Neo-Feudalism: The New Paradigm

Hiya thread,

Op depressed me. I agree with a lot of it. Not this part maybe though I would like to:

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
We can't achieve a better world though because of the people we allow to lead us. We allow the least imaginative, the least creative and visionary people to lead us. We allow the industrial elite people that are far removed from the daily struggles of the common man to make the decisions about our society.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, but I feel I've come to a realization in the last two years that these people who lead us don't exist. If they did, we could do something about it. The truth is we know more than ever and do not much with it even in tiny situations.

There is a person at my work. They are mentally ill I believe. Very sensitive, taken up alcoholism. They are obviously depressed. We don't do anything about it. Told it's their 'personal life' and nothing to do with us. No one wants to take it on. Some because they think everyone should be a titanium uber creature, some because they assume they did something to deserve it, and the rest because it could take up all their time I guess since no one else bothers.

I'm pretty sure that person is going to die alone. I'm not sure our problems are anything to do with elite or non-elite people. Our problems are mostly just people.

Sorry this is all I got :/

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

I know I am not in the top five percent globally, because I have lived on the street because I had no money and no where to go. I know I am not in the top five percent globally, because people who ARE have money in their bank accounts, cars to drive, fuel to power them, can think about the future in terms of years and decades, not tomorrow, making it work tomorrow, always tomorrow. I know I am not in the top five percent of anything, because unlike people who are, the banks own the business I am a part of, not the directorship, not me.

You know nothing of my life. The whole thing has been a Dickensian bloody nightmare, which has only been survived through grit, and my position is still untenable. If even the slightest thing goes wrong, I could be on the street by next week, so no, I am in the top five percent of sod all, thank you very much.

a reply to: Dem0nc1eaner

We greatly deceive ourselves. We think what we believe, is what is true. It rarely is, but we need the lie to feel good about ourselves. None of this make sense otherwise.

You have to believe you are different, special in someway, from the guy that is being starved, killed, disenfranchised. You have to be more valuable in someway, than those that you see as less fortunate. If we don't believe the lies we tell ourselves, we may realize something very important about this world. Worse yet. We may be compelled to do something about it.

youtu.be...

I just hate how the system is always in rush but never in hurry.

Also the fact that most governments lack to give some incentive to the working class that deserves some leinancy for their hard work, like those who havr two jobs, but still pay a ridiculous amount of taxes.

The problem now is that there is no room for development anymore without having to make more room, and that opportunity is a life time chance now. So many people have degrees or diplomas that it has been a regular commodity, and at certain circumstances, some would be better off with out it.

What even worse, is the amount of kids that come out of school year after year.

I perfectly agree, that the political and corporate are to a degree responsible due to the fact they intertwined in the cog system. And how they could have made measures to prevent such a decline economically by pacing itself with its resources, instead of going all gluttony on it. Now they have to much or too little they can't even do anything with it.

Instead of moving the base of operations to a country with a weaker dollar to save their hides till the economics or Star Trek becomes possible.

a reply to: Specimen

You mean until the end of the world.

The technology we are so in love with, is a beast.

Just take a brief look at what it requires of our earth, the earthlings, and our environment, to build, produce and "dispose" of our little technical marvels.

If we can turn a blind eye to "blood diamonds", something that less than one percent of us will ever see, what chance is there that we are going to give up on items that we cherish to the degree that their numbers exceed the number of humans on this planet.

We surround ourselves with a technology that is stealing the water out of our planet, poisioning our soil, and we continue to embrace it. Our society has made it nearly impossible to live or function without the planet killing technology. The only way I could get rid of my cell phone, was to quit my job. I have so far been able to resist the constant request for a cell phone number from my volunteer jobs and my part-time job, but they continually push. I have a box of old cell phones. From the first one that I was given by my job in the 1980s till now. I kept thinking that they will come in handy one day. They didn't, so they are just another lot of junk that I need to get rid of, to declutter my life. Yet I hold onto them along with the 6 plus old computers, the 10 plus old printers, microwaves and numerous other electronic gadgets, that I don't want sent on a boat to China or to my local landfill.

