<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">r kanth</strong> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:involutegandhian@gmail.com">involutegandhian@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 3:52 PM<br>Subject: The State of the World<br>To: Michel Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a>><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="m_-6228066098673245921m_-5390385689601148293m_-8183749754991435150m_3404413910920987732m_-4873381630457450469m_3077777578883591926m_-229460501927981759m_4949826757081242281m_784122358279822648m_-4934000264986255103gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> <b>Nature of the <i>Real </i>Crisis</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">I have argued that humans are, above all, <i>myth-making</i> animals.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">We are story-tellers, <i>par
excellence.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Stories about who<i> we</i>
are, who <i>Others </i>are.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Cultural stories, religious stories, racial stories, <i>et. al.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">No, we don’t <i>All</i>
get to make up myths.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">That’s for <i>some,</i> only.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The few, the proud, the <i>ruling
castes</i>: <i>they</i> do it all - for us.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">And we lap it up, faster than they can ladle it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The most outstanding myths pertain to the dominant tropes in economics, politics, and religion: <span style="font-size:11pt">the three </span><i style="font-size:11pt">prime </i><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span><span style="font-size:11pt">domains of societal governance.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In our own society, they
go, more or less, <i> thus</i>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In the <i>first</i>, <i>laissez-faire</i>, and free trade have taken,
thus far, pride of place; in the <i>second,</i> democracy, equality, <i>etc.,</i>
occupy public attentions in the <i>last,</i> it’s a renewed , recharged , latter-day evangelism that has
moved from the fringe to the center, in recent times.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The most powerful may
well be the <i>last,</i> whose longevity will
be a telling index of our critical
intelligence, <i> or lack thereof.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">So, when such myths work, society trundles on under the
guise of ‘normalcy’.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">But when they don’t , there is a rift within the lute.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>That’s where we are
today.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The negation of any <i>one</i>
of the myths listed would be bad enough, but we live</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In times where <i>all
three</i> are, quite obviously , tottering.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The <i>economy</i> itself – not just its myths - went down in
2008, and has never really recovered (despite much propaganda to the contrary ).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The <i>polity </i>has
exposed its <i>oligarchical </i>nature
blatantly, even defiantly.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">From rigged elections, to voter- registration fraud, and big-time
lobbying monies in Congress, the veils have been brutishly ripped (with only 6% expressing any faith in
it, about the same level as in official Media).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Only the intellectually-challenged still sustain the idea
that we subsist in a working <i>democracy.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Religion has also taken a tumble: the Church of Rome has shown itself to be a sanctum for malignant abuse, of various kinds; the Southern
Baptists appear to be not far behind.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Religious bigotry has, further polarized communal discord: far from being an <i>opiate,</i> it is now a powerful <i>amphetamine,</i> which only adds to the
rifts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">*</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To sum up: we face a generalised crisis of <i>legitimacy </i>in Western societies.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The old bromide is wearing
thin: the new power-elites seem to lack
the maturity to wish to stabilize public opinion, being quite content to resort to the more familiar , if hoary, ploys of <i>divide
et impera.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">As the old adage has it, Caesar’s wife must not only be chaste, but needs also be <i>above suspicion</i>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Who, in power today, can wear that latter crown of laurels?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>No one</i>. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">We live with <i>Unscalable</i> Corruption (is $21 trillion
enough to scale it? That’s what went ‘unaccounted for’ , within but a few years in the DOD).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">There is – apparently -<i>
nothing</i> one can pin faith on.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Except, perhaps, a
little noticed quirk in our natures.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">We putatively ‘higher’ mammals – good, bad, and ugly - seem to yet nurture a craving for a higher truth, despite being immersed,
daily, in a treacherous world of lies.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">It’s odd, but true.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">That might account for the legions of ‘<i>truthers</i>’ that are on the
internet , night and day, globally, arguing <i>against
the stream.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In the <i>long run – </i>if
such a state exists at all, given the various extinctions we face: of war,
atomic weapons, and climate change<i> - </i> I think they are likely to prevail.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i style="font-size:11pt">For Critical Insights,
once released , may not be , easily, crammed back into Pandora’s Box.</i><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">And Power, without <i>Legitimation</i>,
lacks lasting potency.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>Whence, the good old
days may be gone – for good.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>*</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">So, if you are a
toady or a humbug, or a gull or a shill,
of a teetering system, you are simply out of luck.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For truth, like murder, methinks, <i>will ‘out’.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">That’s what wannabe Caligulas – of which there is no dearth - also need
to know.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><strong style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:x-small;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background:rgb(248,248,248);color:rgb(51,51,51)">[©R.Kanth, 2019]</strong><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:x-small"> </span> <br></p></div>
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</div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a>; Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><br><br>Updates: <a href="http://del.icio.us/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://del.icio.us/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br><br><br><br></div></div>