Rants

Well the trial of Wacko Jacko’s doc has come to an end and without any real surprises, Doc Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter or some such. Although in the grand scheme of things I couldn’t  give a flying, however I guess I do feel the need to throw in my 2 cents. To claim this as a victory and justice having been done is a little hard to swallow. Firstly the trial itself poses a problem, as is the case in most trials that involve a major celebrity, it is virtually impossible to get a set of jurors that will be entirely without prejudice and it may doubly be so when we include someone as notoriously wacky, albeit beloved by many, as Michael Jackson. Can we really believe that Michael’s celebrity didn’t at least play a part in the final conviction? Did the jurors feel at least some pressure to come back with a guilty verdict to vindicate the death of the King of Pop? We’ll never know for sure but lets hope that the jurors made a objective analysis of the facts rather than an emotionally charged obligation to preserve the memory of the “king” as a victim of some evil villain of a doctor rather than just some grandiose junky.

Secondly the premise that Doc Murray should be held responsible for what essentially amounted to Jacko’s flirtation with suicide is somewhat uncomfortable. Sure the doctor ought to be held responsible for the less than ethical conduct of being a glorified drug dealer and perhaps for not exhibiting the appropriate duty of care at least after the fact but lets face it, what serious drug abuser uses anaesthetic as their drug of choice?  I mean WTF? We all know Michael Jackson was strange but can we really buy into the idea that he really needed what he called his ‘”Milk” to cure his insomnia? The whole idea is preposterous! Then paying the good doctor a hundred and fifty grand a month to administer the noxious “milk” Propofol into Jacko’s veins even more absurd. But could we expect anything less from someone labelled Wacko Jacko? I mere mortal would be happy with a shot of heroin and maybe a few benzos to alleviate the woes of the world but to request full unconsciousness with surgical grade anaesthetic is somewhat extreme in comparison. And in this case lethal.

So remember kiddies steer clear of the “milk” and stay with the cough syrup instead.

Seriously this is certainly some messed up world we live in. A world where celebrity is treated as a god head when in reality, celebrity is just mere flesh and blood with the flaws we all possess, just magnified a great deal more under the media microscope. We could all perhaps take a step back and admit that Michael Jackson would still be alive if he didn’t want his milk and eat it too.The doctor didn’t kill the King of Pop, the king killed himself.

Although blaming some dubious character rather than the stupidity of an individual held in such great esteem is easier to deal with. But what is probably even more of a bitter pill to swallow is that perhaps it is us, those who hold these individuals up on pedestals who have at least a share of the blame. Fame is a heavy burden that the celebrity endures and the masses that scrutinise and idolise the famous surely should be held accountable in some sense for the burden that often manifests in oddities and sometimes self harmful behaviour. I guess it is a 2 way street but what if celebrity could just go about their business without being mobbed by fans, surely then a little normalcy could be had and a little less eccentricities and neurosis accrued. But then again often the celebrity ego demands idolatry.

Anyway. RIP Wacko Jacko. In the end, you got what you wanted. Sleep.

I’ve been burning the midnight candle lately, partly because I’ve been assigned to working extended hours for a project I’m working on and as a consequence getting home later than normal, which is not conducive to getting some down time before going to bed. And partly because instead of forcing a time to switch off I continue to wind myself up until my eyelids start to droop. Of course the opposite end of the spectrum would be that I awaken early and do the time I’m required to do, that way, and then getting home earlier and hopefully getting to bed earlier. But let’s face it, I’m hardly a morning person and I have difficultly maintaining the discipline for early rises and early retiring to the bedroom for the sleep. That most normal of disciplines is something that evades the nocturnal beast that I am and the idea of becoming normal is somehow abhorrent to my sensibilities or insensibilities as is the case with my persistent burning of the midnight oil. For no particular reason other than to try and evade the sandman’s grains so I can gain a few extra hours of "my time’ to pursue a better understanding of the universe and the nuances that pervade the human condition. I may be stretching my rationalisations just a tad here but the core of my reasoning is set about a grand agenda but quite often fails to live up to such designs and instead merely just wiles away hours with useless information for entertainment purposes.

Anyway, having the extended night time as I have had over the last few days has given me a sneak peak into the world of politics once again. As the hour wanes into the witching hour the familiar sound bytes fill the room with the sound track of the beginning of Question Time on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I’m not even sure if late night television is the only time this piece of Australian drama is aired but I’d have a fair amount of trouble believing anyone would actually fit some time in the day to view it without being completely bonkers or just a plain old masochist. But still the little time and brief glimpses I’ve had of this work of complete time wasting is filled with utter disdain and contempt. I really can’t believe that this is what we pay the people who are purportedly our representatives of Government for. I mean is there any point to this circus when most of the time is spent with the Chairman saying "Order"! Whenever I get these glimpses of Australian politics I just end up feeling enraged, if it wasn’t bad enough having political talking heads on news and current affairs programs basically just perfecting the art of Bullshitting and dodging questions with non sequitur and evasion, we then just get the same thing happening in a time when serious discussions ought to be taking place. What could be a civil and useful discussion ends up being a free for all time for just more politicking and party propaganda. Perhaps if the thing wasn’t broadcast then the temptation for causing the Chairman to burst a vein trying to bring the House to order wouldn’t be there.

Makes the mind boggle with the possibility that anarchy wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. A sovereign fund should be set up for whenever a politician utters a piece of bullshit or tries a furtive attempt at politicking on company time, then a hundred dollar bill is placed in the sovereign penalty jar taken from the parliamentary pension no less. We’d surely be a debt free society and in the black far sooner than the Gillard 2013 time line and we might then see some honest political debate. The joke once again is on the Australian Taxpayer who foots the bill for the prodigal extravagance that Australian Politics finds itself in.

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A few months back a family friend asked me or wondered out loud what my political bent was. The question popped back into my head while I had the ABC’s Q&A Gen Y edition running as background noise on Monday night. I said back then when asked, that I didn’t really follow politics and didn’t really have a preference, but this was not entirely true and was more evasiveness than an answer. Because I didn’t really want to get into some discussion about politics or justify why I supported the side of the political line I do. Firstly I think the whole idea of following a political party and debating the policies is a pointless exercise and secondly because I think our choice in support is a rather limited choice at best and I have my doubts as to whether we really have a choice at all. But for the record I swing between the Greens and Labor and have been voting Greens at the majority of Elections in the last few years, unless there is a direct threat that the Liberal Party might gain parliament, then I vote Labor. The last election was a Labor vote because the idea of having Tony Abbott as Prime Minister was a chilling proposition and not something I wanted to live with for the coming 3 to 4 years. But if I was pressed on why I have a preference for Labor, then I’d have no better answer than, because it is like Religion. We follow the political party our parents support, in much the same way we follow our parents religion.

We won’t often see a person that was raised with Christian based belief system then having an apostasy and turning to Islam. Same with politics, perhaps apostasy in politics is a more frequent occurrence than with religion but as a general rule the politics you grew up with will be the same you stick with. I could be way off the mark here but it seems a reasonable supposition as any. For the most part we live in an apathetic society and elections aren’t really anything more than an inconvenience to a great many people and although there are swinging voters who may base their decisions upon the policies being marketed come election time, I think a lot of voters are life time supporters of the party they belong to by birth and won’t ever change their vote regardless of the political policy being put forward. I grew up in Labor electorate and for the most part I remain in a Labor electorate, so I’m like the lifer in a lot of ways. If I grew up on the North Shore I’d more than likely be a Liberal Party supporter. It’s a simplistic view but as a rule of thumb it’ll work for the majority as well I think. Besides, I think the better part of any electorate has little faith that what is being flogged as policy during election time will transpire into policy during the course of the term of Government. I think we can safely safe that politicians aren’t exactly the most reliable people to keep their promises and are known to bend the truth, just a little.

My lack lustre and rather apathetic swing to the Greens is more a statement of my total lack of faith in Government and a wish for a change in the paradigm. A paradigm that has grown tedious and obnoxious, my vote reflects this attitude more than it directly supports the Greens policy. I do think environmental issues need to be more directly addressed with firm policy and not the current soft approach that treads carefully around the issue so as to not jeopardise re-election, which is the downfall of the system we have. There can never be any long term vision because policy is ephemeral, perpetually on the precipice of being overturned by the next in line. Perhaps big policy decisions ought to be put to a republic vote, a referendum conducted, which no Government could overturn. If we’re to rely on the Liberal/Labor paradigm then we may as well stop all discussions on the environment and any other major issue and continue on our merry way. Pissing about politicking carbon taxes is merely obfuscation. I support a carbon tax if the money is used to actual fund renewable energy research and implementation but in a more realistic view, the money will just be pissed away on bribing voters come election time. The whole political system is more about these bribes and middle class welfare than actual governing. It really doesn’t matter which party is in Government, for me at least, because as a SINK (Single Income No Kids) I’ll be paying more in taxes than my dual income with kids, fellow citizens. I’ll get shafted which ever way I swing my vote.

