Thursday, October 08, 2009

Political Thursday

Здравствуйте - pronounced "ZDRAVST-vwee-tye" ("hello" in Russian)

Lobbying: To try to influence the thinking of legislators or other public officials for or against a specific cause.

"hmmm....could you use it in a sentence please?"

When the health insurance companies found out the government was going create a public option they began to lobby against in order to protect themselves from losing profits.

Etymology: "One story states that the term originated at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, where it was used by Ulysses S. Grant to describe the political wheelers and dealers frequenting the hotel's lobby in order to access Grant, who was often found there, enjoying a cigar and brandy." (source: Wikipedia)

Now, not all lobbying is bad. There are plenty of lobbyists who represent respectable causes such as environmental protection, marijuana legalization, or a public option. But what happens when a corporation with millions upon billions of dollars recognizes that certain laws will hurt their profit margin for the quarter, for the year, or for even several? Rather then adapting for the benefit of the society, they decide to focus on themselves.

Corporations are entities. Entities that carry this instinctual survival where any threat to its demise, must be eliminated. Its hard for me to imagine people running a corporation. Rather a corporation, once fully established, begins running itself. And that is where it gets dangerous. Some corporations don't know the difference between right and wrong*: Enron, AIG, Halliburton, etc. And so, on the painful day when the people are impacted by actions without ethics, do we learn how to rectify their deep and willful ignorance. To stand up against them, together.

This week I read an article about the recent policy change on lobbying.

"The policy change, described by the White House as the next step in President Barack Obama’s drive to limit influence-peddling in Washington, could affect hundreds of lobbyists who serve on the panels, which were created by Congress in the 1970s to provide private-sector advice to the government."

Now I know that the biggest fear of full government control takes us to an Orwellian future, but I for one believe that should not be a worry on our minds. To few forget that, we the people, are in control of the government...just as long as we get up and prove it, and always remember the difference between right and wrong.*

Thank you,
Serg

*The discussion between right and wrong can be very thought provoking. After all, different cultures, societies, people have different view points on what makes right, right and wrong, wrong. "The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong." Carl Jung

7 comments:

WatchingStars said...

Just read in the new Dan Brown book "The Lost Symbol" (I won't spoil it)..on a hypothetical note:

"If a thought has mass, then a thought exerts gravity and can pull things toward it"

"Take it a step further, What happens if many people start focusing on the same thought? All the occurrences of that same thought begins to grow. And therefore, its gravity grows.."

"Meaning..if enough people begin thinking the same thing, then the gravitational force of that thought becomes tangible..and it can have a measurable effect in our physical world"
* * *

After reading your blog and then reading this part in the book, I was thinking of how effective the human mind really is. If only the public would think more positively about our government, and have hope for change, don't you think that would have a huge effect on it? Just think of 9/11 and how the world reacted to it, and how it brought out so many good things out of such a horrific event. If we really focus on the positive, as a whole (meaning a mass of people) then I truly believe that things can change for the better.

Just some things to think about ;-)

superrawgirl said...

Sometimes Political Thursdays make my head hurt. I guess that a good thing not a bad one. It gets the ol brain cells movin around.

I unfortunately work for a large entity. It's not where I want to end up, but it is where I am supposed to be on my path right now. I try to balance it out by donating time and money when I can. I think they are supposed to vote on the insurance thing soon, and I just hope it will be in the peoples best interest who need it the most.

Now, are you sure you saw Zombieland and not Michael Moore's movie, Capitialism: A Love Story?

Nehara Seraphine said...

Thanks for sharing that, Serg. And of course, ending anything with a Jung quote is awesome.

WatchingStars:

I agree that the human mind is powerful and that we create our own reality through our thoughts. Together, people can do anything. Focusing on positive thoughts can manifest positive outcomes. However, 9/11 probably instilled more fear than it brought about good things, unfortunately. The day following 9/11 began of a whole new period of unchecked violence in our nation’s history. The trauma of 9/11 was aggressively exploited by the Bush Administration to further a pre-existing agenda in Iraq. Bush & Cheney used Federal money to pay their own private mercenary army to oversee their occupation and the dividing of Iraq. The U.S. also set up black sites, suspended the writ of Habeus Corpus and used torture and extraordinary rendition.

Here are some resources, which I really recommend looking into…

The Shock Doctrine, written by Naomi Klein, is an excellent read. Learn more about it here... http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

Watch the video “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism“ here...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4231109320246838401

Also, check out Jeremy Scahill’s book, "Blackwater: Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" (http://blackwaterbook.com/)
*I only got about 1/8 through this and still have yet to finish it, but it‘s really hard to swallow. It’s so enraging, it’s enough to make your eyes sting just reading it. In the first 10 pages I smoked about…oh, I don’t know, 8 cigarettes in a row.

