May 25, 2018 (Gunnar Ulson - NEO) - Centuries ago, technology like sailing ships, guns, and steel armor enabled Europeans to appear on South American shores and appear godlike to the natives. Through a combination of spreading disease and wielding military, organizational, economic and of course technological superiority, Europeans subjugated the native populations and conquered an entire continent.
European and eventually American technological superiority granted each and every subsequent century to the West. As military and manufacturing technology began to proliferate more freely and more rapidly following the World Wars, nations found themselves finally armed, economically independent and organized enough to throw off Western colonization.
It is a process that is still ongoing, with brief instances of technological advances in the West providing an economic or military edge before quickly being mitigated by that technology's proliferation globally.
This decrease in lag time between Western technological breakthroughs and global catching up has put Western hegemony itself in danger. It is a danger Western policymakers have been spending greater amounts of time considering, and because of that, so should policymakers the world over on how to protect and even enhance the global balance of power this reduction in lag is creating.
RAND Fears the Future
In a recent paper published by the RAND Corporation, a US policy think tank funded by, and working for the largest military and economic interests in the Western Hemisphere, fears of how technology may further erode the West's technological and thus economic and military edge over a world it seeks hegemony over are explained.
RAND published an article titled, "Four Ways 3D Printing May Threaten Security," which focuses specifically on computer-controlled manufacturing and in particular, 3D printing.
The article begins by claiming:
3D printers already produce everything from prosthetic hands and engine parts to basketball shoes and fancy chocolates. But as with any technological advance, new possibilities come with new perils.
The 4 ways include:
Hackers Could Use Printers to Cause Real-World Damage;
Printers Could Enable New Criminal and Security Threats;
Printed Guns Are Not the Biggest Risk and;
New Manufacturing Capabilities Could Endanger Jobs.
While some of the concerns RAND covers are legitimate, particularly the danger of computer code being altered to produce sabotaged parts, these are fears that already exist across existing manufacturing industries worldwide with strategies already developed to test manufactured parts before their use for critical applications.
3D Printed Firearms are Not a Real Threat
RAND cites the 3D printing of firearms by "terrorist groups," however as the ongoing gun control debate in the US and terrorist attacks across the world prove, determined terrorist groups often carry out attacks using explosives or hijacked vehicles that kill far more people than single or even coordinated gun attacks. And despite firearms being so ubiquitous in nations like the United States, homicide rates appear to be more affected by socioeconomic factors than merely access to firearms.
A person with access to a 3D printer who is not a murderer will not suddenly be compelled to murder because they can now "print" a firearm.
Unemployment is also Not a Real Threat
The RAND report also waves the prospect of employment in front of potential readers to ratchet up fears. However while 3D printing will most certainly spell the end of factories in the intermediate to more distant future, what they have already proven is that localized manufacturing simply decentralizes manufacturing and the jobs that go along with manufacturing, as well as the profits.
Fronts representing big-oil and big-auto are spearheading a widening PR campaign targeting electric car manufacturer and alternative energy company Tesla. May 26, 2017 (LocalOrg) - Alternative energy company Tesla which includes US-based electric car development and production, battery production, and now also includes residential solar panel and battery systems previously under SolarCity, represents a simultaneous threat to several cornerstones of Western corporate-financier monopolies.
Openly seeking to replace big-oil and big-auto, it was only a matter of time before Tesla's co-founder, CEO, and product architect Elon Musk attracted the negative attention of both of these deeply rooted and corrupt industries.
The genuine enthusiasm for Tesla and its products versus the paid-for media campaign to obstruct or even reverse Tesla's influence on energy and transportation has been a see-sawing battle unfolding just beneath the surface.
More recently, attempts to further complicate Tesla's US-based manufacturing facility in California have been spearheaded by the United Automobile Workers (UAW), an organization that attempts to pass itself off as a labor union.
Part of this campaign has included several "investigations" carried out by both the corporate media and various organizations like Worksafe - an opaque organization claiming to advocate workplace safety - which recently published a report regarding worker safety at Tesla's California factory. The report was widely promoted across the corporate media in what appears to be a concerted attempt to single out and undermine Tesla.
Worksafe is allied with a advocacy groups, scientists and academic experts, unions and labor activists, diverse working communities, like nail salon technicians and car wash workers, environmentalists, legal aid programs - and you.
The United Auto Workers has sent organizers to help employees organize Tesla Inc.’s electric-car plant, a move that -- if successful -- would give the union the presence it’s long sought beyond legacy U.S. automakers’ factories. A group of Tesla workers have contacted the union to seek assistance organizing, and the UAW is in discussion with them, Dennis Williams, the union’s president, told reporters during a roundtable Thursday in Detroit. He said union organizers have received complaints about long hours and potentially unsafe conditions at Tesla’s plant in Fremont, California.
UAW is a Wall Street Trojan Horse Disguised as a Labor Rights Advocate
While UAW poses as a labor union, in reality, UAW is nothing of the sort.
It is an American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) affiliate, with AFL-CIO representing perhaps the most successful Wall Street-devised attempt to date to infiltrate, co-opt, and commandeer legitimate labor unions and movements not only in the United States, but through funding and association with the US State Department's National Endowment for Democracy (NED), all across the entire planet.
April 30, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - The fundamental problem with free market proponents is that many fail to realize we already have an absolutely, 100% free market. Within that free market, a clique of incredibly wealthy, well connected, and well organized individuals have decided to use their freedom to create "governments" they influence, media they control, police who impose by force their will upon populations, a military to either protect their racket or project it beyond their current areas of operation, and all else we associate with "statism."
The fact is, should we be able to push a button and suddenly render Earth a government-free planet, the first order of business wealthy, well-connected, well-organized individuals will do is band together to create gangs, then mafias, then governments, then supranational blocs, until they then move on to pursue global hegemony as they chaff against competing factions doing likewise - entrapping the rest of us within their self-serving struggle.
This of course does not render void the ideology of agorism or anarchy. Neither does it negate the positive, practical aspects of the modern nation-state. What it does is illustrate a matter of practicality versus principles and the necessity to balance them realistically.
Might Makes Right
The above scenario unfolds the way it demonstrably does on a daily basis and since the beginning of time because wealthy, well-connected, well-organized individuals are able to successfully hone and wield the tools of physical force better than any of their competitors.
Imagining again the scenario where the world is suddenly rendered government-free, these individuals would simply eliminate by force those attempting to impose upon them limitations preventing them from imposing their will involuntarily upon others.