I dislike that we only really have two parties that we can effectively choose to govern the country and I say govern rather broadly, when what happens is not Government but pandering to voters with misinformation and politicking while the real masters, Big Business decides the true policy agenda. I wish the Greens would win an election, If only because the bickering between Labor and Liberal becomes a tiresome and tedious circus, which we are exposed to on a daily basis. For the most part, it is merely a bunch of clowns running a show of one-upmanship and finger pointing without making headway in finding solutions to the real ills of society. Having a change in the politicking happening on Late Night television would be a change for the better and if the Greens were in power it would be at least a tri-party circus and might actually be entertaining rather than the bland see through politicking that the current two party farce exhibits and has the nerve to call itself politics.

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Last time I wrote I delved a little into the magnitude of debt that the US has embroiled itself in. That number is set to soon tip the legal limit of a whopping 14 Trillion dollars. Let’s not forget this number, 14, 000, 000, 000, 000. Hold it in the minds eye briefly and imagine the enormity of such a giant of a figure. Imagine that One trillion dollars is a stack of $1 bills place on top of one another, which is estimated to total a height of 108km when stacked like that. Multiply that by 14 and we hit a stack that is roughly 1500km high. High enough to leave the Earth’s atmosphere and orbit in outer space.

It appears the level of debt is seeking a landing upon the moon as the criminals responsible for the travesty that this debt embodies is in fact seeking a grant from congress to lift the legal level of debt allowed still further. To what can only be thought of as a measure to enslave the US population to a regime of never ending debt that will be impossible to ever repay, for perpetuity. As it stands with 14 trillion dollars every man woman and child owes 45, 000 dollars assuming 300 million population, however if that wasn’t bad enough and it almost seems doable in comparison, the figure is then shot to the moon if the total level of obligations the US government owes its citizenry is taken into account. Adding social security, Medicare and Medicaid and the plethora of other year to year running costs a government is empowered to administer, then the debt quickly shoots to level closer to 80 trillion dollars. When these obligations are accounted for each American is indebted to a figure of around $266k. That is a lot of years of labour each man, woman and child has to endure to service such a debt and considering other commitments like food, clothing and shelter also have to be met, the citizenry sure has its work cut out. It could take decades of labour to repay.

With the World Gross Domestic Product as of 2009 at 59 Trillion dollars. Link  It appears the US debt far exceeds the worlds GDP so it begs the question of who is actually going to pay this impossible debt? The answer is no one will. Default or hyperinflation. Which will it be? More debt means more fiat currency printed which means less value which means more money printed and soon enough one hundred trillion dollar bills are being printed, Hello the United States of Zimbabwe. If the US continues with this madness we will surely see notes like below coming into existence and instead of Zimbabwe dollars they’ll be USD. Just way too much debt and all because for a few brief moments it made us feel rich. In reality we were becoming poor. Soon, possibly very soon the middle class are gonna get wiped of the wealth they thought they had. The printing press will take it all from them. Probably too late to switch it off now anyway. Just gotta wait and see I guess.

The National Australia Bank or NAB as it is known in Australia went into a semi meltdown late last year, followed by The Commonwealth bank not long afterwards. Then only recently, in the last month or so, the NAB system once again made the news with another malfunction! There are those that smile with a wry sort of grimace, the sort of smile that knows something which remains hidden from less savvy folk. Thousands of NAB customers were left cashed down, unable to access funds, left hung out to dry as pay cheques were left unprocessed or withheld over the weekend of the 27th and 28th November 2010. All because of a computer problem that occurred on the previous Wednesday. On a weekend which ironically fell on Black Friday in the US, the weekend after Thanksgiving where the mad mobs embark on superfluous spending not unlike the post Christmas sales that happen on Boxing Day here. Both events juxtaposed in a symbolic synergy, illustrating the divide between the haves and the have nots.

Those who consider themselves in the “know” would invariably like to tell us that events like the system failures of 2 of the Big 4 banks will become common occurrences in the not too distant future where “technical glitches” in software systems like the one NAB uses will be plagued with such occurrences frequently, more or less in an intentional way. It is theories like these which are better suited to form the base line plot in some trashy paperback with a conspiratorial bent rather than the 3D world of reality. But is such a plot all that far removed from a reality that is about to unfold in the coming years?

Dooms-dayers and even those not so doomy disposed might go so far as to say that the NAB system fault had more to do with liquidity problems as a direct result of the impending economic doom in Europe, particularly the bailouts occurring in Ireland and fears that sovereign nations are on the precipice of defaults en masse, than something as simple as a software glitch. Liquidity problems which seemingly tied the hands of one of Australia’s Big Four so much so that it had to turn off its system temporarily to accommodate these issues abroad. It’s a damning accusation made purely from a paranoid point of view and most certainly a far fetched, baseless accusation. A bank  using such austerity measures is ludicrous and that they could even take place intentionally, absurd; but if we think about it for a moment, how hard would it be to insert a line of gibberish code in a piece of software so that a system would fall over? Not hard I reckon, but then that would make me one of those wretched crackpot dooms-dayers or conspiracy theorists and if I  were to entertain such absurdities then I’d also have to ponder whether economic hit men are a reality and that Fluoride in our drinking water is nothing more than a way to dispose of industrial waste while at the same time dumbing us down. Am I going to lower my most assured and sacred values and intelligence to muse over the possibility that these things could quite possibly be part of a conspiracy of a reptilian master alien race? “V”, eat your heart out, this is 2011 and time to embrace the end of civilisation as we know it, at the hands of an uber intelligent T-Rex metamorphosed into an elite humanoid form. Why not, wouldn’t you? The end is nigh and does that not automatically mean that we also lose all sense of the rational! Perhaps not!

Of course it is highly unlikely that such measures of intentional sabotage could easily be achieved in a heavily regulated and transparent industry like the banking industry but it makes for an interesting theory to mull over in quiet idle times, especially if one were of conspiratorial mind or a nut job like those pesky dooms-dayers are. Still, if nothing else, it does make for a good movie plot, something like, Wall Street 3 – QE3 The printing Press never sleeps.

Yet it is extremely disturbing that a whole monetary machine could go offline, just like that! Even when this episode is explained as a legitimate computer glitch in an upgrade gone wrong it nevertheless leaves one somewhat restless and a little nervous that a multi billion dollar a year bank could just drop off the grid. It serves as a reminder, at the very least, that the banking sector isn’t infallible and worse things could happen and has happened. Lets not forget that in the not so distant past there was a massive entity called Lehman Brothers for example and the next, no longer and that we are still unravelling the mess from the circumstances which brought about its demise. Although our puppet media would have us believe that the GFC is over and we are well on the way to recovery, I feel that optimism in the face of the brewing storm is nothing but a last ditch grab for our gullibility before the whole house of cards crumbles into a catastrophic mess that the last two generations have yet to taste.  What if a bank was leveraged heavily with overseas debt and the only thing nations were buying with US dollars were US bonds and through the not so prudent use of quantitative easing the whole bond market collapsed. And as China began offloading their shares in treasury bonds would another upgrade process then mysteriously pull the system offline. Or if panic set in would the banks just pull the power cord out before the masses could perform a run on its doors? My lack of knowledge in the esoteric world of high finance prevents me from confabulating a more creative scenario but perhaps a semi meltdown due to an upgrade glitch is  little more than just a test bed on what may happen in catastrophic failure.

What if NAB were more than just a little curious in performing some market research into what it could and could not do in unforseen future happenings. Whose to say what happens behind closed doors in the finance sector? The same sector which brought us the genius of sub prime mortgages, mortgage backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and other such derivatives of the housing bubble before it went belly up and left Joe Blow and his taxes to bailout the sector who schemed the whole charade in the first place. Is it really mere conjecture and cynical speculation that the recent banking operational failures were a little too convenient an event to at least question the validity of the explanations given? I know it comes back to conspiratorial questioning which leaves the door open to ridicule while the conformity enforcers sit back in their safe cosy cushioned back reality. The notion that an upgrade wasn’t fully tested before it went live seems dubious, although I’m sure it was tested, however, obviously not thoroughly enough to prevent thousands of customers from a whole lot of inconvenience and even lost revenue. Sure a few bugs is reasonable while a new system is put in place but for the whole system to fall over just isn’t acceptable and more than a little suspicious if you ask me. Perhaps I’m just looking for a an explanation for the unease that these times we live in invokes. Maybe it is that I am a conspiracy theorist who has degenerated into a delusional madness about a world that in the worst of times is a confused mess and at the best of times seems so simple and blessed. More often than not I am confronted with a confused entanglement of bits and bytes that has somehow been thrown into a pixelated picture of how things operate. Sometimes I may even recognise which pixel is “I” in that vast canvas blurred with a brush dipped in a palette complete with 16.7 million shades of colour.