We can blame anything and anyone else for the condition our condition is in, but we don't have to look any further than the person you see in the mirror. If you have convinced yourself that we can't live without this amazing technology, we won't. Just keep in mind that life without it will be hard. Life with it is impossible.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Good think we don't live in a democracy, eh, tovarich?

So get your mud and grass hut ready, the nobles will be arriving soon for their yearly tribute. . .

This is what existed BEFORE we revolted and started a Representational (or Constitutional) Republic. I'm not saying that America's designed purpose hasn't been chipped at and whittled away into something that is beginning to remind me of pre-American Europe, but your proposed problems are not at the root of it--we still live in a nation where you can start with nothing and become a billionaire. Sure, it's hard to do, and often all the cards are stacked against you from birth, but it's possible.

You claim that this is a delusion--I claim that your thread is full of crap. What you describe as capitalism is actually "crony capitalism," and while I agree that this is what our system is swiftly devolving into, it can also be stopped and actual capitalism can regain a foothold.

"Paradise on earth" is never a reality, because everyone wants different things--your presumed paradise is not mine, nor is it the girl's down the street, nor is it the guy's who just opened a mechanic shop in BFE, America. You can't pretend that there is a one-size-fits-all paradise that will cure all that ails humanity. Doing so is, in and of itself, a delusion.

I've talked about ALL this before on ATS, I'll recap AGAIN:

The "Owners of Capital" want wage slaves DEAD before turning 60, best case scenario for them, is for someone to work 60+ hour work weeks from ages 16-60, put all of their money into a 401K & home mortgage, neglect going to the doctor and then suddenly drop dead of a heart attack; all before they can drain their 401K's, using earned social security & medicare benefits.

Due to the way our current economic system works, we CLEARLY have too many people being born and not enough desire on the behalf of the "owners of capital" to employ them for the sake of having a stable and safe civilization. In the United States, for example, its clear that the "owners of capital" have chosen NOT to employ people on a large scale, preferring "tent cities" and "jailing the homeless", INSTEAD of providing more "make-work employment" arrangements.

Up to the 1940 a person could get just about any job with an 8th grade education, but today you need a BA or Masters for entry level. Why?

Because the government & big business figured out a long time ago that populations would certainly increase over time, but due to technology advancements, the availability of jobs would not expand to meet that population growth. There is a DEFINITE reason they don’t want people dropping out of high school and then at the same time, encourage those same high school graduates to attend junior college, then a 4 year university and finally a Masters degree or PhD. Government strong-arms this concept because it DECREASES the amount of people looking for full-time employment at the SAME TIME, chasing after jobs in a market that CANNOT provide employment for everyone whom is looking, that are able, qualified for and willing to work.

Look at it this way, when people could get a job with an 8th grade education, they went out and did it as soon as possible (opportunity cost). Then jobs got scarcer and the minimum requirement became a high school diploma, adding 4 more years of people NOT Looking for jobs within their cohort. Then jobs got even scarcer and the minimum became a 2 or 4 year college degree, adding an additional 2-4 years of people NOT looking for jobs within their cohort. Now jobs are really scarce and may require a Masters or PHD, adding an additional 2-7 years of people NOT looking for jobs within their cohort. Basically due to the way the economy has been structured TODAY, we are looking at young people within their cohort whom are NOT looking for full-time, career type, employment for 6-15 YEARS, beyond K-12, all while they finish more school!

