A Snake That Eats Its Own Tail

By John Bassett McCleary
Excerpt from a future article

Some people say that the whole world is driven by the American economy.  True, to a point.  But first I must say that the real driver is American capitalism and our consumer materialism.  Add to that the US advertising industry pushing false prosperity around the world, and you will see that the direction in witch our economy is driving the world is over the edge of a deep chasm.
What should be driving the world’s economy are people’s necessities and a little extra for entertainment.  The American dream was not to reach gluttony, but that is what it has become, and we have infected the rest of the world.
What capitalists don’t realize, and I hope they are ignorant and not just callous, is that their money-religion has corrupted the world’s natural economic equality, and is polluting the morality of mankind as well as the ecosystem of the world.  Wow, what a trifecta of crimes!
The balance of world economy comes down to an ancient Greek morality that states:  “All business deals should be equitable to both parties.”  And I add:  “Or else they are just common robbery.”
What capitalists did not foresee was the day when their avarice for more profits would finally milk the working class dry of money to buy the products and pay the mortgage.  This is what has happened in America.
In the past, capitalists have banked on consumers from other countries.  But then what happens when all the capitalists in the world have banded together and milked dry all the customers and workers of the world?  Is this what is happening now?
I find it an odd twist of fate that the global economy most American capitalists desire also leaves these capitalists vulnerable to global economic downturns.  It works to the American industries’ favor to forsake their own American workers and market, if they have a market, in another part of the world.  But, if the economy of the world is tied together, and capitalism is doing the same in all countries, then the economy will dry up everywhere.

A Global Group Hug

By John Bassett McCleary
Excerpt from a future article

At no time in the history of humankind has it been more important for all of us to join together for mutual benefit… or, actually, for survival itself.   Not since Homo sapiens were a small tribe, banding together to fight-off saber-toothed tigers and hunt mammoths for sustenance, have we been more in danger of extinction.
Today, an us-against-them mentality is perpetrated by the capitalist ego and Christian work ethic.  This might be appropriate in a world where our only contract with other tribes was an occasional battle over food or mates, but not today when we are affected by the trials and troubles of every other country.  Economies, wars, diseases and famine anywhere in the world cause ripples that reach us.  Our market catches a cold if another country’s economy sneezes.  And it goes both ways.

This present worldwide economic meltdown should teach us something about our vulnerability to economic problems elsewhere in the world.  It is a dangerous mistake to continue to promote our own economic, political and social sovereignty.

Most American Capitalists are economically international.  They benefit from a Global economy, whereas the American worker does not.  Aside from cheap foreign goods, which most often break before their time, the American consumer gets little benefit from the world economy as it stands today.

We need a realistic, democratic free trade and employment agreement throughout the world.
I’m not talking about a “NFTA” that benefits big business and screws workers or favors one country and hurts another.  We, in this world, have to start thinking and acting globally.  We must stop looking at other people of the world merely as customers or workforce, and begin thinking of them as brothers and sisters in the same house–this world!
The world’s human population growth has created a crowed and polluted earth that is becoming more endangered everyday.  This overpopulation means we are influenced and affected by the activities of more and more people all the time.
We can’t ignore other cultures anymore.  We should have also learned by now that we cannot change other cultures.  Short of killing them all, I guess we are going to have to find some way to live peacefully with everyone else.  So let’s talk!
The growth of governments and society, and their involvement in our lives, is directly related to the increase in world population.  When the human population was smaller, we lived in small family groups and then tribes, clans, villages, states, and on to countries as our populations and common needs grew.  It is natural to band together into larger, mutually beneficial groups.  The European Union has done it; soon, a World government will be necessary.
We should begin now to think of the sovereignty of the world. Soon, it will become mandated by the problems that we have ignored for so long.

Hypocrisy is Actually a Sin Worse Than the Sex Itself.

By John Bassett McCleary
Excerpt from
The Sexual Documentary of a Young Man

Professing moral laws, then breaking those laws and denying it, is much more sinful and damaging than doing what you want to do and accepting responsibility for your actions.
If you place moral restrictions on yourself and others, saying that they come from God, and then break those rules yourself, you are sinning against your own God, mankind and yourself.