Here’s a clip from the documentary "No End in Sight" here:http://www.noendinsightmovie.com/

You can read about Erik Prince (owner of Blackwater/Xe/Greystone) and his "Christian" Crusade at THE NATION here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill

or watch on DEMOCRACY NOW here: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/5/in_explosive_allegations_ex_employees_link

I’ve actually eased up on politics lately… around the middle to end of last year, I was heavily railing against war profiteering and government outsourcing of war to private contractors. I helped promote the movie War, Inc. (written and directed by John Cusack) which is a fictional absurdity of the current trend of radically-privatized corporate war, and shows what, if followed to its logical conclusions, a war 100% outsourced to private industry would look like. I really recommend checking it out. The movie is not supposed to be a knee-slapper. It IS funny, but not in the same way that a typical comedy is. It's not one of those mindless "escape from reality" flicks where you're sitting in a theatre and reality gets suspended and tucked away in some unknown pocket of time. It’s a subversive satire, and it throws bricks at all the right people. You kind of have to pay attention to the dialog and subtle things going on in the background, including signs and billboards. If you're just expecting to be amused, a lot of the humor will probably go over your head. It’s scary how he paints a nauseatingly accurate picture of the truth.

Check out some reviews on Cusack’s myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/johncusack

(That’s me in the Bush mask and Bauhaus shirt at the top of his War, Inc. wall. lol and in his top friends.)

Nehara Seraphine said...

(WatchingStars)

Relating back to the power of thought... Interesting coincidence... I was just having a conversation earlier about the power thought has on "reality" and how in 2012 we might experience a consciousness shift and possibly be able to literally create our own reality based on what we think will happen.

(Google "project looking glass 2012", or even better, listen to David Wilcock‘s seminar which I blogged about a while ago here:
http://ascensionshore.blogspot.com/2008/10/here-is-part-1-of-interesting-seminar.html)

I don’t remember which segment it is where he talks about project looking glass, but I think it’s somewhere near the end.

Another little coincidence is that I posted the following video clip from the movie "What the Bleep?" on Twitter after mentioning this movie to one of my professors today.

(Water and Mind - How Consciousness Effects Water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4nK6W7FoFk)

Also, one of my friends just told me that she had this movie on reserve at the library and is getting it this week. O_o
(Cue twilight zone music.)

Anyway, check out the movie "What the Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole" if you can. It sparks some good conversation. I recommend the quantum edition dvd set. Marlee Matlin is in it, too. http://www.whatthebleep.com/rabbithole/

Oh, and I noticed your post was posted at 4:44. I've been seeing a crazy amount of number sequences lately. Here's what 444 means...
"444 — The angels are surrounding you now, reassuring you of their love and help. Don’t worry because the angels’ help is nearby."

WatchingStars said...

Clover,

Thanks for the links and the resources. Yeah I know 9/11 instilled a lot of fear in our country, but I also believe it brought a lot of people together in a positive way. (I wasn't talking about Bush or the government, or the war, but about humanity and how it reacted to the events) I was recently down at Ground Zero, and I have to say, the peace that is around the property is definitely felt. I don't get any negative vibes or overwhelming sadness like I did at a place like Gettysburg.

Yeah I agree Bush made a profit with his role in office with the war, but was the war inevitable? What would have happened if we didn't go to war? I can't imagine.

I have a family member in the military so I have my own opinions on things.

There's a book that I am reading that says it's possible our minds can change the shape of water, crystallizing it in different shapes, depending on the kind of thoughts that are pushed outward. I have yet to get more into the detailed results of the experiment in the book.

Interesting you mentioned that.
I will check out the link

Yeah I think the whole 2012 thing is overrated. But perhaps that idea of "thought", could be possible..in the meantime, I'd rather not think about it and just live my life as peacefully as possible. I will definitely check the video out though. Thanks!

WatchingStars said...

Just watched the youtube video of the "thoughts projected onto water", that is EXACTLY what the book I am reading talks about. "Our body is made up of 90% of water".."imagine what our thoughts can do to us."

Really makes you think twice about what we are projecting to ourselves and other people!

Sorry Serg, we are going off subject of Politics! :/

Nehara Seraphine said...

I know...sorry. I've lost that thing that normal people have that filters their thoughts. LOL

I didn't mean to be negative or downplay the fact that in many ways, people have united in peace. It's just that part of that truth is people united out of a common fear. People's hearts become soft and vulnerable after a disaster, and the sick thing is that the government knows how to take advantage of that.

I also have a close friend who is a Marine and fought in Iraq. And do you believe he's busting his @ss working at Lowe's? He had to pay for his plane ticket back home. He doesn't talk about ANY of it.

The 2012 thing, I'm hoping will be nothing more than a change in consciousness, where people WILL become more united.