This has been done ON PURPOSE, to keep the number people seeking employment lower. In 1920 after 8th grade everyone who was able, went out to look for work and typically found it. That’s simply NOT possible today under any circumstances. Easily accessed welfare will soon add another 1-3 years of people within a cohort, to those “not seeking employment”. Note this will NOT be to the specific detriment of society, but as a means to continue to mask the illusion that jobs and upward mobility are still available. So, if someone gets a graduate degree and collects 1-3 years of welfare on top of than, that’s ONE less person competing for scarce jobs. The extra years of welfare are then acting in the same way to the larger economy, as the previously increased minimum education levels for employment. The real goal is decreasing the number of able-bodied applicants out on the job market at the same time, but also not decreasing the supply of "potential workers" who's mere existence drive wages down for EVERYBODY. Keep in mind this cohort of people "not pursuing full-time employment" also includes those in Prison, Government pensioners/SSI and the disabled on government assistance. The reality is if everyone needed to go out and “get a job” or “start their own business” TODAY, as many “capitalists” and "entrepreneurs" suggest these days, we would ALL be making 0.25 cents a day. This is the strategy that will "End of Global Poverty".

The “owners of capital” have already decided, FOR US REGULAR PEOPLE, that there are going to be LESS jobs available in the NEAR future, due to increased automation and modern corporate labor, cost-cutting, strategies. These measures eventually will affect and include ALL contract work, ALL self-employment opportunities and ALL small businesses, NOT JUST payroll laborers. Its easier to “pay less” or “nothing at all” to contracted or indentured “labor” when there is another willing laborer/slave, waiting in the wings, to do the work for less or nothing at all. In the past when there wasn’t enough money to go around to pay both wages & PROFITS, the “owners of capital” simply brought in more indentured servant immigrants (Irish, Italians, Chinese, etc) or used flat out slave labor (Blacks, Native Americans, domestic prisoners, POW’s, etc). The only difference between now and then is that “owners of capital” can’t LEGALLY have slaves or indentured servants. The mechanisms today that replaces slaves and indentured servants are the following: longer than needed formal education for basic employment, off-shoring of labor, forced retirement, prisoners and welfare.

The largest “recorded” wage increase to happen in history, for non-land owing, wage-laborers, post the introduction of fiat currency, was after the black death pandemic, in the 14th century, especially in post-pandemic England.

But, how is that possible?

Because “the owners of capital”, post the black-death-pandemic, still needed wage-laborers, but there was a HUGE shortage of able bodied people. So, in order for ANY work to get done, they had to pay the peasants and other undesirables, more money, SIGNIFICANTLY MORE. This principle is still at work today, when you take the time to recognize that sizable portions of the population are actively discouraged from participating in the full-time labor market. This is easily done, by throwing people in prison, forcing them to attend formal school longer and allowing more people to claim themselves as disabled or collect long/short term welfare.

Here is some more history to consider, from the 14th century, the Peasants Revolt was triggered by the "Statute of Labourers 1351". By 1381, the sustained wage growth for non-land owing, wage-laborers was rising so quickly that the English parliament, a few decades post the Black-Death, under King Edward III, introduced the "Statute of Labourers 1351". This statute was used by the "Owners of Capital", as an artificial means to drive down the wages of non-land owning peasants. Despite market conditions signalling the need for increased wages.

The Statute of Laborers; 1351 ("Statutes of the Realm," vol. i. p. 307.)

Think about that for a minute, the MARKET signaled that wages should have been higher, due to actual labor shortages caused by the Black Death, but the “owners of capital” still didn't want to pay it, so they wrote a law saying why they didn't have to conform to demands of the market. That's where we are today, a form of Neo-feudalism, driven by Fascist ideology and practices. Remember we are a former "slave owning nation", that fought "tooth & nail" to maintain the legal right to own slaves, even turning indentured servants, whom by contract, were set to be released in 7 years, into indefinite slaves through legal loopholes.

I don't understand the unmanageable clusterf*** that is the global economy, I truly don't.

Times are changing-in times gone by everybody knew their role-you were a tanner, a butcher, a smith, etc. The local tanner purchased his meat from the local butcher, the local butcher purchased his knives from the local smith, the local smith purchased his garments from the local mercer, and so forth.

Now look at what we have-Market fluctuations, proxies, automatons, EBA's, FTA's, WTF's....Globalization is making a killing but it is killing what worked for hundreds of years. Local providers are niche or nothing which is sad. At times I hope for a CME so that we have to go back to our roots and start again, and make it right this time.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Fascism: Coming soon to an America near you.