Without a sufficient means of deterrence, gangs, mafias, governments, and supranational blocs will run roughshod over any and all who stand between them and greater wealth and influence.
Balance of Power
To prevent a gang, mafia, government, or supranational bloc from expanding further, it requires an equal but opposed center of organized power arrayed against it.
Imagining the scenario where the world is suddenly rendered government-free, in order to prevent wealthy, well-connected, well-organized individuals from imposing their will upon others, an equitable balance of power would need to be established.
This could entail various means of decentralization where individuals were able to possess equal but opposed means of self-defense, monetary exchange, manufacturing, communication, energy production, and all other essentials currently monopolized by the world's existing centers of power.
March 13, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Many both within and beyond America's borders labor under the delusion that US policy is determined by the nation's elected representatives amid a careful balancing act between the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government. In reality, the inner workings of US policy resemble nothing of the sort.
In reality, an unelected deep state controls the United States, its resources, government, and people. However, the term "deep state" has been overused and intentionally abused, particularly since the election of US President Donald Trump in an effort to continue concealing the real deep state and divert public attention away from what is becoming an increasingly obvious continuity of agenda from one presidency to the next.
Uncovering and understanding the nature of the real deep state is in fact elementary, but essential in understanding the genesis and perpetuation of US policy. It is also essential in formulating solutions aimed at reining in the unwarranted power and influence wielded by this seemingly nebulous entity.
Identifying the Real Deep State is Easy
Despite the myth of "democracy," real power is held by those who control the essentials of any given state, province, district, or community. Essentials include control over monetary instruments, essential infrastructure such as water, power, communication, and transportation, control over manufacturing, healthcare, and basic public services, as well as more obvious forms of power such as control over police and military forces.
In rare instances, such vital essentials are controlled by decentralized, grassroots organizations - and in these instances deep states are either weak or virtually nonexistent. However, more often than not, this is not the case - at least not yet.
Ordinarily, regardless of apparent, ongoing political processes, those who actually, truly control these essentials often exist well beyond but not out of reach of politics. They include large corporations and financial institutions. Organizations, lobbyists, media platforms, think tanks, and political parties are set up and controlled by these special interests to then project their power and influence into or entirely driving any given political process.
The concept of a "deep state" is not unique to only the US. Virtually every nation and throughout all of human history, regardless of a nation's alleged political proclivities, has been ruled by wealthy and influential special interests either directly or by proxy.
Ignoring political rhetoric and charades, and focusing on where money, power, and influence truly resides, reveals the real deep state.
Unraveling the "Trump Vs Deep State" Narrative
A cursory examination of President Trump's administration reveals that he is but one of many extensions of the real deep state. Allegedly "alternative" Breitbart News mogul Stephen Bannon who functions as President Trump's chief strategist is in fact a former Goldman Sachs banker. US Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, is also a former Goldman Sachs banker. Additionally, he managed funds for alleged "Trump archenemy," George Soros, and had invested in the presidential campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is a long-time ExxonMobil executive, and the list goes on.
If one were to map the flow of US power and influence globally, tracing it back to its source, they would find themselves on Wall Street and in the boardrooms of financial institutions and corporations like Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil. They would also find, leading out from these boardrooms, proxy news platforms like Breitbart News aimed at manipulating, distracting, and preying on the emotions of the American public.
In other words, in reality, the Trump administration, like those of previous presidencies, is the embodiment of the deep state.
January 29, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - LocalOrg) - Geopolitical analyst, journalist, and activist James Corbett of the Corbett Report steps viewers through the real story behind India's recent, massive demonetization efforts - the story untold by prominent news agencies - and untold for a very good reason.
India's financial and economic shake up is a warning shot for the world - that the battle of financial technology to either liberate us all through decentralized peer-to-peer blockchain currencies, or render us under a centralized, global financial control grid ruled by a small circle of corporate-financier special interests is coming to a head.
For those to whom cryptocurrencies like BitCoin is a hobby, what has just transpired in India may provide the impetus to expand efforts to perfect and proliferate blockchain technology before cashless payment systems take over and displace all forms of currency, old and new.
For those who have yet to dig into cryptocurrencies or the details behind the emerging cashless global economy, Corbett's latest video is the perfect springboard into both.
LocalOrg seeks to explore local solutions to global problems by empowering people locally with education and technology to not only survive, but to thrive.
That should be no surprise. The government and institutions charged and trusted to ensure the residents of this Michigan city had safe drinking water already demonstrated criminal levels of negligence and corruption, causing the problem to begin with. Expecting these same people and the system they represent to solve the problem lingers somewhere between the unreasonable and the absurd.
US President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in Flint over a year ago - meaning that the problem isn't just corrupt, negligent, and criminal politicians in Flint - but that the incompetence and impotence goes all the way to Washington.
A year on and the "solutions" presented have ranged from simply forcing residents to buy bottled water and unsustainable charity providing those bottles, to superficial, even deceptive measures like replacing home faucets instead of the miles of poisoned plumbing running through the city.
As for actually fixing Flint's plumbing, government estimates range from "millions" to "billions" indicating no serious thought has been given to even so much as planning an infrastructure overhaul.
It is most certainly a showcase for the absolute failure of government. But could it be a showcase for something more positive?
A Showcase For Alternatives
Anarchists and agorists propose that there is virtually no problem that cannot be solved through the market - voluntary exchanges between free citizens contributing to a better future. The few, semi-permanent solutions that have presented themselves in Flint have certainly leaned more toward this direction.
In times of socioeconomic turmoil, gold receives renewed interest. It is seen as a means of exchange with enduring value that can transcend the various currencies that generally displace its use during times of economic growth and stability. However, it must be remembered that gold's value is only as good as the markets within which it is traded. If they collapse, gold's value may become highly unpredictable.
For Gold, Perception is Everything
Much of gold's value is a matter of perception. Gold's enduring value can be owed to the fact that it has been fully integrated into financial systems since ancient times. Its rarity and aesthetic appeal in ancient times, combined with industrial applications today, have helped it keep its place within international financial systems. While gold holds true value as a natural resource, much of its value still stems from perceived value just like many of the currencies it is seen as an alternative to.
The value of gold is only as strong as the system it is a part of. No matter how valuable gold may be perceived within a functioning economic system, should that system collapse, so too will gold's perceived value. Gold cannot be eaten, used as a source of fuel, nor be used for clothing or housing. Without a functioning market to trade it in, its value becomes highly unpredictable.
