That Global Human Economic Machine

It is a juggernaut.
It is the largest thing ever to exist.
It is just one living thing.
All over the Globe
Those Humans connected
Working, producing, consuming
In a Single Economy,
A single Organism
A super-organism greater than any ever seen
Upon this Earth.

Its advocates are clear.
Its advocates are confident.
Its advocates are wealthy.
Its advocates are the high-priests
That maintain and repair the machine.

Its prey are scattered.
Its prey are confused
Its prey are poor
Its prey are consumed
To feed its growth

That Global Human Economic Machine.
The biggest thing ever made that now makes itself.
Grows inexorably to consume all before it
All the Earth before it,
While its high-priests indulge in its tawdry boudoirs,
enticed by its lurid perfumes,
Convinced that they and all before them
Are richer for it,
And there are no other types of riches,
that they have overlooked.

That Global Human Economic Machine,
Sucks you in
With a Contract
You will be fed
You will be watered
You will have the cars,
the luxury dwelling,
the bright lights,
the ease of never having to lift a finger,
not even off your mouse
the trips abroad,
the laughing of those who have plenty
about you,
the misery and confusion of all the others,
hidden away,
here on the internet.

The Global Human Economic Machine
Will run and run and run,
And they will oil it and add to it
And it will grow ever bigger,
For they learned to make machines,
And with machines they could make the biggest machine of all
The Global Human Machine.

If you can't beat them
Join them,
But then it grows bigger
If you won't join them
Avoid them
But then it swallows you up.
You can try to hide,
But even the birds have less places to hide
And so too will you,
And all the time from your hiding place
You will watch fearfully
As it the Juggernaut comes ever closer.

You can take up a Faith
And protect yourself with some Words
And believe that you are only here on Earth
To be tested
And the test will be
how easily you are assimilated
Into the One
The Only,
The Single Global Human Economic Machine.

Multiculturalism in Britain

I must admit this calendar is quite cute, but I cannot help but comment on how blatantly it attempts to be multi-cultural, and how from several points of view it does not achieve this fairly.

I can't even be bothered to comment on multi-culturalism any more. Anybody who thinks it is wonderful can come to live in London to test it out. Of course, some of the most vocal proponents of multi-culturalism loathe what they believe to be their own culture. And then there are those who have gotten into a first generation inter-cultural marriage, and even though this is 2008, they still think they are pioneers at the frontiers of global intercourse. Oh Dog, I can't Bear these backward people any more.

British Monetary Economy and Mortgage Market

James Crosby was probably paid for this report, and that's what makes it shocking. If he hasn't found anything new or surprising about why Britain has landed in this mess, it means that we might as well have had Orangutans running the Bank of England and the Treasury.

Well here's my simple explanation for people who cannot count, let alone care about money:

Britain exposed its monetary economic control to global financial markets. It was borrowing money from global supplies, for example to sell mortgages. It thought it was keeping control of its money supply, through the Bank of England, but it didn't count how these inflows of global money were affecting its money supply.

Oh yes, could an anti-globalist wish for anything better? The global financial system failed in one part of its machine, and the whole damn machine broke down. Britain was so proud of being part of a global machine. Well globalists don't tell you the downside of globalism, do they? The bigger the machine, the bigger the breakdown when just one thing goes wrong in the machine. A bit like a whole Space Shuttle blowing up because one person used the wrong type of washer when they were fitting a bolt.

So now Britain's monetary economy has been left to recover on its own, and all they can manage to say is that:

The global system broke. There are no quick fixes. We will have to live without the global machine and learn to be self-sufficient again. This will take at least two years.

To which I add:

Stop eating mortgages. In fact, stop eating and wasting so much food, otherwise the global food system will break down too!

I hope the wide-eyed kids who studied politics in university who work at Westminster for our busy, simple-minded, Members of Parliament can explain these simple facts of Globalization to their bosses:

Global isn't always Good. Global always is dangerous. Take the collapse in World Trade Organisation Doha round talks for example.