As much as I do find alternative view points with paranoid bents  interesting, it really wasn’t the main point for writing this post, however, the banking part is what I do want to examine with my skewed cynical eyes. The remote chance that a bank could fall off the grid due to an ulterior motive is something, which is at least possible, whereas fluoride and reptilian overloads are works better left in fictional tales, although a good story could be concocted from just those two ingredients alone. Falling off the grid for a bank, albeit an unlikely aid to cure liquidity issues, even from a totally uneducated novice in economic matters such as myself, is regardless, a tool that could be used to curb a bank run. Bank holidays could be a thing of the past when a holiday could be orchestrated in binary. It is neither here nor there in reality because most of us living in the ordinary mundane world really haven’t the foggiest clue as to how money actually works let alone where it comes from. We may envisage a vault filled top to bottom with notes from peoples savings and reserves of the banks currency but we would be dead wrong! There is no vault and to my surprise, I recently became aware of this, is that you’d be hard pressed even getting access to all your money in hard currency by waltzing into a bank and cashing in the withdrawal slip if it amounted to anything significant. One needs to give the bank notice for amounts greater than a few thousand dollars. Too bad if you were in hurry and needed fast access to cold hard cash. So maybe bank runs are a virtual impossibility in this day and age anyway – so much for that conspiracy theory!

One thing which is not as confusing as it seems, once one has eyes to see, is money. Unlike the mysterious creator who creates a picture from thin air, who then uses a tangible asset of paint to illustrate what the minds eye sees, our monetary system is not based upon that which is tangible like paint. It is based upon pure illusion! What we’re lead to believe as real is in fact not so. Although the painting itself is an illusion the creator has used a tangible asset to create the illusion so it matters not how we view the painting, it will always hold value even if the value is in the eye of the beholder. However, the thing that we all worship while we wander aimlessly through our local Westfield Shopping Centre is a trick that magicians can only dream of performing. The trick is that we believe the notes we carry in our hip pockets are actually something worthwhile, something which has intrinsic value. Unlike the painting the value of notes lies not with the eye of the beholder but by an external party, an evaluator of sorts who determines the value. Also a painting is unique and another will only ever exist as a counterfeit or print if the painter is talented enough to earn the adoration of many. Notes are by design a copy of the original and many copies can exist in circulation, without limit. The thing we consciously or subconsciously worship whilst our eyes are filled with the envy of consumerism, does not hold intrinsic value and what we are carrying is not money at all but a piece of debt. An IOU from the Government and the Banks. Which bank? Ultimately, The Reserve Bank of Australia.

On the surface it is all well and good until we actually put some thought into what this debt or IOU means to us. Only then can we  appreciate what we so readily purge from our possession to trade for what amounts to superfluous gadgetry and accessories that we only really want because we are conditioned and perhaps even hard wired to accumulate. From birth we are conditioned and imprinted with a desire to express our individuality through the branding we license from some multi national corporation. We’re conditioned to express our status in the society we live in with the stuff we accumulate and display to the world. Displays of our ever so uniqueness and individuality no less. Purchases made with a promise that the brands we exhibit will say who we are, what we are and where we are in the world. While I’m off on this tangent, isn’t it funny that what we think of as uniqueness somehow equates to what is the most popular. The most popular brands are somehow better than something of similar quality –  the brand that sells the most and which has a higher dollar value are often the possessions we accumulate and are chosen to display our uniqueness. We are a strange creature. Speaking of brands, there is one particular brand that I really can’t stand and that is Lonsdale, whenever I see that label I cringe with disgust. I don’t exactly know why the name causes me such grief but it really does my head in. I mean what or who the hell is Lonsdale? Whoever wears the label I automatically think of them as a drone, when I suspect the brand is supposed to depict something of hipness, whilst wandering downtown in SOHO, London. It’s totally irrational since there are multiple labels that are just as blatantly stupid to be emblazoned upon ones person, like a human billboard, that it seems idiotic to have just one pet hate label but there it is, my totally irrational hate for anything Lonsdale. I somehow digressed into hate speech but I’m sure there is probably more than a fair share of the world’s populace that shares such sentiments, directed at Nation brands and not just the corporations that back those nations.

So what does it really mean to be carrying an IOU and to then trade it away as if it were just paper and essentially worthless. Wait a minute – do we really trade it like it is worthless? Well considering people exchange paper (plastic) to wear a big fat Lonsdale brand on their chest or bag, then yes! Even when we like a big fat pay cheque with wallets bulging with plastic, we do really trade what is intrinsically worthless for goods that do have value and even if it is a Lonsdale T-shirt, it does hold intrinsic value. If only just for the utility of having cotton on your back protecting you from the elements. Placing poor judgement aside, what does all this say about the IOU? There is more to It than merely the means to trade the note of arbitrary dollar value for goods and services that we desire and need for survival and leisure and even pleasure. It is also an IOU on our labour and skills. Our labour is what really pays for the piece of plastic we hold in our hip pockets and not only our labour but with the increasing levels of debt, especially in the US, it also is the labour of the next generation and countless other generations. In fact the level of debt in the US is so astronomical that it is a pipe dream to think the interest on the debt can be serviced let alone the principal ever having a chance to be paid off. It makes Australia’s 1.2 trillion worth of debt seem like pocket change in comparison, yet we are unfazed and live in denial that the problems we are confronted with are nothing more than statistical abstractions.

The wool has been pulled over our eyes and in our blindness we really do believe that the wolf eyeing us with hungry eyes is just another sheep in the flock. We’ve become so addicted to easy money which an unimpeded printing press has allowed, that when we see figures like 12 trillion US national debt or 1.2 trillion Australian debt it means nothing to us. The numbers themselves are an abstraction, we have no emotional attachment to such figures, since they’re so large they become meaningless. To a large degree because we simply cannot make a connection or understand  a number like this;         $12, 000, 000, 000, 000 it is just too easy to ignore it.  We are essentially creatures of habit and what is most easily recalled is one the most persuasive arguments we adhere to for the rationale behind the beliefs we hold. We inevitably shrug off large statistical aberrations to the the nether regions of our minds because we are still operating the same as we were yesterday and as such, it matters little what the national debt equates to. Numbers that large go unnoticed, even when our head might say, “Hold on a second, did he just say 12 trillion dollars of debt? What is that number? It’s a big number, maybe we should do something about it.!” , we’ll soon just shift the thought with the reassurance that is not our problem. Easy credit has lulled our senses into believing that we can have it all and have it all for next to nothing.

The next rabbit that gets pulled out of the hat is the magic trick that our money has been created out of thin air, quite literally it is created from nothing and the note we thought had merit and value is intrinsically worthless because of it. Labelling it money is deceptive because it is is not money but currency, fiat currency, there is a difference and it isn’t merely semantic. The distinction between money and currency is worth highlighting because although our currencies are labelled as money, it is I believe an intentional misuse of the word. Money has intrinsic value and holds value. Currency is purely a note with a stated value, a value which depreciates as more of it is circulated and because its supply is not bound to anything but the whim of the governing authority which issues the currency and thus has no intrinsic value because the paper is itself worthless. A dangerous condition which does have precedence in history, fiat currencies have typically only lasted a mere 40 year lifespan before it all goes down the gurgler.

The Roman empire collapsed under a fiat currency system. They were effectively an early adopter in implementing such a system while the Chinese were the first to devise and issue paper money. Inflation eventually brought their experiment to an end and ever since the experiment first appeared and failed, so it has been with each ensuing fiat based monetary system. It seems the government or controlling authorities can not be trusted to keep a lid on supply when things go a little pear shaped and find it all too easy to wade off catastrophe by debasing  the currency, an ephemeral solution until it spins out of control and eventually collapses. It begs the question of why we should feel special in this regard? The coming collapse of our system seems inevitable to me, not just a matter of when but how soon? I think that time will be upon us sooner than we think. My reasoning is based upon a gut feeling more than anything else and although gut feelings don’t necessarily mean anything, it is worth a little time and curiosity to ponder for a moment the instantaneous consumer gratification we all seem compelled by, is more than just a symptom of easy credit and money. In times of hyper inflation people are compelled to spend money as soon as they receive it because sooner rather than later it’ll be worth a lot less than it was worth only the week or day before. Is our spending habits a symptom of inflation? We are told that inflation is on average around 2 to 5% but why does it feel like the rising cost of goods I put in my shopping basket feels as if it is lot more than the 3% inflation? Do we base our spending habits on low level feelings like the price of our weekly grocery shopping being more than it was months before? With our weekly wage not really keeping up with the increased costs it does become noticeable even if the stated inflation figure seems to suggest another reality. An analyst may have the answer somewhere out there but all I have is just a gut feeling that inflation is increasing at an accelerating rate while it devours our purchasing power. For the most part the economy and it’s effects have remained hidden in my ignorance and apathy. Until one day I became aware that the cost of living was indeed rising faster than my CPI salary increase was which led me to find answers and to indeed question the system I partake in.