You all have some great perspectives on what our society is becoming. I would like to hear what you believe to be solutions for these issues going forward.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

Your on the right track. It seems to be globalism is the new fascism. What i mean by that is individual worker goals are becoming less and less individual and more and more in service to the "global" community. Sound familiar Benito?

When I say a "kind of human paradise" I don't mean MY version or anyone else's specific version of paradise.

This isn't some grand utopia I'm talking about -- I'm talking about having all the basic human needs met, and allowing all of us the freedom to pursue the kind of lives we want without interference or hindrance from oppressive social constructs that dehumanize, devalue and marginalize us.

Want to live in the woods? Fine. Want to paint? Go ahead. Want to play music? Sure. Want to study bugs? Go right ahead.

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

When MystikMushroom metioned, "It wouldn't hurt us to all contribute a bit so that we can all float higher", I thought of helping each other build and maintain off grid communities.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Your post is one of the most well written posts I've read in a while. And I see exactly what you mean because for the large part I have seen it for myself. But the real eye opener for me from your post was the following.

The same way democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies. The more people there are the less one individual matters.

For some reason, the dollar comes to mind. Because the dollar becomes worthless the more it becomes printed. The more dollars out there the less it matters. It is kinda ironic that the dollar and humanity share a similar fate. Perhaps this is why we need to break our connection with it, or we ourselves will suffer the same fate as the dollar.

In this case, don't be the captain that goes down with the ship. I can see alot of messages with this quote alone. The deeper you think about it, you may have a EUreka! type moment. You have my thanks for sharing this quote. However I will add, that in a way this also leads us to the georgia guidestones. Perhaps there is more there than meets the eye? Because what you mentioned here, justifies what those guide-stones say. What if there is a reason behind the elites agenda. What if, we were wrong and it was about exactly what you mentioned? That democracy cannot survive overpopulation?

What if, and im just saying this out of curiosity. What if, it all boils down to two choices. Either we accept the population reduction through a mass event, which will be extremely painful. OR be ruled by an empire in an age of darkness?

"Freedom or slavery"

It is just a thought, but is it a farfetched one? Or simply one that dwells in curiosity.

And the ironic thing about all of this? Those of us that can effect the greatest change in the world are right here on ATS -- you and me -- we're the top 5-10% of the industrialized, literate democratized world.

The brightest minds are in fact here on ATS. In fact, I would not be surprised if we were of value to the powers that be because in some way shape or form, we give them ideas and intel. In a sense, we are like a "brain" to them with resources. And chances are if we were rounded up, we would probably be offered jobs instead of being locked up. And the idea is not so farfetched, because situations like this tends to happen. For example hackers who tend to somehow become infamous, when caught, they are somehow released a year or so later and you tend to see them recruited into intelligence agencies, or developing security systems i.e strengthening security through new software and anti viruses. Another example would be hitler's scientists. You know one of them as the founder of NASA.

(But I can see the sinistry behind this. Ever noticed how criminality seems to be more favored than harmless actions such as peace talks? Ever notice how real criminals tends to get away with things while a lone cannabis smoker is jailed just because he wanted to ease stress which would result in being NON violent? Meanwhile he gets jailed say, 4-10 years for possession. While a rapist-murderer gets probation within a year or two. )

However

The problem is, we're all eating three meals and sleeping in a bed at night. Most of us are pretty far removed from the real bad news of the world. So, those that can really make the changes are unfortunately the furthest away from the problem!

The Comfort zone tends to be a cause of non-action. I agree, however, there is another problem. If you haven't noticed, we are constantly shifting back and forth and this too also keeps us in non-action. At least for those who do have the means to do something, even in small ways.

And some of us have become wise enough to have a glimpse of the laws that govern this universe. And are stuck observing this back and forth battle of information and disinformation. And some tend to fall back into the pattern of destruction as we become confused on who is right and who is wrong.