Whichever markets survive a hypothetical collapse would serve as one possible means to trade gold. Whether those markets are overseas, or built within the system suffering from collapse, gold's value would depend on the ability for these alternatives to transform physical gold into currency or resources required for maintaining a thriving society. Beyond this, amid a crisis gold could be theoretically bartered, though it would be highly impractical compared to the trading of necessities.
May 11, 2013 (LocalOrg) - It was inevitable. A technology like 3D
printing that essentially puts cheap labor, manufacturing, and retail
all in the same place - upon one's desktop - spells the absolute, utter
and permanent end to the monopolies and unwarranted power and influence
of the corporate-financier elite
who have lorded over humanity since human civilization began - a
permanent end the elite will fight against with the total summation of
their ill-gotten power and influence.
The pretext being used to begin this war, is a 3D printed gun built and demonstrated by Defense Distributed
in Austin, Texas. After designing, printing out, and firing the 3D
printed gun, the US State Department demanded that the designs,
distributed for free on the Internet, be taken down - claiming tenuously
that by posting the designs on the Internet, arms export bans may have
been violated - this the same government that is on record, openly
shipping arms, cash, and military equipment to its own listed terrorist
organizations from the Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK or MKO) in Iraq and Iran, to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in Libya, to Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra.
The US government has demanded the removal of online files which allow users to 3D-print their own unregistered gun at home.
The blueprint has so far been downloaded more than 100,000 times
since Defense Distributed - which spent a year designing the “Liberator”
handgun - made it available online.
Last
week Defense Distributed built the gun from plastic on an industrial 3D
printer bought on eBay for $8,000 (£5,140), and fired it.
The
Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance wrote to the company's
founder Cody Wilson demanding the designs be "removed from public
access" until he could prove he had not broken laws governing shipping
weapons overseas.
3D Printing: The Sum of All Corporate-Fascist Fears
March 6, 2012 (LD) - Confounding was the Australian's (newspaper) recent op-ed titled, "Death of a ruthless autocrat," in regards to the late Hugo Chavez. Confounding not for the op-ed's condemnation of socialist policies or its criticism of Hugo Chavez, an obstruction to Western corporate-financier interests in South America for over a decade, but because of the obscene hypocrisy displayed throughout, from a newspaper and a corporate-financier-academic establishment in Australia that coddles a figure in nearby Thailand that is every bit as guilty of everything it accuses Chavez of.
Image: When is blood-red socialism ok (Thailand) and when is it "ruthless autocracy" (Venezuela)? The answer depends on whether or not you serve Wall Street and London's international order. Contrary to popular belief, socialism is not a unified global ideology and is instead like any tool - only as good or bad as the hands it finds itself in. The use of socialism by two governments no more indicates an affiliation than would guns in the hands of two opposing armies on a battlefield.
....
The piece begins with:
HE was lionised as a hero by the Western Left, of course, but it would be hard to find a leader in recent history who more comprehensively betrayed the wellbeing of his country than Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. He was driven by an irrational, demagogic and self-defeating antagonism towards Washington that blinded him to his nation's best interests.
The rambling narrative of the Australian equates to condemning Venezuela for not opening itself up to Western exploitation, domination by corporate-financier monopolies, and the folly of its challenging of the West's campaign of global aggression from Mali, Libya, and Syria, to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
December 27, 2012 (LD) - While the US funds and arms sectarian death squads across the Arab World under the guise of "promoting democracy," it props its own economy up on a vast network of global human exploitation. From Walmart's sweatshop-death traps in Bangladesh, to Apple's deplorable partnership with Taiwan's Foxconn, millions go underpaid while overworked under dangerous, inhumane conditions to fuel America's consumerist paradigm.
Public backlash against these practices range from outrage over human exploitation (less common) to complaints that the West's economies are suffering due to these outsourced jobs (more common). As this backlash increases, and as technology reaches a point where real viable local alternatives may soon displace large, centralized corporations, a perfect storm is forming on the horizon.
Helping to stave off the inevitable, is the New York Times, whose article, "Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China," makes an absolute mockery out of both their own readership's intelligence as well as the plight of the vast workforce subjected to Western human exploitation. The "signs of change" NYT reports on, include the replacement of 5 dollar plastic stools with 10 dollar wooden chairs and "increased wages" that still fall well below fair compensation.
In reality, corporations like Walmart and Apple do business overseas because the workers they exploit there will never have to be fairly compensated or treated humanely to the degree demanded in the West - should they ever be, there would be absolutely no point of outsourcing jobs overseas in the first place. But the NYT piece serves the purpose of giving faux-progress reports to faux-progressives - allowing them to continue tapping away on their iPads, purchased from the consumer troughs of mega-retailers like Target and Walmart, absolutely guilt-free.
Ever
dream of a future free from the shackles of mindless mass-produced
consumerism? A future of complete freedom, instantaneous manufacturing,
and self-designed made-to-order one-of-a-kind goods? With additive
manufacturing, that future is now. Join us today on The Corbett Report
as we explore the 3D printing revolution.
December 11, 2012
(LocalOrg) - In many towns across America, Walmart, or a similar
mega-retailer, is the only option you have when you need (almost)
anything. Big-retail is a monopoly in its truest form and it has become
so, not through "free market" economics, technological innovation,
supply and demand, or healthy competition, but rather through a
combination of pro-monopoly rules and regulations, human exploitation,
outsourcing labor overseas, while preventing labor domestically from
unionizing for better wages, job security, and benefits.
The
sub-par trinkets, poisoned food and beverages, and slave-made goods
that line the corporate consumer troughs at Walmart are the result of a
global network taking advantage of socioeconomic disparity, consumer
ignorance, and deplorable labor conditions to bring the very lowest
prices possible to consumers.
The consumers pushing
their carts through the aisles of Walmart scarcely realize the
conditions within which workers overseas toil to line those aisles. They
may not realize that the polo shirts they are buying came from
overcrowded, deplorable factories in Bangladesh, where a fire recently claimed the lives of 112 workers. The doors were locked, the fire extinguishers non-functional - conditions that would not be tolerated in an American factory.
These
aren't "always low prices" because Walmart has mastered supply and
demand or production efficiency through innovation - these are "always
low prices" because people the average Walmart customer has no idea even
exist, are paying the rest of the price out of sight, out of mind.