In recent editorials in newspapers that will remain nameless, columnists who will remain nameless wrote about the sexual indiscretions of politicians, past and present.  These columnists gave lip service to hypocrisy when talking about a recent sexual escapade by a conservative, “family values” senator who has been known for his moral indignation toward the sexual actions of others.
These conservative columnists were less concerned about the man’s hypocrisy than what they called “the lower nature that resides in all of us.”  By this, of course, they implied that sex is a sinful, subhuman activity.
These writers made the same mistake most people do when confronted by “sexual indiscretions.”   They missed the point that sex is not really a sin when compared to hypocrisy.  Deception, not sex, is the true “lower nature” that resides in mankind.
Sex is no more a sin than breathing in and out.  All animals do it, and must do it to live.  How we treat sex, how we react to it, and how we behave with our partners determines whether it is a sin.
Demonizing sex is the first mistake our society makes in raising its children.  Make kids ashamed of the origin of their birth, mix in a lot of hypocrisy about the fact that we shouldn’t live with sex and can’t live without it, and then send them off to have a happy life.  Sure, that makes a lot of sense!
It was evident during the sexual revolution that some people became jealous of others who were having more fun than they were.  The counterculture was enjoying itself, and that gave straight society more reason to dislike it.
It’s almost as if some people are afraid to feel good.  It’s a religious thing; their churches and pastors have told them that certain activities are sinful.   If these activities happen to be fun, this automatically creates jealousy in the abstainer when he sees other people indulging.
People hate their own weakness, fear their desires and then transfer that fear and hatred into indignation directed at those who are doing what they can’t do because of religious commitments.  In self-defense, they choose to ridicule, and even hate, those who are not living by the same restrictions by which they are controlled.
The next step for these people is to isolate this activity, this “sin,” in which “they don’t indulge,” as something only other people do.  In their minds they believe that they are not capable of committing that sin; only other people do it.  So when they do indulge in that sin or a deviation of it, which they most often do eventually, they can lie to themselves and pretend that what they are doing is actually something else which is not really sinful.
These self-righteous people will often continue to condemn others for these sins while they, themselves, are performing them.  This, of course, is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy is actually a sin worse than the sex itself.
When people lie to themselves, they perform the worst of mankind’s sins.  They are lowering humanity and denying the common sense that God gave us as his greatest gift to mankind.  If you say one thing and do another, that is deception of yourself and denial of your own common sense.   If you place moral restrictions on yourself and others, saying that they come from God, and then break those rules yourself, you are sinning against your own God, mankind and yourself.
People who write columns in newspapers or make commentary on radio or TV owe nothing to the public but clarity.   What they have to say is their own opinion.  It is up to the reader or listener to glean their own opinion or take what information they can from what is said.
Lying to the public is not uncommon.  Shock!   Commentators do it all the time.  Often, they do not even know they are lying, and I give them the benefit of the doubt for that.  Passing misinformation by accident is a major industry in the media.
Most editorialists believe in what they say.  Their information may be lacking, and their idealism may be skewed from a strange perspective, but most still think that they are telling the truth.
I become indignant when I feel that a columnist is merely writing what his boss, political peers or the public want him to write.   It especially bothers me when his misinformation is destructive to mankind or to our environment.
Editorialists who misinform are seldom exposed during their lifetime.  Anything can be spun into the truth.  But, if you believe in heaven and hell, and preach them in your media commentary, you better have your hypocrisy squeaky clean when you meet with St. Peter at the Golden Gates!

Political Correctness Be Damned!

By John Bassett McCleary
Written  11/1/08

Screw political correctness if it gets in the way of communication. . How are we going to confront issues if we can’t use the words? Communication is humankind’s best creation, and it is what will, if that is possible, save humankind from itself.
I am a tolerant person by nature!  Why else did I not go out and assassinate a few politicians in the last few years?  I am tolerant in my actions, but in my words I am politically, drastically incorrect, as is my right according to my Constitutional freedom of speech.
And yet, although I am verbally uncontrollable, I would never, under any circumstances, purposely lie to someone, knowingly deceive them or omit facts that I know would prove me wrong.  It is amazing how many people think that the Constitutional right of freedom of speech means that they have the right to lie!
When you tell the truth, political correctness be damned.  When you’re lying, even if it is oh-so-polite, it is still a lie.
I have no mouth filter. I say what I think!  But, on the other hand, my brain has no chastity belt. It hears everything that comes its way.  You can lie to me, but don’t expect me to believe you.  You cannot lie, even to yourself, in my presence without my disdain.
I am now welling up with indignation.  There is a limit to my tolerance.  When the pig with lipstick looks like a pig with lipstick and sounds like a pig with lipstick, but tells you it is a Polar bear with petroleum investments, it is still a pig, but it is now wearing expensive lipstick.
Its bad enough that the Republicans are lying to us, but what irks me most is that there are people stupid enough to think they are telling the truth.  There, I said it…the stupid word. We’re not supposed to call people stupid, we are supposed to intimate that they are ignorant; but I have observed lately a thing I call self-imposed ignorance; it is basically stupidity.  In this day and age with the massive amounts of media available, it is almost impossible to remain ignorant unless one tries very hard.
John.9.12.08

