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Empire of greed

© 2008 by Stefan Thiesen, thiesen@uni-muenster.deFor physical scientists like me it has always been self evident, that asystem based upon the concept of perpetual exponential growth is abizarre idea – more so when this system is situated within limitedboundaries. The Economy we have seen over the last two or threedecades is such a system. Real wealth can only be rooted in the real world,and therefore money has no value, if there are no real products, valuesand services to back it. What we have seen over the years is theglobalization of a system that sees money as an end in itself – in fact theproduction of money has become one of the main endeavors of our time,money and its derivatives having become the main trading goods on theworld’s markets. The people who act as movers and shifters on thesemarkets literally live in a parallel world, far removed from the worlds of trees and bees and the millions of children on this round rock in space whodie from starvation or polluted water, or who accidentally fall prey tomodern word creations like „collateral damage“ or „turkey shooting“.Somewhere. In distant strange countries. In remote mountain areas.Occasionally the banksters, the investment managers, the traders andbrokers even are referred to as „Masters of the Universe“, which is rue,only that their universe is a wholly virtual one, for the work they do ismainly superfluous, and the real the universe would stand unharmed andentirely unimpressed if suddenly their entire breed would disappear fromone moment to the other. Only he who is aware of his own utterinsignificance may be called wise.But the system we have created is one where food and shelter are on oneside of an equation, where money is on the other. Unfortunately theconvulsions of the thing called „The Market“ that we see these days areorders of magnitudes higher than all the food and shelter needed.According to Senator Bernie Sanders (D), it would cost only about 8 BillionUS$ tp provide primary healthy care to all US citizens – something that istaken for granted in all Western European country – in fact in all countries

boasting a standard of living even remotely similar to that of the US. Butsupporting and rescuing virtual entities in this twisted world has becomemore important than the livelihood of humans, and wreckless speculatorsare rewarded while decently managed banks and investment housesultimately are punished. Oh yes – there are ideologies and explanationsbehind that. Trickel down is such an explanation. Somehow everyone is tobenefit from this system that can best be described as a mathematicalrepresentation of greed en gros. Somehow. How we never hear. Perpetualgrowth, exponential rise of nothingness, interest upon interest, fire thatfeeds fire – the tales of Midas and Erysichthon went unheard over themillenia. The sorcerers apprentices seem cursed to curse themselves overand again.It is simply amazing that the majority of people and peoples in all periodsof history could be so successfully kept from seeing the most obvious factsin front of their eyes. The principal mechanism behind this phenomenon isthe strong urge to believe – a phenomenon christianed “Vital Lies” byDaniel P. Goleman. It is easier to believe than to be critical and skepticaland ultimately be skeptical about yourself. Believe that all is good, that allis fine, that on is part of a big plan, of Gods own people, that all thathappens is good and right and righteous. The truth is: it is not. The truth ishat we have created a society where the sensitive and clever people arepowerless while providing ideal provisions for the rise of psychopaths andnetworking money dynasties. Opinion is bought. Not by purchasing itdirectly, but by applying elaborate means of mental manipulation –decades of brainwashing hundreds of millions of people into acceptingtheir fate and submitting their freedom for the better of a perceived biggergoal, which, strangely, itself is called freedom. There is no freedom in theWestern world, least in the United States. Everything depends on money,information as well as the time and ability to dissiminate the flood of information washing over us from a myriad of sources. Ultimately there isno freedom without money, and those who possess near endless suppliesof it in turn are slaves of the dynamics of their own wealth. They do notpossess the money, but rather, as if it were a demon, are possessed by it.

The brainwashing goes so far that the majority of people these daysactually seem to believe that all those hundreds of billions – or eventrillions – of Dollars missing in the financial markets somehow, magically,have indeed disappeared. Were „destroyed“ as sometimes I hear it said inthe media. And the people, the normal person who hardly has enough topay for the bread and butter of his children, is to bail out the self proclaimed rulers of the world. We hear arguments that do at first sightsound reasonable and true enough. When the banks are bankrupt, so weare told, the companies will not be able to get the credits they need fordaily operation, and that will result in corporate failures, loss of jobs andeconomic decline. Well – here is the news: the money was not destroyed atall! It is still there. The ailing credits that went into the housing marketfinanced – houses, for example. Millions of craftsmen made a living andconsumed and many of those most likely were able to buy housesthemselves. And the collapsed market of obscure financial derivatives is atthe same time mirrored by a market of rather successful speculators. Thatis the nature of an out of control „free“ market: One can only win whenanother looses. Another truth is: the money has not been destroyed. Itonly changed hands. And those hands will also be willing to pass it out tothose who are prepared to pay the proper price for the credits. Nothing islost, as painful as that may seem to those who were shaken awake fromtheir ludicrous dreams of infinite wealth and power, having to realize, thatthey merely were Masters of their own delusions. At the same time, whilethe United Nations successfully raised 16 billion Dollars in funds to fightglobal poverty and do something against the fact that almost a billionpeople on Earth suffer from starvation, the US Government proposes a 700billion bailout plan for the fallen speculators and hazardeurs. Shouldn’t wesit down, quietly, for a moment and think? It is the advice Winnie Poohgives to four year olds. Think! Think! What does it all mean? What the hellis going on? It always struck me as most peculiar that someone can at thesame time be „pro life“ and „pro gun“ and „pro war“. Pro life. How manyunborn children did Mr. Bush kill in their mothers’ wombs by ordering thewar against Iraq? An ugly thought and yet reality, like so many ugly thingsgoing on. Think! Think! And how the heck can one proclaim oneself a

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Empire of Greed

A polemic assessment of our economic delusions leading to a complete global meltdown that only may be the beginning of things to come...

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Category:	School Work > Essays & Theses
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Upload Date:	03/11/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	economy greed capitalism Collapse bankers financial crisis banksters economic meltdown economy greed capitalism Collapse bankers financial crisis banksters economic meltdown (fewer)