Dissecting the Mumbo-Jumbo Machine Meme of Economics (#MJMMOE)

Many a pundit in economics would like you to believe:
Gee whiz, Mr. Wilson it works just like a mechanical machine.

Of course that is pure mumbo jumbo.

But where does the mumbo jumbo hide?
That will be the focus of this dissection.

Let's start with the proposition that all "transactions" are the same.
Are they?

When Mr. Farmer agrees to swap his 40 acres of wheat for 1000 barrels of Mr. Drake's oil production, is that the same as ...

When Mr. H. I. Broker agrees to sell an HI policy to Mr. S. M. Broker in exchange for 1000 shares of Enron corp.?
(HI=Health Insurance, SM= Stock Market)

Frenzied Feeding on Joyous New Delusion (#FFOJND)

"The cancer appears to be in remission."

"You mean Doc, you mean ... I'm cured?"

Tears and overwhelming bubbles of joy pour from your eyes, flooding out those tiny canals in the back of your ears. The health clinician mumbles something in the form of a hedge rejoinder. You hear it not.

Why this fabulous new news means I can take that planned vacation trip to Paris, you think.
No need to rush on about putting my affairs in order.
Technology has saved me. I have tomorrow and all the days after to worry about the little things. First things first. Celebrate and sing Hallelujah 'ore the joyous news.

(Caption under top picture reads: "Captain, about that large fin tracking us from behind, do you think we're going to need a bigger boat?"

American Energy Independence
As you may have guessed, this post is not about "technology" saving a happy patient from the ravages of a creeping cancer. It's about the new fracking technology supposedly saving us from the dread shadow of "Peak Oil".

Our politicians are near giddy with themselves about the good news. Hallelujah we are saved. Fracking changes everything. Now we have a cornucopian over-abundance of "energy" that we need to start thinking immediately about exporting to Paris France and the rest of the world so that we can truly "enjoy" our new blessed bounty!

Senate Holds Hearing on Reversing Crude Oil Export Ban

Duh dumb,
Duh dumb,
Duh duh, duh duh, dadda dumb!

Some sobering "Insight" truths about Frackotopia can be found here.

More down under reality math here.

The gateway bridge to Paradise might be a well intentioned road to that other destination.

First was the Word, and We knew not its Meanings

The story of Babel is as old as the Bible itself.
We toss words out at others.
We "babel" word-bites back to ourselves.
We pray for insight to emerge from our constant noise making.
Do we even know what half these words mean?
No.
Because as comedian Lewis Black oft reminds us, We're F-in Idiots.

In no particular order, here are some of the bird chirp noises we make without stopping to realize we really don't know what those air vibrations mean:



1. I / me / this one for example ..........
2. "We" .......... .......... .......... .......... ..
3. You / The "You know" one .......... ..
4. Oh my God
5. Natural
6. Organic
7. Civilized
8. Common sense
9. The Government
10. Us/They
11. Technology
12. Money
13. The Economy
14. Success
15. Computers (Hardware / Software)
16. Blame / Fault / Responsibility
17. Entitlement / Deserve-i-hood
... (still under construction)


Connecting the dots: The Zombie Surge and The Them/Us Me/We Imperative


(1) Who am "I"?
The "I", the "me, myself", the "one and only".
When one speaks of one's own identity, one assumes that there is only the one and none other. The belief in a one and none other can be found even as the top of the list in the Biblical Ten Commandments.
However paradox is there when one can't make up one's mind. How is that possible? How can "a one and only" have two or more conflicting thoughts at the same time? Suddenly the facade of being a "one" begins to crumble. Or not; if the one refuses to admit that maybe it is not the one and none other. ......

(2) Are "we" who we think we are?

Often we are positive that we know who we mean when speak of the we. Is that always true? Can "we" sometimes mean only "me"? Is "we" just the two of us?

Black President Cares law Ovewhelms BooHoo Boehner

Remember this sensitive member of the US House of Representatives?
Republican House Speaker John Boehner?
Turns out he can cry at the drop of a hat, or of an elephant turd.

As he explains it: "There are some things I feel very strongly about. ... I take what I do very seriously. And when it comes to kids. When it comes to my own family. Soldiers. You know, I get, I feel very strongly that I want America to be the country that I grew up in. A country where you really do have opportunity."

One of the things he feels "strongly" about is thing called "Obama"-care; which, as some people clearly understand, is merely hide-in-plain-sight code for the Black President Cares law.

Technically it should be called the ACA or Affordable Care Act.
But hey, who needs to get technical when we're dealing with an emotional --tears jerking-- issue like there being a dark skinned fella in the "White" House and him getting laws passed that actually try to help the little guy.

Why it brings tears to one's eyes.

(Posted on the day the GOP failed to extort the American people into giving up the ACA if they wanted to see their national parks and whatnots again.)

Bedazzled by the Setting Sun

Some might say:

Brightest it is

when staring at the setting sun.

Lately we have been bedazzled
by predictions of a dawning
new age of singular abundance.

We are awash in new technologies
and in a fresh cornucopia of consumption that
these confabulations appear to bring us.

The mini-me-Phones tie me-to-me and maybe even to you.

The Fed eases our quantitatives and spurs our economy to infinity and beyond.



The Fracks crack our rocks to free the fuels yet again.
The nostalgics nuance a reframed reality to bring us back the good old days.

Ain't no doubt 'bout it.
Happy Days are here again.

Or are they?

Is the "New Normal"
not your grandfather's normal?

Is the sea
not what we see?

Is the climate change
not to our temperament?

Is the gold
not that which glitters?

Are the smiles
on super model faces
nothing but pasted-on facades?

Is stale thinking
that which buries us?

Maybe so.
But oh that parking lot.
Look at that parking lot
And the sun that sets 'ore it.

DOTE Drops Out

There are some people
who seem to have never
gotten past the High School habit
of dropping a few gratuitous F-Bombs in everything they say

One habitual F-bomb dropper
has finally grown up, tuned up
and dropped out.
But not before dropping one last "Humanity is F***ed" Bomb.

To imagine that the human condition can be summed up
in one simple "We're F***ed" line
is to have failed to grasp Cultural Biology.

It's much more complicated than that.

We are more than our biological genetics.
We are also our cultural connectomes.

We are the sum of our pre- and post-linguistic experiences,
many of them being social emotional ones.

What are our comprehensions of the "money" thing
even before we know how to speak?

What are our comprehensions of the Mommy & Daddy gods
and their quest for the "money" power
even before we know how to utter same sounds?

Return of Flat Earth Theorists

One

advantage of
having your own
"Drummed Out" blog
is that you can't be censored into
the "baby in the corner"
corner by a megalomaniacal other blogger.

Who are these megalomaniacs?
No need to mention any names directly here.

The real issue is the belief that "simple" is good enough.
Which is a slippery slope.
because it means that:
(1) Them who simplistically deny Climate Change are on the right path,
(2) Them who simplistically deny Peak Oil are on the right path,
(3) Them who simplistically deny Falsifiable Science are on the right path.

And as for the unmentioned meglomaniac blogger** not mentioned here,
(**= One who invites/ baits others to comment on his blog site and then erases their comments unless they are complete kiss ups), his "good enough" theory of the human mind is that it can be simplistically divided into the "conscious" part and the one-way communicating "unconscious" part.

And anyone who suggests his simplistic theory of the mind is too simplistic, gets kicked off the hill.

Simple is, As simple does