De-Globalization is best managed, and not left to chance, or worse, to War. Everybody needs to have a Plan B, and people who walk around saying Globalism is Good never seem to give us a Plan B.

Isn't She Lovely

I had to go into Central London today. It was the hottest day of the year so far, but the temperature barely crawled up to 26 degrees, and I never once broke into sweat. This eventual arrival of summer was obvious from the number of tattoos visible on rough labourers who, surprisingly, still have jobs in this lame recession.

Enfeebled on the way home by the Lurgy I suffered mid-week, brought on by the trauma of losing my bike last week, I walked with heavy feet, and looked at the London Wall. The City gardening contractors are still obeying Chelsea Flower Show practices: using rubber rakes, wasting water on the grass in this dry weather, and teasing the flower beds to look as crisp and clean as china flower vases. There is a healthy fig tree, heavy with fruit, and a herb garden in honour of the herbalist John Gerard, in front of the Worshipful Company of Barbers (they were the original surgeons and medicine men, because they had knives). The garden bends into one of the Barbican's modernist rectangular ponds, softened with lovely water lilies to catch the splashing water of its plain fountain. Already I was seeing here people who had the saintly beatification of being "lovely" about their person.

What is "lovely"?

It must have been sometime before the millenium that Britain got fed up with "nice". Then we had nasty. It must have been at some time after the 2004 London terrorist attacks, that "lovely" became de rigueur. Corporations had to demonstrate social responsibility, including caring about humanitarian and green issues, and their human resources assets.

When I arrived in Finsbury Circus, the largest green oasis in the City of London, all my dread was hardened. There they were, all being "lovely", as the lunch hour was beginning on a summer Friday, on the grass, on the benches, in the sunshine. The internal melodies of R.E.M. Shiny Happy People kept their loveliness at bay from the pain I feel so easily when I am unwell. Indeed, to wander through London whenever you are not feeling well is the opposite of all medicine, even the crudely effective sort that John Gerard practised 450 years ago.

All of these Lovely People in Finsbury Circus were young, fit, healthy and good-looking. If they had not been born onto the Conveyor Belt of Success, then their youth and looks meant that they were quickly put onto it. Here we are, in a darkening recession, where even the people of Glasgow East, despite being the most sheepish form of Labour supporter, have finally thrown eggs into the unlovely face of Gordon Brown, our Scottish prime minister. Here we are, in another global food crisis, where over a million people in Ethiopia are waiting for a grain shipment from South Africa, or they will starve in the next month. Here we are, in London, where there are plenty of people whose pain needs to be shared.

And there I was, seeing the lunchtime workers in Finsbury Circus, being "lovely". Before Lovely, people in the City had to be thrusting and sexy, so this is a new social phenomenon.

When I saw the shop, The White Stuff, advertising "Lovely Clothes for Lovely People", I knew it was time to blog about "lovely". Attack!

"Lovely" has nothing to do with Love. In the English language, there is only one word for Love, which is a stunning reflection of the naive level of understanding of love in English culture and history. Sorry, I have to tell it like it is. As I have said before, in English, Love is just another four-letter word.

So what is "lovely"? To be Lovely is:

1. to appear absolutely harmless and non-threatening, and
2. to portray an aura of compassionate intelligence,
3. to appear to be able to extend kindness to anyone in the vicinity who should need it.
4. to appear to have an easy laughing heart
5. to know you must hide all your pain underneath lest it might violate the fragile fantasy of happiness of those around you.

Yes, "lovely", is superficial as it gets, even if it is the nicest form of superficial you can get. This is because Lovely is the old Nice.

The most "Lovely" people seem to live in North London, for miles around Crouch End, but they are not alone. They are just green enough so that they feel worthy. They are just humanist enough that nobody can say they don't care. They are all so terribly lovely, and live in such gilded lovely worlds.

"Lovely" is also endemic in the workplace. To see it in the City is a recent social phenomenon, but it has been brewing in the public sector for years. Particularly in the NHS, it has been adopted as the perfect camouflage by those staff who know that they are overpaid in relation to what they produce.