It seems that choosing no sides would be the safer option for most who are stuck in this paradigm. And this needs to be understood because while many would criticize this, they don't see the suffering and torment one goes through when confused on which side is right or wrong. The things that goes through ones mind, the temptation and the battle within between good and evil is the battle many of us are facing. (At least those of us who are awake enough) and this is actually the true front line.

In one form or another, everyone has to face themselves. Eventually, because if we don't get past this battle, there is no future. The distraction is the outside world , keeping you fixated on needless things instead of dealing with the real major front linal problem which is this very battle. People NEED to put themselves on trial. Or else it will be done for them.

But i don't blame people for not wanting to either. Because it is a painful experience, and this has largely to do with the grand deception, and disconnection that those in power have originally implanted in us. And it is gradually getting worse every second, the more people become infatuated with technology. The disconnection is similar to that of Scientology and narcissism. Which is no different than the new age movement inspired by oprah and her cronies.


All this makes it hard to do anything when people are literally controlled into thinking narcissistic patterns. They become the golums of society, and will lash out at people when their beliefs are questioned.

The other problem is the conditioning at an early age, and it will get worse and worse because children are being programmed as we speak through television, video games into adopting this ideology of narcissism. It is this mindset that will guide the world into neo-feudalism.



This post is well written. I would like to add this post to a blog post, giving you credit. With your permission of course. This is one of the best written truths I have read in a long time. And it is very well said. Thank you for the share, and message me through inbox, if I have permission to add this to my blogger, and share it with people.

I will also link it to here. (if that is okay).

originally posted by: zardust
a reply to: MystikMushroom
we are just not very creative like you say.

My father was a Marine in WWII. He thought creativity was childish and effeminate. Even if it is sometimes, I'm not sure why that's bad.

originally posted by: beyondtruth
a reply to: Thecakeisalie
Your on the right track. It seems to be globalism is the new fascism. What i mean by that is individual worker goals are becoming less and less individual and more and more in service to the "global" community. Sound familiar Benito?

Yes, we are talking about Robber Barron's here, who's actions are on par with those whom supported the Italian Fascist economy of 1922-1943. The United States, in its current state, is nothing more than a 2nd world, fascist stronghold. Considering all that I have outlined above, can we REALLY expect responsible business leadership from a nation formed on these values?

Of course not, so why are large numbers of people still bothering following the rules made by the "Owners of Capital"?

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Your telling me stuff I already know. I was born in the late 80's you know, so I get a good idea of how the old world worked, and how the new ones going too.

I am merely pointing out that a large part of the economic failure today was, and is still the same in the 1930's, where since the economy was so heavily dependent on the trading of cars, and back then, cars were more or less only for the rich, like t.v back in the 50's. Where as that they made so many, they couldn't sell it, to the point it backlogged, and became a waste of money since flipping it for scrap was not in demand.

The contamination of natural resources such as water or even just air, is stupid and childish, and a very bad investment to any economic structure.

Decades ago, Coca Cola was for the rich, and Pepsi was for the poor, and now pepsi more successful now. Fresh water gonna more valuable then Gold and Oil.

originally posted by: eisegesis
You may only live off the grid unknowingly to them or face forceful reeducation and alignment into society.

That would definitley bring an observer close to the edge. Could you link me to a story or relate one of your own?

originally posted by: gentledissident

originally posted by: eisegesis
You may only live off the grid unknowingly to them or face forceful reeducation and alignment into society.

That would definitley bring an observer close to the edge. Could you link me to a story or relate one of your own?

The simple answer is, "building codes" and “eminent domain”.

That's how the "Owners of Capital" keep tight controls on off-the-grid-living, here is an example:

“They came and they condemned our house and told us if we stayed here we’d be arrested for trespassing on our own property, and the reason why is, they said, it was unsafe living conditions because we don’t have city utilities hooked up,” said Tyler Eric Truitt

Code Enforcement Officers have issued the following VIOLATIONS

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn
Most of us hunters and gatherers have become hoarders. It is not anymore about what we need.

I confess, I collect toys, games, books, and instruments. My place is so packed with this stuff, it's part of the interior design. However, I do share the wealth.