The feeling and suspicions I have are not worth much since I haven’t actually kept a diary or tracked the price of goods over the years but I’m sure a small basket of my usual daily items used to cost around $18 but now it is more like $23. Long gone are the days when you could fill a trolley for less than $100. Everything costs more and our salaries are perpetually in pursuit of the increases. So do we feel compelled to spend more than save because we sense the purchasing power of our dollar is rapidly declining even if we consciously don’t experience it? Inflation is the hidden tax that is imposed upon us while robbing us of our wealth. A silent killer like plaque in our arteries, constricting  our bottom line until one day we find it just ceases to fuel our expenses and we are left with a trickle in comparison to it’s former roaring flow. Inflation itself is manipulated by governments to distort the fiscal health of the country. In my mind we are closer to 10 per cent inflation which is a far cry from the 3% we are fed through government propaganda but I’m basing this assumption purely from the price hikes that seem to have embedded themselves into my shopping basket and of course your mileage may vary.

And mileage certainly does vary, especially in the coffers of Big Government. Some clever tricks seem to have been inserted into the formulas used to calculate inflation. Things like hedonics where the CPI is manipulated by substituting a more expensive item for a lower value item because as the price rises the consumer will use a similar lower cost item to replace the inflated price of the usual product. Or they use hedonic regression to implement increased performance as added value to adjust the cost as a dollar saving and thus deflated inflation. For instance, If I bought a new Ford six cylinder with say 130kW of power for $35K and then the next year I bought the same car but with a newer, more efficient  6 cylinder that produced 140kW for $37K, it is then assumed that the more power equates to more value than the 37 grand depicts and is then adjusted to say $34K. The reasoning is because I can now travel from A to B faster than I could previously and hence be more productive, therefore inflation is hedonically regressed to a lower level of inflation. Cars are probably not the best example but everyone else uses examples of TV’s or computers so I thought I’d use a different example. From my understanding it works well as a sort of technology  inflationary hedge. Increased technology deflates the CPI because of increased utility and productivity. Another example – I upgraded my toaster from a two slice to four slice toaster for around the same price as the original, more bread = less inflation. Never mind the actual bread tripled in price in the same time frame as we no doubt will be buying Homebrand rather than TipTop. I mean how are we supposed to get a picture of reality when the numbers are fiddled with?

Therein lies the problem, we aren’t supposed to get an idea of reality – that is the point! Market confidence is in the foreground of any tit bit of information that floats into our minds from a media that is less than objective in its delivery. Market confidence is best thought of as a tool to placate the consumer mass and to control the flow of money. If we all knew inflation was increasing more than the expected norm and more than than the manipulated data we are fed, we the people are not going to be terribly happy. The leaders that have been voted in and vested with the power to manage the economy wouldn’t last long in their leadership if true unbiased information was freely available rather than the lies and misrepresentation we currently receive . It seems wherever we look we really are being given the hard sell that the economy is a-ok and the the large injections of liquidity into the market has staved off the great deflationary process – The Great Depression Mark II. The system is dependent upon exponential growth and we’ve been led to believe that it is the only choice we have and perhaps it is, considering an alternative will most certainly dig at the heels of our comfortable and prosperous lifestyle. Market confidence is pushed heavily and  fiscal policy is geared to perpetuating this confidence. Deflation is considered an evil greater than Satan and is almost certain to extinguish a political career sooner than saying Super Profits Tax. Everywhere we look and listen we are fed the same tired slogan that everything is is order and we should just continue on our merry way. But is everything in order? Should we merely take what is fed to us as the gospel without blinking an eyelid to ascertain whether it is truth or just some more BS to keep the power base in the same tired old hands? Think! Think! Think! A slogan that is plastered on the walls of an AA meeting and a reminder that it is exactly what we are not supposed to do, much in the same way as the media and political arena gears itself as our thought process so that we need not bother our feeble minds with the burden of questioning and drumming out answers.

The media keeps us informed but who exactly keeps the media informed? Who gives the media the picture of reality, of what actually is happening when half the information being broadcast is misinformation and propaganda from vested interests and a good portion of the rest, merely serving as filler and entertainment. The question we really want to know is what exactly is happening? Perhaps no one knows the answer to the question, it is the 64 thousand dollar question and one worth contemplating. If no answers can be relied upon from the usual information sources we can, with some conjecture and speculation, find alternative media outlets to stir the thought process. We ought not rely too heavily on these either and in the end we are left with our own insight and experience to piece together a model or point of view from the bits and bytes we hear, see, and feel. Just as it has always been before mainstream media clouded our thought process with party lines and not so independent points of view.  The mainstream would have us believe that never ending growth is doable and our Gog given right even. However is it really conceivable that the path we choose to trudge and barrel our way down is really a perpetual packet of Tim Tams? If we have difficulty believing in the possibility of having a never ending packet of Tim-Tams, why do we so easily believe that the resources we so readily use with what can only be described as reckless abandonment, like junkies plying heroin into their veins, will never run out? In particular, the fossil fuels we essentially burn to fuel our life, just like wretched junkies with spoons held over an open flame eagerly awaiting the fix to soothe the edges. Fossil fuels drench our existence with the ancient sunlight stored in its structure and instead of conserving this energy we chose to ignite it and burn it up as if it were an endless packet of Tim-Tams.

When the time does finally come, and the last ounce has been extracted from the ground, and the last drop wringed out of the tar sands, what will we then use to fuel our creature comforts with? Bearing in mind that fossil fuels are only one type of commodity and the same fate lies in wait for all the treasures we reap from the earth. Eventually it will all come to an end, like all good things, the only question is when. Are we prepared for this extinction of energy and the materials we require for our everyday junk fix of goods? We may think and say we’ll then be in a position to use our technological prowess to implement and utilise the renewable energy sources available, once those events transpire, but is this really going to work? When the energy crisis rears it head it isn’t likely going to be an easing transitional phase, it’ll come fast and it will hit hard, quick and without remorse. All because the people who have sought to control energy supplies will do whatever is within their power to drag out the status quo right till the bitter end. We do have the insights and we possibly have the know how to make the transitional phase happen right this very instance and the only reason why it isn’t being whole heartedly brought to the fold now is because of the large sums still yet to be made from the existing finite resources. Our economic well being and the exponential growth that feeds it is the name of the game and renewable energy is not on the agenda, not because it doesn’t make sense or that global warming and the effects of humanities affection for burning oil and coal has on the environment is in dispute but because it just is not as profitable to do so.

There’s no commodity to sell with renewable energy, just the service of converting energy from one form to another. Whole industries will become extinct if renewable energy were to become the staple energy supply  for the growth the economy demands. Powerful industries are at stake and they’ll go down kicking and screaming and while they’re sinking they’ll try and take as many of us down with them. We have incredibly short term vision and are so painfully self centred in our scramble to keep up with the Joneses, although such a mindset is not solely of our own creation, however, ultimately we will only have ourselves to blame if we arise one morning amidst an energy crisis. Each and everyone of us will have contributed and endorsed our own extinction due to the shortage of available energy to meet growth and sustenance demands. Apart from a few brief moments when we sort of ummed and ah’ed about global warming and cringed when we realised that we might have to front up with the cash for anything to happen, we for the most part chose to continue with the status quo. In a way it is the economic model we live by that prevents humanity progressing from the self centred base we generally operate from. Our self centred nature forgets that we are not the only ones that share this planet and our needs are not the only needs that need to fulfilled. The problem is the belief that the economy and growth is the only thing that matters and although it is important to each of us to have the basic needs for survival met and to have a little more for the comforts and conveniences of modern living, we seem to have forgotten that it is also important to conserve the finite resources available to us. The theory of exponential growth is what really undermines our true potential because it seeks to separate us from firstly one and another and secondly to destroy the environment that gives us life. We have trouble looking after ourselves let alone the planet and until we evolve to a higher level of being where we can live peaceably and adopt basic human needs for the entire population we will probably burn it all to the ground long before we submit to a humanism of sharing and caring and be in position to look honestly at our behaviours and the impact our actions has on the ecology.

As it stands the world is becoming increasingly less stable and a tipping point of volatility will soon be upon us if it already hasn’t arrived. The finite resources we have will become the fuel for not only our lives but also for war as nation is pit against nation for control. This is already taking place and for many these conflicts are delegated to religious or ideological spheres but these things are merely smoke screens to hide the true nature of warfare. Wars are fought for territory and genetic dominance! Religion and ideology are the constructs that keep groups together, the glue of a common cause and division of the “other” but the conflicts themselves are territorial where a gene pool seeks to take control of the resources in another space to use for it’s own purpose and prosperity. Lets not confuse the matter with a subterfuge by consoling our own desires for wealth and prosperity by hiding it behind ideologies that have absolutely no meaning beyond the flights of fancy our minds concoct to create social groups that bind gene pools together. Confusing ideology with survival instincts and base desires of need and greed will merely distort the truth.