Along
every step of Walmart's supply chain, abuses, exploitation, deceit,
and harm is being done to both labor and consumers. The only
benefactors are the handful of shareholders and executives that run
Walmart - who live a life entirely isolated from the paradigm their
spanning monopoly has created. Below, an infographic depicts this supply
chain - starting at overseas sweatshops, brought through domestic ports where workers struggle for job security, fair wages, and benefits, and end up on the shelves of Walmart, where likewise, labor must struggle to improve their lot.
A prophetic interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994 exposes pathology of economic decline - sober warning then vs. NAFTA & GATT, and a sober, vindicated warning today against TPP, ASEAN, and more.
December 7, 2012 (LD) - The sneering, conniving defenders of free-trade laughed in Sir James Goldsmith's face during a 1994 interview when Goldsmith warned that not only would unskilled labor be moved offshore in the wake of both NAFTA and GATT, but skilled labor as well, undermining the very purpose of nation's economy to serve the needs of society, and instead serve the needs of vast corporations. Goldsmith stated that the interests of these corporations were entirely divorced from the interests of society - a statement that is, now more than ever, demonstrably clear today.
How many more tragic disasters await so multinational corporations can offshore jobs, exploit deplorable working conditions overseas, and continue filling the corporate-consumerist troughs?
November 27, 2012 (LD) - 112 Bangladeshi workers perished in a factory fire last week - the cause is still under investigation. And as the tragedy made its way across international news headlines, it quickly became clear the factory was producing clothing for mega-retailer WalMart in the United States.
Image: (Getty Images) The price others pay for American consumerism. Walmart claims it didn't know the factory was still producing goods for its stores. It also claims it will work to improve conditions for overseas workers - but if this were true, and overseas workers were working with similar wages under similar "acceptable" conditions found in America, why outsource jobs in the first place? Clearly Walmart is just paying lip service.
The garment factory in Bangladesh where a weekend fire killed at least
112 people had been making clothes for Wal-Mart without the giant U.S.
retailer's knowledge, Wal-Mart said.
The report also stated:
"Today, we have terminated the relationship with that supplier,"
America's biggest retailer said in a statement Monday. "The fact that
this occurred is extremely troubling to us, and we will continue to work
across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and
training in Bangladesh."
Regarding the conditions of the factory, AP reported:
Survivors of the weekend fire said an exit door was locked, fire
extinguishers didn't work and apparently were there just to impress
inspectors, and that when the fire alarm went off, bosses told workers
to return to their sewing machines. Victims were trapped or jumped to
their deaths from the eight-story building, which had no emergency
exits.
However, what Walmart hopes the public never figures out is that if ever the mega-retailer manages to bring standards and wages up to what the West would consider "acceptable," their offshore supply chain would no longer benefit them and their profit margins - jobs would be better off kept on American soil, where they began in the first place. Clearly Walmart has no intention of "improving" anything except perhaps better obfuscating their supply chain from the general public.
3D printers are both accessible and affordable in Australia.
Effectively, this means that an individual or group has the ability –
with minimal investment – to avoid the cumbersome task of purchasing
expensive overseas technology and instead print their weapon. A 3D
printed drone is legal and possible; weaponising it would be a matter of
accessing ammunition, something that is currently safeguarded by laws
which regulate the sale, possession and use of firearms and munitions in
Australia. But what happens when the first 3D printed bullets become
available?
Although owning a 3D printer and a domestic drone is not illegal, the combination represents a privacy issue and a security threat both in the domestic domain and in international conflict. I am not advocating for the prohibition of civilian drone use or 3D printing. What I am encouraging is security frameworks that can recognise and respond to the threat resulting from the merging of these two technologies.
These concerns were prompted by the author's discovery of a drone produced by a 3D printer - a printer that prints out actual objects instead of images as traditional printers do. The author was also alarmed by the fact that 3D printers have also been used to print out a "working gun."
Video: A 3D printed drone has the global elite clamoring over the dangers of allowing the masses to possess technical capabilities that have long been monopolized by large multinationals.
....
Image: Parts of this working gun have been "printed" in 3D. What was once the exclusive realm of the military-industrial complex, tilting the balance of power in their favor, may soon become a distributed balance of power that eliminates them all together. Other 3D printed gun stories have been making it into the news recently as well.
....
The fact is that 3D printing has played an increasing role in prototyping and precision manufacturing over the years, and coupled with other forms of computer-controlled manufacturing, form the foundation of modern weapons manufacturing, the aerospace industry, shipbuilding, as well as medical and information technology. As these systems improve and are more widely used, their size, cost, complexity, as well as barriers to accessing them are reduced. Tools that were once exclusively found only in the realm of large multinational corporations can now be found in use amongst increasingly smaller operations, and now, in the hands of individual hobbyists and garage tinkerers.
In reality, Lowy and its impressionable readers' concerns are absurd. In a world where everyone has access to 3D printers, online designs to create virtually anything, including drones, Kalashnikovs, and cruise missiles, and increasingly versatile and abundant materials to manufacture items out of, everyone will also have the means to present to their neighbors a reasonable deterrence against abusing such technology.
It would be a world where everyone was just as capable of defending themselves as they would be at menacing one another - essentially an unprecedented, distributed balance of power that would form the foundation of a lasting, and realistic peace by pragmatic design, not by laws and ideals. And in this world, where the means of manufacturing virtually anything was in the hands of the masses, the sort of disparity that exists today that inevitably leads to conflicts, exploitation, and abuse of imbalances of power would be reduced if not eliminated.
The real fear that Lowy and the global elite that drive its agenda harbor, is that "the powers that be" today, will be "the powers that were" in a world where an East African was just as capable of building a cruise missile as Raytheon was, and the disparity that grants the global elite of today absolute impunity to roll over the world's population will have been stripped permanently from them.
Post-Scarcity and The World of Tomorrow
But if one can print a gun, one can also print other forms of technology previously only possible for large, precision manufacturing operations. This includes medical instrumentation and devices, systems for power production, transportation, and laboratory equipment of every shape and variety to put the means of research and development into the hands of local communities and individuals.
In a world like this, where the only limitation to solving your problems is your imagination and your will to solve them, where the means to actually produce, tangible, technical solutions are at your very fingertips, would people spend their time producing vast amounts of weapons to menace their neighbors with?
This question is answered by examining just why people menace each other with weapons in the first place. Armed conflict is driven by disparity - either armed resistance by those exploited at the losing end of socioeconomic disparity, or armed oppression carried out by those benefiting from disparity, seeking to perpetuate or expand their disproportionate advantages. In a world where this disparity is reduced by emerging manufacturing technology and material sciences, so too will be the desire and ability for people to engage in conflict.
