MUSHROOMS, TECHNOLOGY AND GLOBAL ECONOMICS

Trayvon's story begs us all to "wake up"!!

During my career in the military, we often used a term "mushroomed"  to describe a condition in which we were being kept in the dark by the powers around us and fed excrement. The term came from the techniques used to grow mushrooms.   Powerful forces have coalesced to enforce that condition on most humans on this planet. Television, and most other forms of media have become the strongest tools used in this egregious technique.  What was thought to be a technology (73 years old) that would enlighten people has been used to achieve the exact opposite.  The human brain can defeat this effect, but only through access to good information in usable form.  But, we have to work to obtain such information, and the powers know we'd rather "watch" and be "entertained".

In my Drucker notes from one of his classes in the '80's, he stated that technology had advanced to a point where all of the liquid wealth (mostly money) in a country could be moved outside its borders within 24 hours.  Since that time, we've all seen what the Hedge Fund wave has accomplished in driving our economy to a point of collapse.  First, the jobs, and then the money moved "off shore".

We mistakenly think that what we need, to get back to our standard of living, is "jobs", but what we really need is money.  The link between jobs and money has been broken  by technology.  Similarly, the link between economic planning and life span has been broken by technology.  To get a clear picture of how far this has progressed, I strongly suggest the award-winning DVD, The End of Poverty? Think Again.  You can get it online.  Get a copy to play over and over because the information is so densely packed, you will have to take notes.  The photography is stunning.

Armed with my degree in physics in 1962, I set out on a career that took me to the nation's foremost research laboratories in which we developed the technologies that won the Cold War (taxpayer-funded, by the way) and spawned the growth of companies like Apple and Microsoft along with countless others.  During the same period, taxpayer funding was replaced by private capital as the technology was taken through arduous paths that led to current consumer products and even more powerful enabling technologies.

Which brings me back to global economics.  As the DVD I recommend shows you, starting in 1492, there has been a steady progression in which the chattel slavery then introduced to the globe has been morphed into what today is a type of peonage that engulfs us all.  You will have to revisit your history to understand how that has happened, but as you do, don't just look at Cortes, the must successful of the Conquistadors, look at the enabling role of Malinche.  Don't pass quickly over the mention of Moctezuma, look closely at his belief in skin color and God that caused him to not resist effectively until it was too late.  You will see that the figures we see and know about were all enabled by lesser figures (Bishop Bartolome de la Casas, for instance) without whom much of today's miseries would probably not exist.

By choosing to be "watchers" and seeking "entertainment" over information, are we becoming our own worst "enablers"?

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