Wealth Bondage

Inspector Lohmann on the Meaning of Wealth Bondage

Posted by Dr. Chadwallah

Lohmann:

Zombie movies, as discussed above, are one of our culture's most pointed metaphors for assimilation of citizens into Wealth Bondage as the servants of Golem — soulless living-dead who must "consume" the living, both to satisfy a craving that can never be satisfied, and to convert the living to become like them.

While Hidden meanings, certainly, are well worth seeking in the intricate interplay of Signifiers that is Wealth Bondage, I have worked here now for several years and can attest that WB is staffed by real people not Golems or the like. We really are Whores and Pimps to Wealth and Power, just like any other Think Tank, or Corporate Entity in real life. Now, let me acknowledge, though, that History too is full of Types and Emblems. We may for all we know be living truths Written by the Hand of God in this His Book of Nature. In parable, all that happens here may point to the Resurrection into Life Everlasting. Who Blogs but God, when all is said and done? What are we, any of us, in fact, but His daily rants?

"Blogging has Sold Out," He says, Wheezing

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Harry on Billmon's lament. Blogging sold out with Cluetrain for Chrissakes. They just couldn't cash the check until recently. Winer pocketing "excellent swag" as a "credentialled," but credulous, blogger at the Dem's Convention was just one of many low points. It has always been about self-promotion. But you can still get fired for it, and the Secret Service can still get miffed, and you can still get sued. How bland can it be? Here at WB we are still Whores and always were. Billmon may have closed his bar, but friends, you are welcome here. If you want to kiss boot, you have come to the right Bordello.

Annie Gets a Visit

Posted by Smoky Joe, JD in Defense of Freedom

Had to laugh my ass off reading this, via apophenia. Annie posts something critical of Bush on her LiveJournal. She and her mother get a visit from the Secret Service. She draws the appropriate moral,

What happened to me CAN happen to you. This is really the main reason why I am posting this publicly. I WANT you to make an example out of me. I want you to tell your friends to be CAREFUL about what they say on the Internet, because someone IS reading it and it CAN come back and bite you on the ass.

She will have a permanent file and will, if I lift my little finger, be placed on the "No Fly List." Her medical records are also quite interesting. Lesson learned, Annie. A little late to truckle now. Wish your attorney good luck. Your records are sealed under the Patriot Act. Actions have consequences. Think next time before you open your mouth.

Brand Bullies 'R Us

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Yule via BMO on Brands, and the Brand-Addled Ethos of Culture Jamming, and other juvenalia. Devasting critique of left wing posturing.

On the left, we're so busy arguing about individual piety (giving up this or that, making our footprint tinier, being [competitively] more radically chic than the next guy, etc.), eschewing consumerism (evil, evil) and mass society (bad, bad) that we've left the terrain of political action -- legislation, small acts of democratic intervention (when was the last time you called your Member of the Legislative Assembly or your Congressman?), and all sorts of other systems-work to the rightwingers. Yeah, so we've got our "meme bombs," but the problem is that they've got the tax code. Time to restrategise.

Given that some of us, from the sixties, are now in our 50s, and have had responsible roles inside various firewalls, we should be able to do better. We have tax JDs, lobbyists, PR Mavens, marketers, donors, managers. Why can't we form new entities for new purposes? Have on my desk an Application for Recognition for Exemption. Toying with "systems work," ways to help funders, advisors, and nonprofits connect to some purpose greater than Brands, Consumerism, and Anti-Brand Posturing.

Dumpster Burning!

Posted by The Happy Tutor

So they protest for the poor and torch my home. Great. Can you see why I preach peace?

William Schambra, Martin Diamond, and Dumpster Democracy

Posted by The Happy Tutor

I am grateful to Turbulent Velvet (in a comment to an earlier post) for the heads up: William Schambra, who is writing eloquently about grassroots giving, and calling for a coalition of grassroots nonprofits, both conservative and progressive, is the editor of Martin Diamond's essays. Odd, really odd. You would think from Bill's recent essays on giving that he is the most egalitarian of men, that he gets a visceral pleasure from seeing those throughout society, including the most unfortunate, band together and help one another and themselves to a better life. For Diamond, though, we have "the great Empire of Mediocrity." The mass of men or sheep who strive futilely for happiness, much less excellence, ruled from above by men of superior sagacity, their natural betters, an aristocracy of winners, "an isolated outpost of excellence." Plato, Machiavelli, Madison, Nietzsche, Strauss, culminating in an illuminati yoking reason, revelation, and political power exercised through secrecy and the noble lie. The great mass of men, like the Consumers in Plato's cave, watch the shadows on the wall and consider them real, since, if they were to leave the cave, they would be blinded by the light. Hence our betters must keep us in the dark - for our own good.

Well, hope Bill will drop by to dilate on these issues. Is his call for greater and more vibrant local democracy a Straussian ploy to cede money and power, through "tax relief," to a natural meritocracy, those who fund his work though Hudson? In other words, cut taxes, cut programs and praise the dupes, and losers, as they huddle in the dump, helping one another?

Bill, is it all Wealth Bondage after all? Say it ain't so! We are indeed Dupes, but we do learn fast. We too, here in our Dumpster, maintain an isolated outpost of excellence. Join us for a beer. We guarantee you safe passage. Or join us for our next Field Trip, as we do our best to better ourselves, without bothering our betters, placed above us by Providence, to insure our ordered liberty.

Brekeley Breathed

Posted by Dr. Chadwallah

A lighter hearted look at election spin from the cartoonist, Berkeley Breathed. Popular culture. A little is OK, even for the learned.

My World, My Rules

Posted by Candidia Cruikshanks, Divine Mistress of Wealth Bondage

Sad, really, a good marketer gone bad. On the edge of being homeless, half mad, scorned by his potential mate, what does he write about? Euthanasia and self-actualization. My fellow Compassionate Conservatives! Hit Rageboy's paypal button. I think we should keep him alive a little longer as a lesson to the others. Just don't let him breed.

Shelter for the Weak? C'Mon!

Posted by Candidia Cruikshanks, Divine Mistress of Wealth Bondage

No squatters in the mall. Clear beggars from the the streets. Can the crappy shanties; they drive down property values. If the poor live in my dump let them at least pick through the rags and earn their own keep.

Duh! There is a reason why Nature has Death! Expose these losers on a rock.

O! And by the way, Ragpicker is trademarked as a Wealth Bondage Brand.

Ethnic Weapons for Homeland Freedom Initiative

Posted by Candidia Cruikshanks, Divine Mistress of Wealth Bondage

Really, wouldn't it be mercy for many? Every herd must be culled, as Nietsche wrote, or should have, so that we Superior Beings may prevail forever.