It’s worth stating that while I do think that we as species must learn to live in harmony and with respect to the environment, sustainability and ourselves, our monetary system although flawed in it’s current synthesis is important and is the medium in which we trade our skills and labour to essentially live and gain the things which do have value. It is just the system has evolved from what was a sustainable system into a beast that has devoured everything in its wake. We have a a whole machine that is wholly designed to dupe us into believing and hailing the catch cry of exponential growth as the miracle of modernity when it is far from a miracle. Exponential growth on a finite set of resources. There is something obviously wrong with that equation but we still hail the system as the best ever created. It is true that the standard of living in the west has increased by leaps and bounds but as the third world inches to the second world and the second world making a quantum leap to the the first we are faced with a terrible problem. It isn’t sustainable! Exponential growth on a finite set of resources is impossible. Our monetary system is equally as impossible because it follows the same ideology of exponential growth and instead of facing the truth we all believe in the delusion. Radical change needs to take place and as long as we maintain the delusion that the world can continue on it’s merry way then we will awake one day with great misfortune upon us.

The system is headed for collapse and how we prepare for it will determine how we fare in the aftermath. Unless we overhaul the folly of exponential growth we will eventually have to face the brick wall when it hits. There will possibly be violent retribution and chaos. The US is essentially on its way out! To put it simply their empire is dying and as it falls we will see some vulgar scenes being played out on that side of the Earth. The problem is that they are a force that one doesn’t really want to anger as it expires. It will go tooth and nail to hold onto it’s death grip, what once was a budding productive machine is now a defunct decrepit relic and a relic that will not sink gracefully. The US economy is lost in debt, who quite simply has no hope of ever repaying and whose strategy is now to print its way out with a ruthless debasement of its currency. Because the world reserve currency is US dollars it doesn’t leave us with much confidence in fiat currency to deal with the problem that we all face. The idea has been tested time and time again and once the plague hits there is no way out except through hyperinflation or default. Either method is a recipe for disaster. The tried and sure way is to return back onto a Gold standard where the value of gold arbitrates the flow of money but with such a system the growth we expect and demand cannot continue unabated. So it is highly unlikely such a system would be revisited and without looking at system that regulates growth to a sustainable level then whatever the reserve currency is it will invariably fall prey to the same fate as that which we are currently experiencing. As individuals we can prepare and protect our own wealth by buying hard assets that hold value while phoney money devalues, traditionally it is gold and silver but may extend to further to other commodities that will be valuable in a future where fiat dollars are worthless. Apart from that equipping oneself with skills and resources to be self sufficient which will be worthwhile in the face of complete collapse and probably just as valuable in and of itself and transitioning to a sustainable healthy society.

The ultimate solution is downsizing and because we are incapable of doing this for ourselves, nature will more than likely make that decision for us, one way or another. It is a doomy and gloomy outlook and not really a very optimistic perception but the alternative is to believe in a false optimism. As long as we live with the reality that 10 per cent of the population controls 90 per cent of the wealth then we are going to have a system of inequality and a continued dog eat dog mentality and one upmanship. A system that is ultimately one that is wasteful and not conducive to sustainability. I’m not really one to look at things in a peachy light but the idea of shared abundance and equality really is the only way I can see as the way to repair the state of the world and to prevent the scourge that will soon devour and threaten our existence. But I just don’t think humanity has it within itself to make such quantum leap. Perhaps when the threat of extinction is upon us will we then have the courage to work as a whole rather than against. The current state will not last, that is just about assured. What comes after is not so. Can we curb what awaits us or will we merely bury our heads in the sand and do nothing? In the end what Obama claimed is indeed true, Change – Yes We Can! Do we have the will to make the change? Perhaps we do. Let’s make it before it’s too late.

I don’t know what is wrong with me but lately, maybe months or over the last year I have slowly declined into an insurmountable sloth that has prevented me from doing the one thing that really made the slow grind of daily life even remotely bearable. That one thing is writing. The exercise of crafting fragments of words into some sort of stream that hopefully resembles a cohesive segment of thought and if I was lucky something that might strike a chord with anyone who might stumble upon it. But it just hasn’t been so. The problem is a lack of energy – a slump in motivation and too much time obsessing over things I have little to no control over.

The ironic thing is that I’ve often lambasted the object of my obsession and now I am fully within it’s grip. I don’t know why all of a sudden I have fallen prey to the idea that I just don’t have enough money. For all my ranting’s about the corruption that consumerism has bestowed upon the world I am now  gripped with an urgency to accumulate as much of the stuff that fuels consumption as I can and I often curse the crushingly slow path that leads to stacking the bundles of cash it takes to hoard. It’s gotta have something to do with age – a mid life crisis of sorts, although such crises are often symbolic of spending large sums on outrageous toys and going on some last adventure I find myself wanting to not really to spend but save. Although I do confess doing my fair share of superfluous and wanton wasteful spending does really mess up the plan to save. I just want to create a stack of wealth that might afford me a standard of living in the future. I know it’s crazy but I can’t help myself obsessing over this need. Yet implementing a serious strategy of frugality to achieve said goal is easier said than done.

I rack my brain with what I can do to get more money to hoard and all attempts to invent some method of getting a decent cash flow happening have amounted to naught. Then the dejected sense of doom arises from the pit of my stomach – it’s too late. I missed the boat and I am stuck in circling in the perpetual ebb and flow of paid slavery with the hopeless sense that there is no way out of the grind.

Perhaps I am best in changing my perspective rather than trying to beat myself out of the system. Lets face it – how many people actually escape the ripping jaws of working for money to create a life that is actually meaningful? Hardly any. The primary problem is that the conditioning of working for money has been firmly planted. The correct response or choice of wording is money working for you but that is not exactly what the system really wants of us. It wants and needs for us to work for money and that is what we pay with our lives for. Working for money while money gets handed over to the ones that knew that money worked for them.

Like the words from that song – “Money for nothin and your cheques for free!” – Dire Straits

Therein lies the secret to financial success. Get money working for you but bugger me if it doesn’t take a hell of a long time to get money in a position anywhere close to showing potential and fit for work. I guess it’s why leverage is the way of the world today. Money is debt and debt is money. Ingsoc’s 2004 amendment to 1984’s Freedom Is Slavery slogan. Cash is no longer King – debt is and you better be certain with your strategy lest your debtor performs a margin call.

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength! All hail Ingsoc! Where big banks are too big to fail and too big to save. Privatise profits and socialise debt – that is if you live on Wall St – Main street can go and get stuffed – just hand over what’s owing to the Taxman before you head out that door. No wonder why I feel so dejected and disillusioned. Big Brother made sure of it!

Sydney Australia pays host to an infection of epic proportion, no vaccine is yet available to aid in combating and eliminating this affliction, which has invaded the hearts and minds of what were presumably sane and rational people prior to infection. An Oprah meme has for some reason been released upon this otherwise quiet city, which now resembles a freak circus. It is said to have originated from the United States and wormed and furrowed its way along the sea bed to our shores, where countless women have been left defenseless against a wave of hysteria. Hysteria, coupled with what appears to be a type of emotional mania are the prime symptoms of this senseless disease.

Why the endemic was never isolated to the country of origin remains a mystery and why it mainly infects women moreso than it does men is also being investigated. The disease which has been dubbed Oprah Madness, so called because it is believed that the meme first appeared in the studio television head quarters of Oprah Winfrey, soon spread to all corners of the world. Australia being one the last places to succumb to the infection, the madness finally breaking through the hardened Australian sensibility.

Reports have come in that a rather large mass of the infected have grouped together at the Sydney Opera House, seemingly an apt place for the Oprah virus to coagulate, and passers by have been asked to give the infected a wide berth as a precaution against the slim chance that close contact with the virus may provide a vehicle for the virus to spread. Why the infected group together like this is said to be an ingenious method for this meme to invade other rational minds as it mimics our desire for social acceptance. Naturally we are drawn to groups and this where it is said that the virus has an intelligence all of its own. Through a group dynamic the virus gains momentum and receives more power to infect just about anyone within ear shot of the group hysteria.

Scientists are working night and day to find a vaccine, however it is believed that the virus may have run its course. Upon close examination, the meme dies within weeks of ceasing all visual and auditory contact with the originating source. The mechanics of transmission are poorly understood, however a common trend is that the most ravaged by this disease are those that are unemployed and who watch meaningless daytime television.  The consensus among scientists and medical researchers is that one ought to switch the television off between 10am and 4:45pm weekdays to minimise the chance of infection.

