Thursday, March 25, 2010

Paul Craig Roberts Retires

Paul Craig Roberts has retired from journalism and has said that the truth is now irrelevant. His statement to this affect is posted on PrisonPlanet.com as well as his own blog.

Another friend of mine from Toronto 9/11 Truth has done the same thing.

I think we have missed something in our analysis of the new world order. We have made a lot of people angry and without an idea regarding what to do about the situation. The things regarding NAZI's, bankers, etc are are true but we have failed as a movement to search for deeper truths.

When I started school in grade nine, it was my machine shop teacher that spoke more true and relevant words for today than those of my English or history teachers. He explained that when you are operating a machine and you get your hand stuck in it, the machine will just keep going. It doesn't care if your hand is stuck in it or not. It will strangle you or tear your arm off without feeling and keep running as if nothing happened. He explained the necessity of being careful and using proper safety techniques when using machinery.

The fact is that technology itself is enveloping us, and the nature of the way we use technology (technique) is psychopathic- it is one great big machine. Technique now rules us. Mathematical economics determines the most efficient ways of organizing the world around us. As more and more technical methods are developed and used, more are demanded. If we demand efficient cars, then we must have an efficient state to plan and build the roads. We must have laws that dictate how these roads are used because they are straight and smooth and do not prevent anyone from speeding. The necessity of city planning means people sometimes lose their property, elements of our history get destroyed. Our history is a reference to who we are.

It is the planning that technology requires that makes our future foretold. A foretold future is by its own definition, a reduction of freedom.

Technical education itself is distinctively lacking in ethics and the humanities, the human cost of things is hard to quantify and it sometimes gets ignored when plans are made. Man shapes himself to fit into these plans out of economic necessity and his own humanity reduced.

These ideas come from The Technological Society by Jaques Ellul, a classic book written in the sixties in French and translated to English. It is a very thought provoking book and has changed the way I see the world. I'm only halfway through the book and will be writing additional posts on it.

I watched the movie "Repo Men" the other day. In this movie people borrow money to buy organs when their own organs fail. If they missed their payments, the organs are repossessed. Could this happen ? Of course it will happen. No technology ever gets developed without being used. It will be expensive to get new organs and payment plans will be necessary.

The truth movement has been developing techniques to hold the state in check in the form of the freedom movement, old techniques that use protest and demonstration have been used. There is no technique of preventing technology from chipping away at the human ethic. The two are incompatible and cannot co-exist.

Human beings are evolving from Homo-Sapien to Homo-Economus, as Ellul explains. In my view modern civilization is too large for our current ethic to be applied. We see the people we know in terms of being human, the ones we do not are a mere statistic and they see us the same way.

Defining a problem correctly is the primary step toward finding a solution. The truth movement has not defined the problem in adequate terms yet. Once a problem is defined, the solution is often trivial and given within the formulation of the problem. Defining the problem in more exact terms is what we should be doing IMO.

4 comments:

Magdelena said...

Good post Doug, I would agree that technology is certainly a double edged sword. While it makes life easier (in some ways - think dishwasher, laundry machine) it also separtes us from our natural world, each other and our own ability to be self-sufficient. I see this as a big problem.

People used to know what herbs to use to calm a mild wound, infection or illness. We grew them, andit was 'common' knowledge. Most knew how to sew, cook and take care of themselves. Technology has dumbed us down in many ways, those listed above are just a few.

Doug, have you read Jane Jacobs? I saw here shortly before her death when she spoke here at the Archives about "the comming dark age". Where she noted how much as been lost in this so-called technologically advance society we live in.

You might enjoy her book.

Cheers! I'm off to start some seeds today - going to make my Dad help!! (Slave labour!!!!)

;)

ciao ciao

Magdelena said...

eeks, sorry for my spelling errors and typos - I'm only halfway through my fist coffee of the day.

(Which will be followed by a second and then that's it til tomorrow!!)

:D

Magdelena said...

coming dark age

good little piece here in the Tyee.

Doug Plumb said...

I usually have a giant coffee at Tim Hortons in the morning where I go to read. I used to drink tea all day, now I don't keep caffeine in the house.

I'm going to read Neitzsche "Beyond Good and Evil" after this, then likely that book. I want to explore the ideas that the typical freedom movement doesn't.

I think the biggest threat of technology is us losing a human ethic.

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About Me

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Author of "Power Outage", available on Smashwords. I am a 50 year old free market libertarian who has had the time to read and consider the nature of globalism and the big machine that is surrounding us. I have participated in politics by running at the Fed level and debated Agenda 21 and 9-11 truth in front of large audiences. My background is in engineering and software creation. My business has provided me with significant time and freedom to learn the truth about the world around us. My goal is to expose Agenda 21 / Sustainable Development and Cultural Marxism.