By John Bassett McCleary
Written in 1989

Guns Do Not Protect Your Family!  Stop using that as an excuse for owning firearms.
Having a gun in your home greatly increases the chances that a family member will die.  It is a fact!
Numbers show us that, for every one criminal who is subdued by a household gun, there are literally hundreds of family members who are killed in gun accidents at home, not to mention all the thousands of friends and family members who are killed with a household gun in fits of passion.
The facts show that you are actually putting your family in peril by owning a gun.  This alone would cause a rational person to dispose of his weapons.  But then, we are not dealing with rational thought, are we?  Let’s face it, we are dealing with the male macho ego.
Don’t use “the right to bear arms” excuse for your reasoning.  Don’t dishonor the fathers of our country by saying that they meant citizens should own half a dozen assault rifles, Mac-10s and nine millimeter semi-automatics.
Don’t offend the writers of the Second Amendment by thinking they intended it to be used to justify the indiscriminate sale of deadly weapons to just about anyone who can pull a trigger.
Please, let’s start thinking with our heads rather than other parts of our anatomy.  If you own guns, you should look deeply inside yourself to see why you really own them.  Understand where this urge for weapons comes from.  Could it be less to protect your family than to enhance your own image?
Men use guns, cars, clothing, sports, bodybuilding, sex, power and money to enhance their image.  It’s part of life, and most of those sublimations are relatively harmless.  But guns are not.
We have supposedly gone beyond the days of the Wild West.  But some men are trying to drag us back into those times when men were measured by the size of their guns.
Wake up!   Having the bigger gun does not make you the bigger man.  It makes you a weak man hiding behind a big gun.  If you have such a fixation, seek help.
Although most women don’t have such fixations, they often humor their men.  Women, tell your men that you like them just as much, maybe even better, without that cold, steel rod.  You may be saving the life of one of your family members.
But, if your man must own a gun, urge him to do so with common sense.  Keep it locked up and unloaded.  Teach every member of your family to treat every gun as if it were loaded, even though it isn’t.  Never ever, ever point a gun at another person unless you wish them dead.
Keep the gun and the ammunition in separate places.  Put the ammunition someplace where anyone looking for it will have plenty of time to think about what they are doing and cool down, if need be.
So you might get robbed, but the chances are greater that you will be saving the life of a family member.
The gun lobbyists say, “If guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have guns.”  The truth of the matter is that most gun homicides are perpetrated by people who were law-abiding citizens until the moment when they shot someone.  Most gun violence is a crime of opportunity. The availability of so many guns is what makes the criminal and causes the deaths.
I think the NRA is misguided right now, not because they put guns into the hands of criminals, but because they put them into the hands of potential criminals. Remember, keeping one questionable freedom is foolish if it jeopardizes all of our other freedoms combined.  Death ends all your freedom.
When a danger to society is recognized, a rational society will place restrictions on that danger.   We have automobile speed laws, which some people feel infringe on their rights, but these laws save lives.  It’s about time we became civilized and started considering more stringent gun laws, too.
These are only my opinions.  This is a free country, and I have the right to my opinions, as you have the right to yours.  But please, use the gray matter that God gave you, and think about what I have said.  Don’t let your ego kill someone you love.

Never believe anything on the internet except here!

And you’re a fool if you take what I say without a question.