It is believed that transmission of the virus is linked to the auditory and visual centres of the brain and that it somehow attaches itself to the limbic system through a complex readjustment of dopamine and seretonin receptors allowing a temporal shift in the reasoning faculties of the neo cortex. The lasting damage that  such changes in the structure of the brain are yet to be fully determined and may take years to understand. The remarkable dexterity of the brain is on our side, scientists say, with treatment, cognitive behaviour therapy  being the most widely used approach, those who abstain from further infection are expected to make a full recovery and be able return to normal functioning within a few short weeks.

If transmission of the virus can be thawted then it is expected that the virus will rapidly die and become extinct and no new victims will likely develop. But it is also understood that if all traces of virus are not eradicated then there also is the possibility that a dormant strain could once again become active and a whole new generation of women in particular could once again be infected. One of the most famous cases of infection in a  male was that of Tom Cruise who in a quite bizarre exhibition of disturbing behaviour proceeded to bounce on a sofa whilst punching the air. Such cases are rarely seen and it is believed that his defenses were permanently disabled as a direct consequence of his involvement in the cult of Scientology, however such cases are an exception rather than the rule.

If you or someone you know is infected or believed to be infected with Oprah Madness, there is help available. Please visit www.endoprahvirus.org for further information or ring 5551234 to speak with a consultant.
 

There is something about waiting that fails to sit well with me. Wherever it is, waiting around is something I just don’t seem to like very much. So while I wait for my flight I sit here at the departure gate, well just waiting. And what really is there to do except wait. Even now as I type, another load of passengers are waiting, waiting for their flight and waiting for a couple of passengers who are missing. Who presumably are missing in action or lost somewhere in the labyrinth of airport security checks. I know, I was subjected to the “random” swab check after passing through the x-ray machine so it isn’t inconceivable that the couple could be bent over with a rubber glove probing inside their extremities for explosives of some type or other.

I can imagine the frustration of the other passengers on flight BA16 who are eagerly anticipating  a take off, yet  who are destined to wait, to await the last 2 stragglers who inevitably will be 2 of the most hated people in the world for the those on that plane.

We on BA10 share their anticipation as we wait. In solidarity we wait.

In my last post I gave a brief introduction to the wonderful world of e-smoking, the claytons cigarette of the smoking world. “The cigarette you smoke when not having a smoke”. Whatever did happen to Claytons anyway? I remember the ads on TV and in magazines along with of all things, Horlicks – a malted drink and nothing to do with fake alcoholic beverages (note: I saw Horlicks in the supermarket recently. It’s somehow comforting to know that it is sill available, although I’m not exactly sure why). Not that electronic cigarettes have the same message as Claytons because electronic cigarettes are predominately used to provide the substance that smokers crave – nicotine, where as Claytons did not contain any of  that other societal evil; alcohol. Why Claytons and Horlicks have an association in my mind, as if they belong together is a mystery. Another mystery is why I have these memories at all and why they’re firmly implanted in my brain. It sure goes to show how heavily imprinted we become by media campaigns.

And so it is with tobacco, that evilest of all weeds. Millions of dollars has been invested to train us with the belief that everything associated with tobacco is extremely bad and something to avoid at all costs. We’re also told with authority that if you happen to be addicted to the stuff and smoke, then it is in your best interest to quit – “Every cigarette is doing you damage” as the commercial drums into our skulls with a repetitive snaring of our subconscious rhythm and every cigarette is doing us damage. It may even possibly kill us. Statistics demand that we heed the message, because 50 percent of smokers will die from the damage of cigarette smoke. Of course along with the quit message we are re-assured that there is help. Big Pharma have just the product up there sleeves – we can quit with the aid of NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy)  or we’re encouraged to visit our GP who can then prescribe the correct medication if need be, which presumably equates to finding ourselves at the corner Chemist filling out a script for Champix/Chantix. But what the QUIT campaigns neglect to inform us of is that NRT is not a therapy at all but just a substitute addiction, a grab for cash from addicted smokers. Have you ever noticed that NRT is at price point similar to that of tobacco? Why is that? If Big Pharma and Government were so interested in our health then it stands to reason that nicotine replacement therapy ought to be significantly cheaper than cigarettes but they are not. It’s akin to pricing Methadone at price point just a little less than that of Heroin – it sounds ridiculous but that is what smokers are asked to participate in .

What Big Pharma also neglects to mention is the fact that for the most part, NRT is an ineffective treatment for addiction. At best it is the equivalent of a methadone program for nicotine addicts and at worst, it is taking smokers for ride while they entertain the notion of quitting. Quitting any addiction is about abstaining from the substance one is addicted to and not replacing the witch for the bitch. If you are serious about quitting as espoused by the QUIT campaign, it is purely a matter of stopping and then sticking to that decision no matter what. I’m not trying to trivialise the struggle by saying that it is simply a fly-by process that is easily attained, because it is not an easy decision to make and stick to. But if the goal is to quit smoking and nicotine, the most effective way is to just to stop and white knuckle it through the turmoil which may be for an extended period or may be short lived. For some it is easy but for others it’ll be a daily struggle for an X amount of time. I myself have never ever gone past the contemplative stage and is easy for me to lambast NRT and Big Pharma over quitting with a piece of Snus (rhymes with goose) stuffed in my upper lip but the truth is, NRT or other so called smoking addiction treatments are a sham.

It is somewhat ambiguous and disingenuous when our minds are infected with the notion that addiction is a medical problem which ought to be treated with medicine and in the case of nicotine addiction, the medicine to treat the addiction is very same substance of addiction -  nicotine. It’s a strange irony that nicotine products manufactured by Big Pharma are deemed tolerable and acceptable, however any nicotine product from Big Tobacco is automatically considered evil when the truth is that Big Tobacco is in a better position to actually develop a product that smokers would want to use and if they were smart they could develop a safer alternative. In fact the product is already available but it wasn’t developed by the Philip Morris’s or British American Tobacco’s of the world but by a company called Ruyan and if it could be evolved to it’s full potential, it will certainly provide a product that could easily be adopted by even the most hardcore or diehard smoker . The opposition inherent to the Tobacco industry makes any technological advancement in nicotine delivery prohibitive when the idea that nicotine addiction is in itself evil. Big Tobacco would most certainly have their bottom lines first and foremost in their minds so any product they’d wish to market would be highly addictive and thus something outrageous to the Anti lobby. But lets not hastily throw the baby out with the bath water when it is worth considering that the leading cause of preventable disease and death is caused by smoking and not nicotine itself. With the abysmal failure of NRT as a successful treatment of nicotine addiction, looking further afield from the offerings of Big Pharma begins to look attractive.

If there are doubts about the ineffectiveness of people quitting smoking using NRT, one need look no further than the self evident. If NRT were an effective treatment would we still see people smoking? If they were an effective replacement then it is a reasonable supposition to see far greater numbers of smokers jumping ship and using patches, gum or lozenges rather than sucking on cigarettes – because they’d be a far better nicotine delivery system than cigarette smoke . But that is not what we see and apart from those who are thinking about quitting who then use these products to reduce withdrawal symptoms while they ponder the cost benefit analysis of quitting or those that use NRT when it is prohibitive to smoke, they fail to deliver. They ought to be marketed as a harm minimisation tool rather than a quitting aid because lets face it, they don’t work! They may reduce the amount of cigarettes one smokes but as a replacement they fall way short in doing what the label proclaims it to be and as for a therapy we can most assuredly dismiss such outrageous propaganda as merely a softening ploy to ease the ridiculous cost we’re dishing out to Big Pharma to use the drug we’re addicted to.

Besides we are assuming that nicotine is the only thing that the cigarette smoker is addicted to, when there are thousands of other chemicals in cigarette smoke that could be equally addicting or a multitude of chemicals acting together that has the right combination to satisfy. If it were just nicotine then we’d expect to see a lot of smokers who use NRT to least switch addictions to just nicotine after adjusting to the slower delivery but either the NRT products themselves are too stingy with nicotine or cigarette smoke has other compounds that make it a far superior product to satisfy the craving the smoker seeks. The problem is that nicotine itself has been demonised when it is safer in magnitudes of order to cigarette smoke, which makes it difficult to introduce a product with at least a comparable nicotine delivery system to cigarettes to adequately gauge if a faster and higher nicotine product would be effective in reducing cigarette smoking. Possibly clinical trials have occurred where this indeed the case although I know of none, it has been the demonization of nicotine that has thwarted any advancement in harm reduction as a viable alternative when the philosophy from the Anti-Tobacco lobby is Quit or Die. I really don’t understand this message at all when cigarettes are still sold, why is too much to allow a product that is safer although just as addicting when the real killer is still on retailers shelves? It makes absolutely no sense.