The cost of this technology is decreasing in both terms of money and resources, as well as accessibility for average people. The costs will continue to decrease as more people become involved and as the capabilities of these 3D printers and other forms of computer-controlled manufacturing improve.
Likewise, the cost and accessibility of material used to manufacture goods with these systems is also dropping. As more people gain access to this technology, more people will begin developing with them better means of recycling spent material and processing new material from a variety of alternative, and more abundant sources.
Rising in tandem with the 3D printing revolution is the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Biology movement, or simply DIYbio. Again, the means of genetically modifying organisms was once in the sole realm of large multinational corporations - corporations like Monsanto, Cargill, and Bayer.
There lies a real risk that the monopoly these large corporations hold over the ability to genetically manipulate life on a global scale can be (and is) abused. While shifting this technology into the hands of the people means that anyone could create and release a deadly biological attack - it also means that anyone (and most) would work together to defend against such abuses. It also strips large multinational corporations of the impunity and intellectual monopoly they now possess over genetic engineering.
It is the dropping costs of lab equipment and increased access to educational resources online that have made the DIYbio revolution possible. Personal manufacturing has also played a role in developing equipment like the OpenPCR and the 3D printed "Dremelfuge," giving us a glimpse into just how profound the impact will be of the personal manufacturing revolution. In turn, DIYbio may yield genetically engineered organisms that turn out materials used for fabrication or fuel sources for powering home generators - illustrating the interchangeable synergies that will increasingly accelerate the pace of this shifting paradigm.
Image: The fruits of post scarcity. From "Caging Humanity: "No more land? Make some more. Commissioned by NASA in the 1970's,
conceptual artist Don Davis illustrated a torus-shaped space station
that maintains artificial gravity through centripetal force - it was
designed by a NASA Ames/Standford University study. While people may be
taken by the same Pavlovian giggles that accompanied the scorn of
concepts such as a heliocentric planetary system or the idea of manned
flight, such space habitats are not only possible, they are inevitable.
In space, there's plenty of room to spread out. Human innovation may
make compromises necessary in the short-term, but entirely unnecessary
in the long-term."
....
The final goal is "post scarcity," an economic paradigm where the ease of producing a physical object matches that of copying a digital file. Achieving such a paradigm requires the sort of technologically competent citizenry, but in greater numbers, involved in the current 3D printing and DIYbio revolution.
And while this all sounds great, these implications have not escaped the notice of those very few who will lose in a world of distributed, balanced power - where their main point of leverage, scarcity, is eliminated. These few are of course the corporate-financier elite who have wallowed in the disparity they have exploited and indeed, purposefully perpetuated for so long. They are already taking measures to head off a revolution most people have no idea is about to unfold.
Hidden Battle Lines in the True War for Global Hegemony
So how does the global elite go about heading off such a revolution that will not just threaten the source of their seemingly infinite power, but drain it permanently?
The opposite of economic independence is economic interdependence. The opposite of a technically competent, pragmatic citizenry is a politically divided, technically ignorant population. The opposite of a world of decentralized open source collaboration is one of centralized monopolistic proprietary corporations. And it is this very world of "opposites" that is being incrementally built up around us, day by day, hour by hour, permeating every aspect of modern life, with the global elite rushing toward deadlines and supranational infrastructure to cement this paradigm of disparity in place.
The European Union, NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) are all interwoven examples of attempts to lock humanity into a system of global economic interdependence, where centralized regulatory bodies can legislate and enforce economic policy benefiting the corporate-financier elite who are building and promoting these very networks.
One concept that permeates these "economic unions" is that of shifting over to "service economies" while industry is monopolized, heavily regulated, and isolated in nations where workers can be closely monitored and work only for monolithic multinational corporations. Western nations, like the United States which possesses both the infrastructure and the human resources to build a society fit for science fiction, is instead suffering under crumbling, outdated infrastructure - its population falling vastly short of its true potential with the average American incapable of understanding, let alone participating in the frontiers of modern science and technology. Despite this, there are still Americans that break this mold, but this is an exception the system is working to extinguish, not expand upon.
It would be difficult to dispute the decline of America as an industrial power, or defend the current state of America's public education. Other Western nation's are equally falling short of their true potential, with increasingly fewer exceptions to spotlight. A system designed for achieving global hegemony would include measures to condition the population to fit within the framework for control. This is being done through a combination of social engineering (and here) and sabotaging what used to be a premier education model.
Another concept that permeates all documentation associated with these "economic unions" is that of "intellectual property," or the ownership of ideas, concepts, processes, and information. With a global economic system dominated by fully functioning enforcement of "intellectual property rights," it would be possible to criminally persecute any and all who attempt to create on their own, business models that "infringed" on existing, dominate business models.
We already see how this system works in regards to media giants sending people to jail for merely sharing digital copies. Called "thieves," these "criminals" are sent to prison, fined, or otherwise penalized not for depriving another of their physical property, but for depriving another of "potential profits." It doesn't take much imagination to see how far this abuse can go. And the concept of intellectual property has been applied beyond music, movies, and software,- it has also been applied to monopolizing life-saving medication and even genomes, the substance of life itself. As 3D printing comes of age, corporations will undoubtedly seek a pretext to curtail, contain, and control the technology, under the guise of protecting national security, intellectual property, and public safety.
An existing analog of this can bee seen arrayed against local agricultural industry. Organic farming, local farmers' markets, and other forms of localized economics have already seen creeping legislation attempt to regulate out of existence the ability for individuals to grow their own food and/or sell it to their neighbors - perpetuating wider public dependence on big-agri monopolies and processed food giants. Similarly, there will be attempts to outlaw the possession of personal manufacturing equipment if the public is unable to quickly shift the paradigm.
And it is here that we find the true battle lines for global hegemony.
We are bombarded daily with false narratives, false struggles, and false political paradigms. The recent US Presidential "debate" is a perfect example of vast numbers of people being misdirected toward debates that don't matter, involving political processes that in reality will change nothing. The US President has long since become nothing more than a PR front for the corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and London. Who occupies the White House is of little consequence beyond which lies will be told to sell a singular, continuous corporate-financier driven agenda.
Image: Elaborate diversions constructed to prevent us from even reaching the real battle lines. Professional spokesmen, representative not of the
American people but of Fortune 500 multinational corporations and banks.