John McCleary

By John Bassett McCleary
Written in 2002

Some people have no tolerance for those who are homeless, jobless or drug addicted.  There, but for the grace of God and our politicians, go you.  The Christian work ethic becomes an accusation when there is no work to be had.  The American dream is a nightmare when the bed you sleep on can be taken away overnight.
People are falling through the cracks in America because the cracks in our streets and in our society are getting bigger.  Big business, not people, has been the priority of our government.
Those of us who are financially secure may think that social safety nets and the welfare system are give-aways designed for those other people.  Not so! The welfare system was designed to protect anyone in case they fail.  Even you!  And it can happen to you!
The systems that were originally established, with good intentions, by liberal administrations have been in the hands of conservative management for some time now.  Conservative administrations don’t care whether the systems succeed or survive, so, naturally, the systems have diminished and deteriorated.  They are in shambles, and in jeopardy of total failure.
In the past you may have fancied yourself a capitalist, and, therefore, voted for people who said they would cut taxes and reduce government involvement in your life.  But, look around, government hasn’t become smaller during the present administration; it has just become less efficient and more expensive.
What good are low taxes if all the things that make America great are gone?  If our roads, bridges, tunnels and public transportation are falling apart, libraries are closed, schools inefficient and medical care unaffordable, are we really any better off than a third-world country?
Even with the taxes we pay now, which many people think are too high, we pay lower taxes than almost every other industrialized nation.  And, to top it off, we are getting far less proportionately for the taxes that we pay.
Unless you make hundreds of thousand of dollars a year that will continue coming to you even if you are sick or incapacitated, you are not a capitalist, but just another working stiff.  In that case, you need the safety nets and social welfare, just in case.  Except for the very rich, we need a system that protects us from utter destruction if we fall.
In the last decade or so, insiders and wheeler-dealers have taken advantage of the system.  More money has been stolen from the hands of hard working people by doctors in Medicare scams, bankers in credit card schemes, and builders in HUD rip-offs than will ever be taken by homeless people getting handouts on the street.
I don’t condone heroin addiction, but I don’t think that it is any more destructive than a dry martini addiction.  It just happens that this society has chosen to make heroin illegal, but not gin.  Therefore, the sale and use of heroin is outside the law, which increases the price so much that most addicts have to steal, prostitute or panhandle to support their addiction.
Some people have addictions to gambling, credit cards, sports cars or golf.  These addicts are still able to fit unnoticed into “polite” society, but somehow the rest of us end up paying for it anyway.
Don’t look down at those on the streets who have been short-changed by life.  There, but for the grace of God, goes your stockbroker.

By John Bassett McCleary
2/4/09

Capitalism is the new Feudalism, and the feudal system is why most colonists and immigrants left the old country to come to America. Many Americans believe that capitalism is the economic system upon which this country was founded.  They are incorrect.
This country was actually formed with the ideals of free enterprise as its economic foundation, not capitalism.  There is a big difference between capitalism and free enterprise.
Free enterprise is the concept of a level playing field on which all people are free to be enterprising.  Conversely, capitalism, as it is abused today, is a system in which the wealthy and powerful do everything within their means, legally or illegally, to make it difficult or impossible for other “moral businessmen” to compete in the market place or survive in business.
A capitalist actually does not believe in free enterprise; a capitalist wants a monopoly, not free enterprise.  He believes in complete freedom for himself, of course, but restrictions and disadvantages for others.  A true capitalist is actually un-American, un-democratic and un-patriotic. It is a cruel joke that the game Monopoly was invented and became so popular in a democratic country.
Capitalism as we know it is only about 100-150 years old.  The United States of America is over 220 years old.
Capitalism developed from the free enterprise system, yet it is not the true democratic economic system that was envisioned and adopted for the United States by our Founding Fathers.  Free enterprise is the rightful, just and fair economic system for a democracy, and that is what was chosen for our country.
Capitalism as we know it didn’t have a name at the time of our independence, but if it had, it would have been called speculation, wage slavery and feudalism. We left the “old country” to escape these things.  These are not activities our Founding Fathers had in mind for their democratic economy.
Democracy is the only form of “government” that truly benefits everyone.  Of course, a few people feel restricted by having the majority choose the playing field.   Greedy people and those who think they are above morality want to run the world in a way that gives them all the advantages.
One of the primary reasons colonists came to America was to break free from the economic oppression in their old country.  Indentured farmers wanted land of their own in order to create a stable economic future for their families. Urban retail store and factory workers came to this country to start their own stores and factories.  The lower classes dreamt of the economic freedom and self-determination, of owning their own homes and businesses.
The colonies broke free from England largely because of economic oppression.  New Americans thought they had left the kings, lords and landed gentry behind.
What the middle class and working class didn’t realize was that the “Ruling Class” would not give up their control so easily.  The boats that came to America also carried “power men,” speculators, and feudal lords.
The United States of America is now an economic dictatorship.  The greedy people have slowly, but surely, been able to take over our government.  It has taken them only 200 years to dismantle the democratic protections our Founding Fathers created for everyone.  Now the rich are the only people with self-determination.
How can we call ourselves a Democracy when one of the most dominant aspects of our life is a totalitarian monopoly?  Our Founding Fathers did not, and would not have agreed upon such a selfish economy for their Union Of, By and For The People.
There is nothing wrong with Capitalism that couldn’t be solved by a measure of humility, gratitude and generosity.  Of course, these are all traits considered by most normal humans to be desirable, yet they are dismissed as weaknesses by a greedy person.
What I say is not a condemnation of all Capitalists or all those who believe in the Capitalist system.  But this is definitely a condemnation of all those selfish people who don’t thing other people deserve to be enterprising as well.
Why do some folks want to have all the money and power?  I know the answer!  It is not really the money or even the power.  It is the desire for dominance.
This is basic Freudian Psych 1-A. It comes down to insecurity.  Because of their upbringing, or lack of it, they were made to feel inferior; therefore, insecure and vulnerable.  As a result of this, some people act out arrogantly, thinking that it shows self-confidence.
It is primal for some people to want to dominate others.  It is the way they compensate for their own insecurities. This “boss” mentality doesn’t want the masses to have even a measure of satisfaction, because they think it will make them less controllable.
Sharing the wealth is often called a Communist conspiracy, but it is the best way to keep from having constant economic and political upheaval, and eventual revolution. In nature’s food chain, all nourishment comes from the smallest organism and travels upward, feeding each member of the chain until it eventually reaches the top predator.  In human economics in order to make the whole process work equitably, the money must start at the bottom and pass through the ranks, nourishing and satisfying each member of society until it reaches the bosses at the top, as it always does.