At least Lovely People are not bicycle thieves, knive stabbing murderers, or coke-snorting greedy City Traders, but their problem is this:

Lovely people are not part of the solution, so they are nonetheless part of the problem. "Lovely" does not solve any problems, let alone pressing ones. "Lovely" is a form of mutual social masturbation, akin to sitting around making cups of tea while bombs are falling on your neighbours.

*******

Onward to Spitalfields market, where Loveliness acquires Grittiness, and what do I have to report, except that the devastation of Spitalfields Market is finally completed, since I first blogged about it 4 years ago. Indeed, even the Health Food Shop near where the Spitz used to be, was finally moved out two months ago, and is now across the road while this last bit of the market is given the same tacky makeover worthy of a BBC Television programme. Yes, London is now for sale to those who couldn't give a damn about authentic historical places: so long as it has been modernized with the bling of Millenium Oil-Powered Industrialization, someone will pay more for it. Russians and Kazakhstanis, I suppose? Or Malaysians and Middle-Easterners, maybe? Who knows. It is all Global Capital, and the Lovely People of London who gather in Finsbury Circus, are quite happy to take home their wages while fostering this globalization.

A week of Voices from the Past

What is it about this week? Is there some outrageous astrological influence? I get three phone calls in one week, from people I have not heard from in ages, and in one case, years.

There is something about voices from the past, when they ring you up. They seem to expect to pick up where they left off. But where have they been? Perhaps I needed them before now. Clearly they only think they need me now. I resent it.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. These distant friends are not available, and so they are not there when I need them. So they cannot be friends.

In our globalized world, this delusion that the telephone is a substitute for being nearby, is like a virus in the software of society. I would rather have one good friend at my side than to have 10 "friends" on the telephone, or 100 "friends" on Facebook. This has become difficult, because 90% of people are busy believing in their Facebook "friends", and the other 10% of people believe in their telephone "friends".

You don't have to be a Catholic priest to understand that this is a recipe for unhappiness and social disaster.

No, you just have to be starved and tortured by being dumped onto a desert island for a whole week with only just enough water, and absolutely no food, and no electricity, and hence no telephone or the internet. And no guarantee that someone will rescue you at the end of the week. Then you will understand.. You? Whomever I mean by YOU.

Oh, by the way, you don't even get to take any Desert Island Discs with you, because there is no wind-up or solar-powered record player. And no, you don't even get a copy of the Bible, but you can still write in the sand, and read what you write.

The Scarecrows of Whatfield Suffolk in the Global Food Economy

A week away from the internet, and most other media, is a refreshing joy which I intend to extend. But while the cat's here, let the mice seer.

As I wandered through the arable farmlands of Suffolk on my bicycle, I came into a village and was greeted by a large doll sitting in somebody's garden. It was brown-faced with woolly hair and probably 4 feet long, and I thought I had passed through a time warp into a gollywog-loving age.

As I progressed, I found that several more houses had large dolls in their front gardens, all in different clothing, constructions, and colours, in various attidunal poses and with props. I began to imagine that I had come upon some retirement village for an order of lunatic witches. One memorable exhibit had two dolls sitting on a tandem bike, but that memory is a reflection of the mental bias of a proper cyclist.

The village at this end was a few twee chocolate-box cottages, some with thatched roofs, evidently inhabited by affluent retired upper-middle class types. The more modern,dowdy, apparently council-built part of The Street was not participating in the doll display.

Eventually I came upon a doll of a publican with props such as a bar, keg, stool and towel. Everything became clear. There was a sign/advertisement:Make a scarecrow, any style and display it in your front garden, from 28 June onwards until this weekend.

For this was the weekend of the village fete, and surely enough, what remains of blue-rinse culture (for that generation has nearly all died off) was driving in cars to the village fete, on the green by the school, with the requisite marquee. It is wonderful to see a village where community exists at all, and see evidence of the Church of England helping it along.