It’ll be a far better use of resources to hammer us with the message that quitting is easy and you can do it cold turkey than it is offering some panacea to tobacco addiction through NRT when clearly it is not or by extolling the Quit or Die message as the be all and end all of harm reduction and well being. Smokers want a way to stop smoking in the most painless way possible and if quitting is entirely the goal in mind then it should be encouraged but if there is resistance to quitting then at present we are left with the message of Quit or Die! So if we fail to quit we are resigned to die with our cigarettes in hand. It’s a strategy that is far from effective because it is a dichotomy that is counter to what quitting is about – the health and well being of the individual smoker. It seems that whole basis of this message is to drum it into the psyche of smokers in the hope that eventually it’ll sway the judgement of the smoker in favour of quitting. If addiction were such a simple process as bashing people like the god-botherers neighbourhood door knocking campaigns then we’d see far less smokers and we’d also see churches filled to the brim, but we see neither. The QUIT of Die message is perhaps more effective in brainwashing people from actually picking up cigarette smoking than it is in persuading smokers to quit. Fear campaigns aren’t really going to be an effective intervention in reforming existing smokers. Although media campaigns and mind manipulation are standard fare in every day life, when it comes to persuading addiction to leave its host it is perhaps not as easy a task as normal mind control because addiction works on far baser level than that of the higher cognition centres of emotion that seem to be the play ground of advertisers. Quit or Die! If you can’t or won’t quit then you die. How marvellous, but is it the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Are there really only two options smokers have – Quit or Die? Therein lies the problem with the Quit or Die message – there is no middle ground when the option of harm minimisation is effectively taken away from the discussion, it has conveniently placed aside in favour of politicking. What of those smokers who realise that smoking is harmful but have no motivation to quit or who have tried but remain unsuccessful? What if those smokers would happily switch from smoking if a satisfying replacement, which was less harmful than cigarette smoking was available? Perhaps these people are a minority but shouldn’t they at least be offered a substitute with minimal intervention from the Anti camp?

With the introduction of electronic cigarettes into the market we have at least one other option to curtail the inhalation of cigarette smoke even though quitting nicotine is perhaps not on the agenda. Certainly “no nic” juice is readily available for those that wish to be free from addiction, but  electronic cigarettes can also be used as a replacement to smoking tobacco by inhaling nicotine in a glycerine vapour. A health risk is still present, however the risks remain unknown but it is reasonable to assume from preliminary studies that electronic cigarettes are safer than cigarette smoking by orders of magnitude. Shouldn’t this product then be embraced rather than shunned?

Not according to The Therapeutic Goods Administration – they in their infinite wisdom have deemed the electronic cigarette as a therapeutic good. According to this bureaucracy, e-cigs are not dissimilar to NRT – a medical device no less. Absolute baloney! The whole argument rests upon some website that dared suggest that one could stop smoking using electronic cigarettes. Notwithstanding anecdotal evidence that people have quit smoking and then progressed to zero nicotine vapour using electronic cigarettes, it is still a device that is used by many if not the majority as an alternative to smoking – more akin to smoking a cigarette than it is a patch. It looks like a cigarette and produces vapour like a cigarette and feels like a cigarette when inhaling but it is not a cigarette. How can it be even entertained as a therapeutic good? It delivers a recreational drug and not medicine for crying out loud! Big Pharma believes nicotine is a medicinal drug to treat nicotine addiction and if that were really the case then cigarettes themselves are medicine. Preposterous!

Given that the efficacy and safety of electronic cigarettes is yet to be fully determined with scientific testing, they do seem to at least be seen favourably by a few researchers and academics, while others in academia suggest electronic cigarettes are little more than placebos. However, studies have been conducted on the safety and efficacy of another smoking alternative, although little is known about this product outside of Scandinavia – that product is Snus.

Swedish Snus has been used for 2 or 3 centuries in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Norway. What is Snus? Snus is a moist oral tobacco that has been milled into a fine powder and then pasteurised by either a fermentation or steaming process to eliminate micro organisms. Salt and flavours are added, traditionally with bergamot which gives a citrus taste and newer flavours such as mint, berry, cinnamon and many others to inspire the taste buds of tobacco lovers of all persuasions. Some Swedish recipes are as old as snus has been consumed. Ettan being a registered trademark since 1822 and probably the oldest commercially available snus brand today.

The process of steam pasteurisation is considered to produce a product that is between 90 to 99% safer than cigarette smoking, primarily due to the fact that nothing is inhaled, thus having no impact on the respiratory system and also because of the low count of tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNA) present, which are the main carcinogenic compounds found in tobacco. The fermentation process does not produce the same low TSNA count due to micro organisms not entirely killed in the process, which then begin producing nitrosamines as a by product as the tobacco ages. The shelf life is considerably less because of this, although it is most certainly a better proposition to that of smoking tobacco, which has the highest TSNA count by far. Swedish Snus is the product to purchase if one’s goal is harm minimisation while enjoying tobacco relatively guilt free. It is not without risk but is substantially less harmful than smoking. Snus does elevate the risk of pancreatic cancer, it doubles the risk from of those that do not use snus but it is half the risk of those that smoke. Nicotine is a drug and as such it poses health risks but if one is already addicted to tobacco smoking and who is unwilling to quit, then snus may offer a safer and satisfying way to deliver nicotine and tobacco alkaloids without the dangers of inhaling tobacco particulates.

Snus can either be purchased as loose or in portions. Portions are packaged in tea bag type pouches which are placed between the lip and gum, usually under the upper lip. Loose is not pre packaged in pouches and is moulded into a cylinder with either a pris tool or by hand, also placed in the same area of the mouth. Both are a spit less moist oral tobacco, although if using loose there is the possibility that it may become dislodged and make a mess in your mouth, so is probably not the type a novice should choose to use. Unlike chewing tobacco, which does require constant spitting, Snus produces little saliva because of its placement in the upper lip, near the front of the mouth making tobacco juices less likely to run, which may be a little nasty tasting. Because the upper front has less saliva ducts it generally eliminates the need to spit out the tobacco juice which is an irritant to the stomach and digestive system if swallowed.

Because smokeless tobacco was harshly treated in the 1990s, it was taken off the Australian and European markets. Quite wrongly, it was considered a health risk and carcinogenic due to studies done on Indian oral tobacco products, which do cause cancer and are entirely a different kettle of fish than that of Swedish Snus.

Unfortunately we in Australia are at the mercy of the federal government who in their infinite wisdom have laid a taxation regime on par with regular tobacco which wouldn’t be so bad if snus wasn’t 50% water. Because it is a moist tobacco we are being taxed $160 AU for water. Our taxation system is disproportionate to the harmfulness scale and for that reason alone, snus which is considerably less harmful than tobacco cigarettes, ought to be taxed at a far less rate than cigarette tobacco. Our taxes make it a prohibitive product to most smokers in Australia and it is an outrage and shame given that the leading cause of preventable death is tobacco smoke. However there is a fair chance that if one orders small amounts, in the range of 5 cans or less then they can get through customs without having to pay duties which offers a very cheap alternative to smoking with the health benefits to boot.

What makes someone successful? I’ve often thought about this very question and on its surface the question appears to be a relative one. If the term successful is loosely associated with fortune, mass appeal or desirability, as it is commonly thought of, then what is it that brings about this success? I don’t know any "successful" people if the term “success” is defined by wealth or fame or any other criteria vested in the same vein, but I’m curious if there is a common thread that ties this notion of success with the personality, which possesses it. As far as I can tell the successful type has some attraction that enables success in the first instance, however I’m not at all sure if it is somehow inherited or more like a skill acquired through practice? Or is it merely a chance occurrence – something you either have or you don’t, like winning a lottery ticket?

Ostensibly, being successful has a certain desirability or even lofty feel about it and has the connotation of it enabling one to do something meaningful rather than wading through mediocrity and living as a cog in the machine. Perhaps I am idealising success and I am to some degree, because in essence, success is also something much deeper than adoration or idolatry from afar. It can transcend external riches and outside influence by transforming the inner world with a meaningfulness that removes itself from external influence, into an actualised self. However, the success of the type that is metamorphosed into external reality is something that is worshipped and the tangibility of it is much sought after. We needn’t look any further than glamour magazines or to the Hollywood Hills or the current flavour of Rock/Pop Star. We idolise the success of these media machines because they depict the sensuality of success and we can almost taste the fruits of their success, which is more than just wealth, simply by following the latest gossip magazine or headline splashed across the press or nightly news.