Since the time of JP Morgan 100 years ago, the corporate-financier
elite saw themselves as being above government, and national sovereignty
as merely a regulatory obstacle they could lobby, bribe, and manipulate
out of existence. In the past 100 years, the monied elite have gone
from manipulating the presidency to now reducing the office to a public
relations functionary of their collective interests.
....
Likewise, even geopolitical conflicts, wars, and strategic tensions, while life threatening and in certain aspects a matter of survival, take second place to the real battle that is being waged. The real battle being waged is one of a corporate-financier elite attempting to establish and maintain absolute domination over humanity through economic interdependency, social engineering, and other tools of modern empire. Everything else is either a means to achieve this, or a distraction to divert people's time, energy, and resources away from the true battle lines.
As Sun Tzu stated in "The Art of War," "supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." What better way of achieving this than preventing the enemy from ever finding the true battle lines to begin with?
If people are not active locally, developing independent local institutions, self-sufficient infrastructure and independent economic activity, while exposing, boycotting, and replacing the corporate-financier monopolies that dominate the current global order, they are wasting their time. There is no political football that if "kicked" the right way will save us, no candidate that can offer us salvation of any kind, and no solution at all that will ever come out of a ballot box. And while government programs and features of the current system are still necessary for the functioning of civilization, it must be understood that these are but temporary stop-gaps, and that permanent pragmatic solutions must be pursued.
It must be understood that "activism" means "activity," not merely waving placards around and making demands of a system that has no intention to meet them. It must be understood that by "activity," it is meant that technical, "wrench-turning" solutions must be implemented. Organic farming and local farmers' markets are examples of such solutions already being fought for.
Getting involved in personal manufacturing, DIYbio -and in general by being producers rather than needy consumers - is another example. All technology is a double edged sword which can cut both ways. To ensure it cuts the way which benefits humanity the most, it must be humanity that wields it, not a minute, self-serving elite. This reality is especially urgent in terms of biotechnology. So where can one go to get involved?
Enter the Trenches
The trenches can be found all across the United States, and indeed, the world. While the corporate-financiers squatting over America may be purposefully sabotaging the American people, the people themselves still possess a unique drive to innovate and improve the world around them. And because of this, places where 3D printing, DIYbio, and all other forms of localized production, collaboration, and tinkering have sprung up across the nation. The Internet is full of not only resources to find existing "makerspaces" or "hackerspaces," but enough information for individuals, their friends, family, and neighbors to create one of their own.
Hackerspaces.org hosts a map and a list to help people zero in on locations near them. By visiting the websites of existing spaces, one can get a feel of how easy it is to start one of their own. A "makerspace" or "hackerspace" can simply be a room with a table for people to meet, bring their own tools, and collaborate on projects of all kinds. Over time, a collection of tools and equipment can be kept on location and more advanced projects can be pursued.
DIYbio.org likewise lists community labs where basic skills in genetics are taught and projects can be pursued in a safe and well-equipped environment.
And while it may seem like an insignificant act to gather together and work on small projects, a well developed local "maker" infrastructure can yield big results. More established spaces, like NYC Resistor, have turned out small businesses, or have helped augment existing local businesses.
Regardless, it is essential that we start walking in the right direction, no matter how small the steps may be, regardless of how far in the wrong direction we've gone. Collectively it will make a difference when people begin putting their time, energy, and resources into developing local solutions and becoming independent, technically competent producers rather than needy, hopelessly dependent consumers running forever on the corporate-financiers' "political treadmills."
When we start turning off the "debate" and turning on our soldering irons, our tractor, our power tools, our lathes, mills, 3D printers, and welding torches, we can stop hoping for a better world to be delivered to us tomorrow, and start building one ourselves today. Dangers - the DARPA Vacuum.
A conscious pragmatic movement, as well informed as it is technically competent, pursuing post-scarcity and the reduction of disparity, elitism, insidiously imposed social engineering, and economic interdependency has little to fear as it moves forward. However, as the paradigm stands now - there lacks any clear vision for the future, or situational awareness of the present.
Makerspaces, hackerspaces, community labs, and open source collaborations of all varieties run the risk of being subtly manipulated, compartmentalized, and tasked for diabolical endeavors the individual participants could hardly fathom. Such a scheme was in fact announced by DARPA in a Wired article titled, "Pentagon's New Factory: Your DNA" which stated:
A recent call for research by the Pentagon’s mad science agency proposes a new program called “Living Foundries.” The idea is to use biology as a manufacturing platform to “enable on-demand production of new and high-value materials, devices and capabilities.”
In other words, let’s engineer life to make stuff we want.
It continues:
To jumpstart the process, Darpa wants to open the playing field to
people from outside the biological sciences, recruiting designers,
engineers, manufacturers, computer scientists, academics and anyone else
who has an idea. By democratizing the biological design and
manufacturing process, they hope to speed up the development of a
reliable factory for all sorts of kind-of-living things.
Wired, which has increasingly become a clearinghouse for Pentagon propaganda aimed at "geek" culture - and even hosts corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution "fellows" as contributors, attempts to make DARPA's plans sound exciting and fun. In reality, DARPA is assembling an arsenal of biotechnology constructed of various individual parts contributed by participants who have no idea what they are involved in or the bigger picture they are helping to shape. These will be biotechnological implements only DARPA understands the true configuration and characteristics of, and implements DARPA and its affiliates alone can wield at will.
This DARPA vacuum has been assimilating the best and brightest the world has to offer in a similar manner across many disciplines, assembling a vast wealth of knowledge and technology to be mixed and matched behind the veil of secrecy. It is a good bet that all these technologies are being used for a handful of specific, unknown objectives, and that cover stories provided by publications like Wired are solely for public consumption. The atomic bomb was assembled in a similar compartmentalized fashion, but at a closed-off facility run top-to-bottom by the US Government. In this new model, entire segments of the population are compartmentalized to fulfill certain objectives, with the final product assembled behind closed doors by DARPA scientists.
A documentary covering the Manhattan Project, including the compartmentalized nature of the work. In a similar manner, the collective efforts of compartmentalized participants, unaware of the true nature of the project they are involved in, is being used by DARPA across a wide range of disciplines and is a danger pragmatic movements must be aware of.
....
Being aware of this potential danger is essential. And the sorts of implements DARPA may already either possess or be working on should give the masses added incentive to become actively involved in stripping the technological-intellectual monopolies being cultivated by the global elite. It is important to get involved locally, but be aware of things unfolding globally. We must remember that by getting organized, having an acute situational awareness, and working pragmatically has given the global elite the immense power they now possess. It will take the masses getting organized, having a collective, acute situational awareness, and working pragmatically to take that power back.