All postings are the original writing and concepts of John Bassett McCleary
Author of The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 70s

Obama wants to spread the wealth back to where it belongs in a democracy.  The core of this country is its people, and the majority of its people are suffering economically right now.
The capitalists have been redistributing the wealth upwards to the already wealthy for the last 25 years.  Reagan’s trickle-down economy is killing this country and the American Dream.
This present economic crisis is a dramatic example of the greed of the wealthy.  The mortgage meltdown is only partially due to the deregulation of bank procedures and deceptive loan practices.  It is largely due to the fact that most corporations in this country refuse to pay living wages, while, at the same time, outsourcing jobs in order to show large profits to potential stock investors, thus giving larger salaries to owners, CEO’s and upper management.   John.10.29.08

Many people think it is un-American to criticize Capitalism, yet it is actually patriotic to do so.  Most Americans do not know that Free Enterprise, not Capitalism, was the actual economic foundation upon which our Founding Fathers built this country.  Our country is 232 years old, yet capitalism, as we know it, is less than 150 years old.
Capitalism is the new Feudalism, and the feudal system is why most colonists and immigrants left the old country to come to America. The problem is that the tyrants and feudal lords, in search of new people to subjugate and land to conquer, arrived on the second boat to America.
Capitalists want a monopoly, not free enterprise.  Free enterprise is a level playing field, which embodies the American Dream for everyone; whereas capitalism gives the dream to a small percentage of the people.  Sharing the wealth has been considered a Communist conspiracy since McCarthy and Nixon’s slander of the 1950s, yet it is found in most tribes, villages and small towns, and is the best way to keep the world from constant political upheaval and eventual revolutions.
In nature’s food chain all nourishment must come from the smallest organism and travel upward, feeding each member in the chain so that it can eventually reach the top predator.  In an equitable and rational human economic food chain, the money should start at the bottom and pass through the ranks, nourishing and satisfying each member of society until it reaches the bosses at the top.  Rich folks, don’t worry, you will get the money eventually, as usual; but if you don’t let the poor folks have it temporarily, you may as well be tyrants of old, and you will also have to start preparing for food riots and possibly revolution.  As Bob Marley said,  “A hungry man is an angry man!”     Capitalism is not a democratic form of economy!  Why do we allow it in America?  Capitalism benefits those who are already wealthy, and they are continually changing the rules to give themselves more advantage.
The rich do not reach down to pull up anyone else.  There are only a limited number of stalls in the executive bathroom.   John 9.29.08