So is it something one can achieve with diligent work and persistence or does one by default, gain success because of a favourable genotype? Or is it just plain good luck? If it isn’t just luck, then how much talent and how much personality is weighted in the equation? What is a successful personality? And what does personality have to do with anything? Is it self evident that an optimistic person is more inclined to draw success than a pessimist? Perhaps it isn’t always the case that success favours the optimist, but as a general rule, being optimistic is going to cater to a broader base of would be enablers. Because let’s face it, the in your face success that we so admire from afar, needs other people to validate and endorse the ‘successee’,  to make the success a reality! As far as I can tell, the universe isn’t going to care one way or another if some lone individual is elevated to god status when in the grand scheme of things, a human lifetime is merely a speck on the face of time and less than a speck in the infinite space between nano-seconds. However, in a human perspective, god status is something that certain individuals aspire to, if not the majority, at least in secret. However, on second thought, maybe the Universe does care about that lone individual who becomes the admiration of many and thus a leader in the community. Like a beacon for others to follow in pursuit – a pursuit of the pot of gold that is success and the jackpot on which nature has itself stumbled upon who then wants to replicate the winning formula by passing on the genes that somehow created it. Perhaps it is more than just admiration and envy driving our obsession over magazines, TV, movies and celebrity in general – perhaps it is because we want to study that winning formula and emulate it.

And why wouldn’t we aspire for success when it draws such admiration from lower beings. Who wouldn’t say yes to more money, sex and power? Isn’t that the appeal of celebrity? Isn’t power and influence what appeals to aspiring economic and political  leaders? Isn’t natures pay off for wielding this power and admiration, ultimately the promise of more sex, or at the very least, an elevated attractiveness and sense of worth – an ego boost? However, not everyone can get to such dizzying heights to affect such a status of influence – Why? What set of ingredients allows the blossoming of a success? Are we not created equal? Shouldn’t we be consoled by mediocrity when it has been said that it will be "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of needle than it is for a rich man to enter…" heaven? Although we can just as easily aspire to this type of success, by exercising spiritual pursuits rather than material and whose success offers the reward of being happy and content with who we are and what we have achieved. Moreover, it is by far a much more achievable goal than the majority of us will ever hope in reaching demigod status and having the material success that comes with it. It seems that only a select  few will ever enjoy such abundance as flaunted by the A-listers and elite. However, the offer of fulfilment, life enrichment and success within the spiritual realm does nothing to dissuade us from our idolatry with material success. In a cynical view it could argued that displays of meekness and consolatory tales of the rich being a less fortunate in spiritual matters is merely a ploy to inspire a mindset of submission more than a tale to lift the spirit of the dejected. Perhaps there is some need within us that propels and gravitates us to outward displays of success  It’s not without reason that we should pine with envious eyes at the latest celebrity picture or hang onto the words of some powerful leader or sit in awe by the sermon being delivered at the pulpit of some Mega Church. Yes even the spiritual have been corrupted by the allure of power and success. It is clearly apparent that nature whole heartedly favours social status, which is the domain of the successful.

The natural order favours success with hormonal shifts that heighten sensory pleasure and what is life without pleasure? We’re geared and fine tuned to receive pleasure, our whole being revels in it. It is what drives us. I’ve read somewhere that testosterone levels rise in the successful which may contribute to the sexuality or moreover the desirability of the person with high T. I’m specifically making inference to males and probably being rather sexist by ignoring our female counterparts who are no less worthy of adoration, although it should be noted that another marker for natures favouritism also is a neurotransmitter boost, particularly serotonin, which elevates mood and thus confidence and that is perhaps the more appealing asset in both sexes. But it seems that successful females don’t necessarily have the same appeal that elite alpha males possess. Well in my mind they don’t but I guess that is just the disease of being male – our single-mindedness or is that simple-mindedness? Maybe it isn’t so narrow minded to think that it is usually the male sex that is ultimately competing for the prize of sex and hence why I am biased towards success in the masculine sense, since I am male and have what it is that makes males always in pursuit of sexual gratification. Although I have a bias in my thinking it is probably more to do with the fact  that I am unable to empathise fully with my female brethren no matter how in tune I am to the feminine side of my DNA . However it is worth noting that the same envy that a great many males have, either overtly or in secret to the Alpha male type who seemingly gets a great many more sexual conquests under their belts is not significantly any different to the bitchy envy that many women possess towards their own kind, presumably for the same reasons.

If it seems a little far fetched and making sweeping generalisations then I’d ask any male out there if they didn’t have at least a fleeting thought of admiration in the back of their brains when the whole Tiger Woods scandal broke – “Lucky Bastard” Not in the sense that he got busted but because he can dip his wand in the pool purely on a whim. That there isn’t any shortage of women who’d drop their pants if he’d ask. Morally we may be outraged but on a more primal level we might even be glad that he racked one more up for us mere males. Consider this, after the whole scandal broke it wasn’t too long before emails did their rounds and this is certainly telling of the mindset between the sexes. One email I received from a male was one which depicted a naked model to the left and Tiger Woods on the right with the caption “Just do it” and under the Nike logo, “I did”, and another email I received from a female work colleague was entitled Tiger Shark showing two bikini clad women with Tiger Woods in the background and his head coming out of the water. Doesn’t this suggest that males perceive Tiger Woods as a success while women perceive him as loser. However, I do wonder if women are merely outraged because some of there own just cut someone else’s grass or because they genuinely believe that the whole blame rests entirely on the shoulders of Tiger Woods for succumbing to temptation and straying. I’ll probably never know but from my perspective it is not at all surprising and if I was in the same position I couldn’t say with any certainty that I would’ve acted any differently. Even when considering that to begin with, I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of pulling someone as attractive as his wife. Although I probably wouldn’t have done such a decrepit deed, there is the possibility that I’d fall to a similar base level given the same set of circumstances and having such enormous power at ones disposal would surely play tricks in the mind.

It is intriguing that both male and female elite instil an awe within the general population and we are certainly influenced by their very actions and policies whether it be high fashion, geo politicking or in the high flying corporate world. I think it is fairly commonly understood that high rollers get the babes. Not sure what their female kin gain but with the rise of the Cougar phenomena, I don’t think it unreasonable to suggest something similar – they get the boys?

So if we do indeed adore success because it gives us a higher field in which to play it isn’t surprising that we’ll try and emulate the formula of success, hoping that it is like a virus that will be spread if we subject ourselves to the same rituals or expose ourselves to the same memes. Who doesn’t know someone who doesn’t try and fake it, by buying the right brand of clothing with accessories to match? Yet without the backing of bottomless pockets to woo prospective mates with, then it perhaps all comes to nought, yet people still persist in acquiring the latest consumable that symbolises a level of status that may or may not be founded in reality. And maybe this faking does fool the less savvy or discernable among us from time to time. Perhaps I’m overly simplistic when looking at success and why we appear to be totally engrossed and fascinated by it, which on the face of it, is because it gives us more sex. Although it may be reassuring to believe that we aren’t so superficial it is hardly convincing to suggest that success is somehow a virtuous endeavour and something to achieve merely for the sake of it. It is appealing for some reason other than just the ego boost it provides. Surely it is because it improves our chances to recreate it with our offspring just as nature designed. Our culture is based on symbolism and status. A consumerist society that capitalism revels in and from the get go we are drenched in an environment of fear – the fear of being socially isolated and the ultimate commodity for sale, is that which is guaranteed to produce a  high social standing – success!

Advertisements usurp our consciousness from the minute we are unleashed into this world and they all provoke a sense of wanting based on fear. The vast bulk of advertising jerks at our appetite for sex and all too often, fills our vision with that something which we identify as a symbol of success and in doing so, defining who we want to be and the image we wish to portray. Complete with a promise of fulfilling our natural tendency to be desirable and have attention drawn in our direction. But as it turns out, it is never fulfilled because whilst whispering sweet nothings in our ears it at the same time suggests we aren’t all we can be and ultimately the object we thought would fill us with joy and happiness is merely a temporal snapshot. We then move onto the next object to project our moulded self image – perpetually caught in the seduction but never able to achieve what it is we want. This happens from minute to minute, day by day and hour to hour, as long as we are within easy reach of the puppet masters strings. Yet we buy the deception whole heartedly even though deep down we know we are merely distracting ourselves from who we really are. It seems futile yet there is a method to this madness, because what we are truly doing, is trying to position ourselves in the pecking order, which is in direct opposition to the higher ideals we may hold, that man is created equal. We are lead to believe that we all share the same humanity but this is not really what we feel inside. We are a competitive species and part and parcel of competition is that there will be both winners and losers and if you’re on the winning team then you reap the glory while the loser wallows in misery.

Perhaps it is precisely this part of nature that compels us to succeed because if we don’t then we may very well wither and die. Everything we do and everywhere we go, we will always be a part of the strategy nature has woven for us. We may very well just be strands in the threads of her design but we do all play a part in it all sticking together and that is perhaps the measure of our success, if we can just hold on before the thread frays and even if a loose end snaps off, it’ll at least be comforting to know that for a time it was a part of something far bigger.