Rationing and policy didn't give us the healthcare we have today, it will not provide us proper healthcare tomorrow. an editorial by Tony Cartalucci
April 28, 2012 - In the modern political arena, we are provided a myriad of false choices from which to choose, while our supposedly elected representatives skillfully and purposefully obfuscate and maneuver around real, permanent solutions. This is because the vast majority of the power and influence today's ruling elite enjoy across the Western world is derived precisely because of perpetual, seemingly unsolvable problems. In many cases, these "problems" are manufactured by the very people proposing solutions to solve them.
The fraudulent "War on Terror" is one such manufactured problem, perpetually both fueled and fought by the monied elite to keep their rackets, and the power, wealth, and influence derived from them going perpetually. The healthcare debate is another problem capable of being permanently solved, but allowed to purposefully drag on to maintain an entire industry built upon exploiting the desperation of the sick and injured.
An otherwise unsavory politician, US Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, who has introduced the Hitlerian CISPA bill and himself entirely disingenuous about solving the healthcare problem, did manage to accurately diagnose both the problem and the real solution facing America and how it treats its sick and injured. Rogers correctly states that the solution is innovation, private enterprise, and individuals. However, when Rogers says this, he means the very multinationals that drafted "Obamacare" in the first place and is simply peppering the false left-right paradigm to make it more palatable for an increasingly astute public.
Innovation to Increase Supply Beyond Demand
The basic principle behind supply and demand is that the more readily available any given good or service is, the lower the price to purchase it. There are different strategies that can be used to lower the price, but essentially it requires making a good or service cheaper to produce or perform and increasing its supply versus a particular level of demand.
In the case of meat, early human beings were subject to the natural populations of game animals. Like many other species, establishing and defending territory to hunt and gather in was a matter of life and death. Should a local human population's demand increase beyond the natural population of game animals, people would either starve or be forced to expand their territory, risking conflict with neighboring tribes or large predators. The game changer was technology, and in this particular case, agriculture. Now more food could be produced in the same amount of territory, so much so that many members of the tribe could occupy themselves with activities other than hunting and gathering - there was a surplus.
Agriculture, however, is dependent on weather and climate, and in response to these variables, additional methods and technologies have been devised, including irrigation and greenhouses. Today, under normal circumstances, human beings fighting over food is unheard of - our mastery of agriculture has produced vast surpluses. People starve today because of greed, conflict, financial manipulation, and archaic distribution models - not an inability to produce enough food.
Access to information has perhaps exceeded even our ancient mastery of agriculture, and approaches what is known as "post-scarcity" or in other words it has become so abundant and easily accessible that it not only costs nothing to obtain, but the more in-demand it is, the easier it is to come by. It is predicted that computer-controlled manufacturing methods and sub-atomic material science will eventually translate this "information post-scarcity" to the physical world where digital bits are replaced by atoms.
So how then does this apply to healthcare and how exactly does it end the healthcare debate "forever?"
Education.
The solution, in the context of supply and demand, is very simple. Increase the number of people involved in both providing healthcare services as well as designing, developing, and manufacturing biomedical technology. America's sabotaged education system would be the first place to start. Healthcare is currently expensive because of a limited number of qualified students that can study medicine, fewer who can afford to study it, and similar exclusivity in regards to enterprises developing modern medical technology.
Raising the overall competence of students increases the number of potential eligible medical students. This demand forces medical schools to expand their capacity and perhaps even developing new curriculum to allow such expansion to move vertically as well as horizontally. Smaller medical colleges and schools could be set up beyond main campuses, and as the pool of qualified medical practitioners and instructors increases, the price required for their services would drop - along with tuition.
Video: Dr. Jack Choi's virtual dissection table is just one example of how technology makes it possible to teach the demanding study of medicine to a larger number of students when previous restrictions on resources would have made it impossible.
....
Additionally the curriculum itself must be continuously updated, covering not only the latest developments in medical research, but leveraging the latest developments in technology to effectively teach more students, faster and more efficiently. One example of this comes to us from a recent TED Talk featuring Dr. Jack Choi of Anatomage and his virtual dissection table - giving medical students without access to actual human bodies the chance to simulate real autopsies. Before the advent of such technology, medical students would either do without this valuable learning experience, thus restricting their education and preparedness when entering a practice.
Leveraging the ever-expanding library of university-level lectures available through "Open Course Ware" could be another way to disseminate the knowledge of the world's best instructors to a greater number of willing students - even if only as a supplement to their regular studies. Already universities like MIT and Berkley provide an immense amount of lectures for free on both their own websites and on YouTube for anyone in the world to use.
Technology.
When one walks into a modern intensive care unit, they will most likely notice a variety of advanced biomedical technology monitoring vital signs, administering medication, and assisting doctors and nurses in a large variety of tasks. This equipment is incredibly expensive, and is so precisely because only a handful of companies have a competent research and development team to develop this equipment and a qualified workforce to manufacture it.
Again, increasing the number of people qualified in the fields of design, development, and manufacturing, in any capacity will inevitably expand the number of entrepreneurs involved in biomedical technology, expanding supply and reducing costs. Again this leads us back to improving education to produce the human resources needed.
However, there is another factor that is incredibly important - and that is raising public awareness to just how far we've come and what the possibilities are that await us in the near future. Every great scientist, engineer, explorer, or doctor can cite who or what inspired them to take up their chosen trade. Inspiring people to become researchers, designers, doctors, and scientists is just as important as being able to train them to reach their full potential.
Additionally, being fully informed as to what the current state of medical research is, allows us to make more informed decisions regarding public funding and policy. Raising awareness for cutting edge research also builds enthusiasm throughout both the pubic, their representatives in government, and across industry, making available more support and funds for areas of interest we can all agree upon as being beneficial for society.
Bio-printing at Wake Forest
Imagine instead of spending the rest of your life on medication to correct imbalances caused by faulty, failing, or injured organs and instead having a replacement grown, even "printed" for you in the matter of weeks? Applied "regenerative medicine" was once solely in the realm of science fiction, but is now science reality, thanks to researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM).
Clinical trials have already been performed where tissue samples have been taken from patients, replacement tissue and organs cultivated in WFIRM's laboratory, and then implanted back into the patient. Revolutionary research and development like this could be multiplied exponentially with a properly informed population, properly educated youth, and a larger pool of both medical practitioners and biomedical technology developers.