But wonderment is seldom left alone on Love and the Planet. I could have just used a digital camera to copy some images of these modern scarecrows onto the Internet for some Americans to ape. This would be too common, too lazy, and not what blogs are about.

No, no, because, today Gordon Brown, our beloved and sage Prime Minister whom has been manager of the United Kingdom economy since 1997, finally told his country "to stop wasting food", and to "waste not want not". I shall not waste my vomit on his contribution (and that of many Guardian readers, I want to add) to the wasteful globalized economy that Britain has been party to, where all manner of waste has been sent to the dump, the tip, to landfill, and worst of all, to China and Bangladesh etcetera where they have permanently poisoned with pollution hitherto organic human ecosystems. So let me hurry along.

Scarecrows in Suffolk. Well.... my examination of the fields I saw in Suffolk revealed that they are 99% arable (no livestock), and most commonly growing, in order of quantity, wheat, oats, oilseed rape, broad beans, turnips/swedes/beets, potatoes. Almost all the fields are industrially farmed, with large fields worthy of tractor management. I never saw one person in any field I passed, although I passed at least one tractor on the road. Interestingly, by the end of June, the oilseed rape was already in finaly ripening stage - all the leaves were gone and the plants were down to taking what was left in the roots and stems and putting it into the seeds. Why is this interesting? Because with nearly half of the summer season (see my earlier posting for an understanding of how summer should obviously be defined according to day-length) left to go, vast acreages are already spurning the energy that reaches Britain from the sun.

Scarecrows? What crows? None of the fields had much sign of insect life or soil life. The broad beans were the most unblemished plants I have ever seen, with nary a blackfly upon them, let alone a ladybird. Most of the wheat fields appeared to be the same commercial seed variety. The hedgerows provided just enough tree cover to fool the ignorant into believing they were living in a conserved rural landscape. How many crows do you expect to find here?

So now Whatfield, which clearly was named after its Fields of Wheat, has perverted what was once a useful and necessary activity into a community-building aesthetically pleasing fun activity.

Waste not, want not? The wealthy and retired middle classes invaded the rural settings of England. They saw the rural economies transform into the Tesco Economic Model of production, distribution and consumption. But now the best that they can do (and believe me, most villages in England are ghostly shells compared to Whatfield) is to make dolls if ever the crows should come back.

People who don't know where food comes from, will never give a damn about saving it. It is considered rude to tell people not to waste food, because in Britain they consider wasting time to be a greater crime than wasting food. Yet all the time they save is spent sitting in their cars, or on their sofas, or on their office chairs, producing nothing, while consuming the earth.

So it is, but not so be it. For so shall it not be. Recession? Bring it on. A global economic system runs on a global financial system, and only a few people in the global financial system have already triggered a global banking crisis. Just a few farmers could trigger a national food crisis. Scarecrows were once the ultimate definition of food security. Now food security depends on global capital flows, GM seed, globally manufactured pesticides and fertilizers, and keeping the rest of Evolution at bay (lest a fungus, virus, bacteria or insect should suddenly arise that wipes out the mono-culture wheat or rice around the world faster than you can say "call an agricultural scientist").

Will Hutton - a typical over-informed globalist journalist?

Have started to read his book, The Writing on the Wall, China and the West in the 21st century. Don't buy it, because I disagree with people running out to buy books and then ingesting them without applying sufficient criticism.

Not having read much of it yet, I am about to hazard a guess that he is an economist by training, and hence belongs to the Simon Jenkins school of journalism. I will now check Will Hutton out on Wikipedia. Lo and behold, I am nearly 100% spot on: introduced to A level economics, worked in equity sales, and then went to do an MBA, he is a governor of the London School of Economics, amongst other things.

How predictable. The intellectual pedigree of economists should be subjected to more ruthless analysis than currently exists, because economists have for the last few decades been allowed to wield influence far in excess of their experience, intelligence, and vision.

