For tonight’s entertainment I watched a very powerful documentary called “Inside Job.” Now, there are plenty of books, documentaries etc on the financial crisis. Well, let me tell you, this is one to watch and I’ll offer you an insight you’ll only get from The Global Citizen. I won’t bore you with details, incitement, and so on. Just good old international experience that we are known for.
First, the trailer.
This movie starts off with Iceland, a COUNTRY that went completely bust! To find out why, just watch the movie, but here is a personal story.
While studying in Japan I had a wonderful teacher. She became a bit restless and looked for an international experience. She found one in Iceland teaching Japanese. So she moved, married an Icelandic guy and had a baby. I followed her blog called “The Happy Mulberries” for the longest time. From her entries it looked like she was very happy and doing well. Then the financial crisis hit. Soon, her blog went offline and as internet savvy as I am have been unable to find her.
My guess is that both her and her husband lost their jobs, there was trouble and she moved back alone to Japan. I cannot be sure, but with her blog just suddenly ending like that after being so happy I’m pretty sure that is what happened.
So yes, the movie starts off with Iceland and who am I thinking of? Well, I’m thinking of her and how this financial stuff has a real and immediate impact on people I care about.
The movie then goes on to show how corrupt the banks and Wall Street has become. Wall Street just happens to be located in my country. This is unfortunate but again, I’m not going into details or reasons why. There are plenty of blogs, books and documentaries to do that. Instead, I’ll give you a nice insight bordering on sedition.
As companies, financial institutions and so on have gone “Global,” I would like to point out that it is possible for individuals to do the same. This blog is called The Global Citizen and for good reason. We prefer not to be tied down to a country and hope that one day we could just switch them as we please.
If you think about it, companies already do this. They hold their earnings in specific countries to benefit the bottom line. The earnings will go where the CEO directs them to with complete disregard for the country in which it is established. Financial industries are border-less as well. They will support the companies in which they can make the most profit regardless of which country it is in.
Therefore, why can individuals not think the same way? If a certain country/citizenship is no longer beneficial why not just switch? We are trained to believe that we should owe our loyalty to a certain patch of land just because we were born there. Yet, if companies and the financial companies in which we intrust our money no longer do this then why should we be obligated to?
It has occurred to me that my country The United States is actually one big profit making center. The purpose of this country is to make money and that’s it! Sure, there are some holdouts adhering to a “higher cause” and so on but in the end, profit making will always win. It is the oil that lubricates the system. Those with the most lubricant will most likely always win the elections.
We call this “bribery” when used by other nations, but it is called “lobbying” when used in the USA.
Let me repeat, the purpose of the USA is to supply the banks, corporations etc with profit, nothing else. In this matter, I would probably support the Tea Party. As you know, we think of them as a bunch of white anti-immigration loons, but perhaps there is a another factor. These Tea Party people are highly patriotic, believe in the right to individualism and in doing so believe the individual knows better than the government in regards to what is in their best interest.
The problem is, the government is now run by the corporations. The Tea Party movements energies are misdirected at government and believe that “pure” Republicans will help the USA out of the mess it is in.
I’ve got some sad news and must say that they should look past the Government that seems to run the show. The corporations are the boogymen behind the curtain.
But that begs the question, who are the corporations? Well, the corporations are you and I. We are the boogymen behind the curtain. In the USA we are all after our own self interest and one of us will rise to become the bedeviled CEO that pays himself 300 million should we have the opportunity.
How can we stop this madness? Well, the unfortunate truth is we cannot. Human beings will always take the money when available in the order of self interest. It is not the government, it is not corporations, but instead, it is the people running those corporations who just happen to be people like you and I.
There is no quick fix to financial meltdowns, there are no people who simply want to do what is right by other people anymore. Well, maybe there are some that would like to see equality and those that do right by other people but we call those people Communists.
If we get into communism, the same rule applies. How much money can you direct your own way? Thus communism, even though pure in principal, becomes corrupted.
Perhaps we cannot look to any economic model, government, or corporation for salvation. There is a wild card that we call religion whose teachings is supposed to make everything wonderful. But what happens even in religion? We look to self interest and the “converting” of other religions people. It is like trading money for converts, the more you have the better you have done.
Religions’ just like the financial sector, banks and corporations always want more. They want more money, more influence, more converts, more whatever.
At what point are we, as human beings, going to stop wanting more? Under every economic system, under every corporation and under every government I simply cannot find one that does not want ‘more’ of whatever.
I have no answer for this. All I can say is that in order to progress to the next level as humans, as stewards of the planet, as brothers and sisters I think the word we should be looking for is ‘less.”
We should want less possessions, less money (Jesus Christ said so), less desire, less of everything that drives greed.
One of my favorite remarks came from a citizen of Santa Cruz. His pet-peeve was that “sustainability” is inherently about doing with less. Yet, listening to the corporations we should be buying more of their “sustainable, Green” products.
Unfortunately, the entire economic system is based on the concept of ‘more.’ It is what pays us our bills, it is what keeps our religions’ going, it is what keeps our preferred political parties in office.
If I could mention just a few high flying ideologies we should want more of they are as follows: Love, Equality, Peace, Understanding, Knowledge.
But no, we need the money, corporations provide the money, they provide us money but us selling more, the politicians are elected by money, corporations survive by profits and thus we are all to blame.
I see no issue with some CEOs’ being paid 100 million if they deserve it. Just doling out the money to those that are less accomplished is not the right way to go. But I do see a problem with these same CEOs’ gambling with taxpayer dollars (bailouts) the destruction of the environment (enriching Government officials with bribes…. er lobbying) and blatant, naked greed which causes the entire house of cards to fall.
In closing, watch the movie. My main point is that we should not be tied down to nations, but even if we could just switch our passport for a new one we might still work for the same organizations who shed those passports long ago.
Corporations are the new government. Now who is the new corporation? It is us and the greed that drives us.
I look forward to bigger and better busts to come. After all, greed will never go away unless we all learn to think on a higher level. Sure we have bailouts now, but do you know what happens when bailouts are not enough? The best bailout ever is WAR. It has happened quite often in the past and will happen again.
As human beings, we are simply not advanced enough to limit our greed and thus this corrupt system continues.