Gene-Therapy at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Imagine going to the doctor with a condition, and instead of leaving with a prescription medication to take (and pay for) for the rest of your life, you walked out with a permanent treatment derived from simply correcting your problem on a genetic level. For patients suffering from hemophilia B, a disorder where blood does not properly clot during bleeding, this is now becoming a reality.
At St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis Tennessee a treatment involving the modification of a patient's DNA through gene therapy has yielded unexpectedly positive results, opening the door not only for the permanent treatment for hemophilia B, but hemophilia A - a more common variant - as well as other more complex conditions in the future.
Combined with bio-printing, gene therapy stands to turn the concept of medical treatment on its head, excising from the pharmaceutical giants a massive proportion of their profits and subsequently their grip on government through their immense lobbying efforts. Such lobbying efforts, however might explain why more people are aware of, and even on the toxic cocktails they produce, and clueless about the revolutionary work taking place at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
DNA Sequencing and Printing at the J. Craig Venter Institute
What if you could have your DNA sequenced in the morning, repaired and reintroduced into your body by evening? The steps necessary for such a future are being taken first at the J. Craig Venter Institute. Dr. Craig Venter pioneered methods of sequencing DNA and was first to map the human genome. Since then, his institute has created the first "synthetic lifeform," engineered on the genetic level and "printed" with a machine that combines the basic chemicals found in DNA, then swapping out the genes of an existing species of bacteria with Venter's own creation.
Eventually it may be possible to combine the work of Venter with that of both St. Jude's and Wake Forest to treat nearly every conceivable condition, from injuries and failing organs, to genetic conditions like hemophilia, and even aging. Yet the work of scientists like Venter suffers from underfunding and under exposure, narrowing the choices they have of who to turn to for funding and being faced with the prospect of either ending their research or compromising their goals and ethics for the sake of a profiteering corporation. This is why it is essential to raise awareness of this revolutionary work so that it ends up cultivated by those who seek to serve humanity rather than exploited by those who seek to dominate it.
Innovation.
Already around the world people old and young alike come together to share a passion for designing, tinkering, building, and modifying. Similar to MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld's "Fabrication Laboratories" (Fab Labs), these groups not only serve as a community resource for solving problems on a local level, but have served as the launching pad for aspiring entrepreneurs. New York City's "Resistor" collective has produced not only a company that makes and sells 3D printers called "MakerBots," but many of its members are involved in the "Make Magazine" publication and videos.
These groups as well as individuals constitute an expanding "maker culture" and are tackling problems with innovation and ingenuity across the spectrum from the mundane and comical, to the incredibly practical and even revolutionary. Medical technology, especially in non-critical areas, has also benefited from this Do-It-Yourself culture.
Renowned in maker circles is "Hack-a-Day," featuring projects from around the world, including an entire category titled, "Medical Hacks." One project titled, "CheapStat: An Open-Source Potentiostat," features an open-source version of a device used to analyze the chemical composition of substances at a fraction of the cost of a commercial unit. Other devices measuring pulse, or automating medication dispensers also demonstrate the possibilities of a bottom-up model of research and development of medical technology that will overall reduce its cost while increasing accessibility for more people.
As manufacturing technology becomes smaller, cheaper, and easier to use,
hobbyists and professionals alike will be able to implement their ideas
quicker and more efficiently, and through the use of information
technology, collaborate and disseminate their work at a greater pace.
Conclusion.
This "do-it-yourself" mentality used to be a hallmark of American
society, and coincidentally produced a culture with a "can-do" attitude.
It is not only possible for America to solve its problems today with
such a mentality, but an absolute necessity. The nanny-state run by
faux-governance controlled by corporate-financiers demonstratively
doesn't work.
When we understand the true problem facing us in terms of providing quality, affordable healthcare to an entire population, that it ultimately hinges on supply and demand, and that education, technology, and innovation are the only ways to truly resolve this problem, the debate over healthcare ends. By no means should any nation simply pull the plug on benefit plans people depend on no matter how ill-conceived they are, or how inadequate the care they provide may be. However, we must look at subsidized programs as a temporary stop-gap while we pursue permanent, pragmatic solutions seeking to solve permanently problems the government and the corporations that they truly represent seek to perpetuate indefinitely.
Instead of figuring out the best way to funnel public funds into the pockets of Bayer, Gilead, Pfzier, Roche, and GlaxoSmithKline to treat the symptoms of diseases ad infinitum, bankrupting ourselves and our nation while these gargantuan multinationals get larger yet, we should be investing in education, research and development, and dedicating our time to studying design, innovation, and technology to prevent diseases where possible and cure diseases permanently when prevention isn't enough.
A single individual's contributions to either tackling these problems head-on, or simply raising awareness of these issues and ideas to generate the support innovators and pioneers need to continue doing their work honestly, openly, and for the benefit of mankind may seem negligible, but our collective efforts can eclipse even that of the largest multinationals by many factors.
The state of the society we live in, including the quality and future of our healthcare, is determined daily by how we collectively choose to spend our time, money, attention, and energy. Spend it wisely and we will achieve true progress. Spend it poorly and we will continue to be mired in this circular futile healthcare debate, where we are promised the sky, receive nothing, all while large pharmaceutical and insurance companies prosper.
Demand from your elected representatives that for every nanny-state solution they propose, they develop two more to improve education, research and development to produce permanent, pragmatic solutions. Ensure that they include benchmarks for achieving these goals and language in each panned entitlement program that clearly states such socialist policies are meant only to ensure people do not go without proper care until innovation, ingenuity, and invention provide care they can afford without subsidies.
If elected representatives insist on serving corporate-financier interests instead of the best interests of the people, if they insist, as Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan does, on dangling accurate depictions of our current problems before us, but then disingenuously continuing to compound them, we must begin organizing, collaborating, and solving these problems on our own, on a local level, and ensuring that our resources go to those truly seeking to solve these problems with innovation and ingenuity instead of to exploiters, lobbyists, and shareholders and their proxies in government.
Since the dawn of man we have ensured our survival, prosperity, and progress by building better spears, devising new technologies, and climbing over the next horizon. The day we stop doing this, is the day we stop moving forward. Politicians who would have us ration our resources and relinquish our health to policies and rationing regimes conjured up by bureaucrats would have ensured our extinction ages ago if braver visionaries didn't prevail. Today, braver visionaries must prevail. End the healthcare debate today, and begin tomorrow with a new dialogue on how to use improved education, innovation, and development to expand the supply of competent medical practitioners and the technology they need to provide the best healthcare possible to all.
