (it even has a downline) , and to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction, and all other instruction to my own sons, the sons of my teacher, and to indentured pupils who have taken the physician’s oath, but to nobody else. (That's makes it a cartel.)

I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrong-doing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so (Dr. Kevorkian notwithstanding) nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion (You just lost the support of many women. Good doctor perhaps, but not politically skilled). But I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art (Just lost the support of most scientists). I will not use the knife, not even, verily, on sufferers from stone, but I will give place to such as are craftsmen therein. (The seed of overspecialization was planted here.)

Into whatsoever houses I enter (The reference to house calls demonstrates how antiquated this oath is), I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets (barring an Act of Congress e.g. - HIPPA clauses)

Now if I carry out this oath, and break it not, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me (and my malpractice premiums increase).

Mostly Poor, Generally Miserable, and Statistically Short

Why you’re going to be mostly poor and generally miserable for the rest of your statistically short adult life...

Unaffordable housing isn't a "norm", nor should it be. Unaffordable housing is a red flag. Now that I think about it, unaffordable housing is not just one red flag. Unaffordable housing is more red flags than a Communist Party parade. All those red flags are signaling a problem, but rather than solve that problem we're all busy managing symptoms. Symptoms which we think, because we are told, are separate problems. They aren’t. They're just symptoms of the one real problem. Yup, there’s only one of those, but we’re not being told that. So, we don't hazard to think it. 

Hang on. I’m going to tell you about it right now. The problem which caused the housing shortage symptom and a bunch of other serious social "ills" (all symptoms of the one real problem) is a change in our social structure. The change which manifest so many serious symptoms that we've confused them with problems, in themselves. The one real problem we have is we recently abandoned the ancient human lifestyle of "Three Generations to a Home" starting about three generations ago.

Suddenly,

1. Housing is unaffordable by default

2. Elder care costs have become a new cumbersome budget item.

3. Our elderly parents are routinely placed at risk of being abused or ignored to death in nursing home 
institutions.

4. Child care becomes yet another massive personal budget item requiring government assistance.

5. Our children are taught values by strangers rather than family.

6. As a result of #5, XBox and gang-banging become lifestyle choices for our kids. 

7. Meanwhile, as a result of all the above SYMPTOMS, we get to spend years of our lives standing in line trying to get some government housing, child care, and/or elder care assistance which is guaranteed to keep us in chains for the rest of our days.

 8. If we are fortunate enough to buy a home, we’re going to have to work a lot more hours to cover all the bills. This means more child care costs and as a result, more X-Boxing/ Gang-Banging kids. Note to self: Figure Bail money into monthly budget… somehow.

All these SYMPTOMS are spawned of our abandoning the ancient human lifestyle of "Three Generations to a Home". The solution is not more or bigger government assistance checks. That, my human friends, is the road we took to arrive at this place of despair. What we need to do is solve the problem by living like humans again: Three Generations to a Home", because it works and always did. 

We used to know this. We forgot. It’s time to remember again. It’s time to remember how to live like humans. It’s time to remember how to live our humanity rather than enhancing our morbidity through bankruptcy.

The future is our past or we're all history.

It’s time to go home to humanity.