I shall reserve judgement until I read more of this book, but meanwhile, de-globalization is slowly becoming more topical. How do you explain to an economist that economies of a global scale cannot be coupled with the evolutionary history of Man and all other Life on the planet? They can't figure it out for themselves. Take away their jobs, and economize on economists. Hire common-sense instead.

There was a man today exercising five cages of his pigeons, by letting them fly home to Harlow. They were all this year's brood. He drove a taxi part-time, as he was semi-retired, and he was quite happy in himself, but appalled at what the world has become. "Nobody ever does anything, except sit at home watching telly, or in front of the computer, and driving to the supermarket." No, he was the last of his breed, an earthy pigeon fancier. He understood the problem with globalization, in that peer pressure from the younger generation and the demise of local focus has impoverished the pastimes, hobbies, and ability to be content that was so easy for the pre-television generation. And today, on the radio, it turns out that Peter Mandelson is becoming unpopular because of his liberal trade politics, whereas there is a growing understanding even in Europe (at last, and too belatedly to escape the damage) that globalization has a flawed and vapid vision.

Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't waste my time finishing Will Hutton's book. Just the usual idiotic scribings of the over-educated, over-informed, egocentric, self-publicizing journalist who claims to be intelligent, but cannot induce any new truths from all that he knows. As I said, he reminds me of Simon Jenkins.

BBC Web Changes and BBC Globalism

The BBC has been changing its online presence, and has recently been reducing its attempts to build community, i.e., in this case, its Radio 4 Today Programme's message boards, which were once a public forum for expression.

We would expect this kind of thing in China or the old Soviet Union.

Well, this kind of thing has always happened in Britain. People who think otherwise were just lulled by the uncensored novelty that WAS the internet of the early days. Indeed, the amount of restraint and censorship and control of internet content has been building up, even if it has taken many years to catch up with this 15 years old technology.

The BBC is a funny animal on the planet.

A. It survives by flying the flag of Britain.

B. Most of its patriots and global advocates claim to be anti-nationalists.

This might seem to be one of my inane wonderings, but let's go ahead and subject it to ruthless logic.

If A = True AND B = True, then the falsehood must exist within A or B, because anti-nationalists would not be flying the flag of a nation.

If A = True and B = False, then the BBC's World Service cannot claim to be impartial to Britain's interests.

If A = False and B = True, then the BBC should not have any claim to public funding, either directly from the British Government, or the British TV Licence (an inefficient form of taxation which always trails technological development).

If A = False and B = False, then why does most of the BBC's funding come from the British public, and why isn't the whole world dumping Globalism openly?

The BBC, and the world, is very confused. When you have spent your entire life chasing a dream of building one world of peoples who live peacefully and equitably together, how long would it take you to question yourself openly and honestly about whether this is a desirable thing for the planet and all its living things, of which humanity is only one part?

Global Overheating in Los Angeles

The ghastly people of Los Angeles already have all their air conditioners running on full blast, and it's only the end of April! It's a new record, and yes, the planet is still overheating, even if it isn't obvious to people in Western Europe, who have had a delayed spring because of the tail-end of the La Nina (the cold backlash that comes after an El Nino).

Air conditioning is one of the most wasteful of all consumer extravagances, and I simply deplore the entire population of Los Angeles for their disgraceful new April Electricity Record. If they can't stand the heat, they should get out of the kitchen, and stop eating themselves into their Obesity Carriers, also known as SUVs.

Lard Arses. Selfish, self-obsessed lard arses who don't give a damn for anybody else. Los Angeles is the Sodom and Gomorrah of the 20th Century, so why should I be surprised?

Loretta Napoleoni - Rogue Economics: Capitalism's New Reality

Loretta Napoleoni explains it here.

Our world is full of fantasies and illusions: the kingdom of the rogue economy is a feral force endemic to society.

Almost every product we consume has its own secret story. The most dangerous conduit of rogue economy is the global market because it allows rogue products to contaminate traditional economies and turns all of us consumers into its unconscious business partners.

We the consumers know very little about these economic interdependencies, we ignore the dark secrets of what we consume because we are trapped in the market matrix, the complex network of illusions and commercial fantasies which reshape our world.

As in the cult movie ‘Matrix’, consumers have no idea of reality and they think the global village they inhabit is an idyllic world. Both, consumers and citizens are caught in a dream. ‘Have you ever dreamed a dream so realistic that it seemed true than reality? What if you are not going to wake up? How could you make the difference between the reality and your dream? Says Morpheus in ‘Matrix’. That dream is our gilded prison.

To go back to reality we have to exit the market matrix and look at the world from its boundaries, with the eyes of victims: the slaves, the destitute, the population of many developing countries upon which globalization outlaws are building the landmarks of rogue economics.

How fitting to my previous blog post. As if I haven't been thinking along these lines for the last few years, but at last here's somebody, an economist, saying exactly what my mind has been slowly fermenting in isolation. And her reference to the analogy of The Matrix makes it clear that she connects popular science fiction with Real Life Economics.

That's intellectual affirmation of some sort. So why is it that simple facts that are obvious to people like myself, and to people like her, almost never get explained in mainstream journalism?

Clearly, mainstream journalism is a fundamental component in the structure of the Market Matrix.

Globalization, Globalisation, and the Pope

I was astonished to hear this clip on the BBC yesterday morning, from one of the Pope's New York speeches, and it took a while to find it here on Vatican Radio.

Globalization has humanity poised between two poles. On the one hand, there is a growing sense of interconnectedness and interdependency between peoples even when – geographically and culturally speaking – they are far apart. This new situation offers the potential for enhancing a sense of global solidarity and shared responsibility for the well-being of mankind. On the other hand, we cannot deny that the rapid changes occurring in our world also present some disturbing signs of fragmentation and a retreat into individualism. The expanding use of electronic communications has in some cases paradoxically resulted in greater isolation. Many people – including the young – are seeking therefore more authentic forms of community. Also of grave concern is the spread of a secularist ideology that undermines or even rejects transcendent truth. The very possibility of divine revelation, and therefore of Christian faith, is often placed into question by cultural trends widely present in academia, the mass media and public debate.

When you think about it, without a doubt the Catholic Church is probably one of the first and the original of all Globalist Institutions. Therefore although it is heartening to hear anything intelligent said at all, it is rather disappointing to hear only that

"we cannot deny that the rapid changes occurring in our world also present some disturbing signs of fragmentation and a retreat into individualism"

So here we have the Pope, saying that the Catholic Church regards the biggest threat from Globalisation to be the threat to its power.

I would like to teach the Catholic Church to Love the Planet. They need to learn.

Chinese boycotting French Goods

The interesting bit is that Carrefour has got 100 hypermarkets in China. Is it obvious yet that globalization is a disease that covers the face of the Earth?

Will the bourgeois wealthy in Beijing and Shanghai join the boycott? I can't imagine how the Chinese will live without brandy. They might have to go back to rice wine. As for the working class? They'll just have to give up booze, because rice prices are at record levels.

What the World Needs Now

Humanity's need for fashion
in every aspect of its culture,
from Politics to Toilet paper,
Wearies me
From Head to Tail.
There are just too many people,
And they have evolved
with humanists
and religions
and science
and technology,
so there will always be too many people.
There is no wilderness left,
real or virtual,
to give any more escape
to all the living things that need it.
This vacuum that is the blogosphere
has less life
than a square foot of rainforest soil,
than a cubic foot of coral sea.
It is all bland
humanity.

The Totally Global, International, Planetary Olympic Sport

Loveandtheplanet is now bored beyond distraction of hearing about the Olympics, Tibet, human rights, and China, in an endless loop, stuck in a groove, on permanent replay. You get to a point in a media frenzy when you know that the media and its talking heads have ceased to collect and disseminate new facts, information, or history, and are no longer contributing to the intelligence of its audience, or to the development of solutions.

Everyone knows that the Olympics are not happening in a real place or space, or that the athletes are real human beings. It is fairly obvious if you look at your 40 inch Flat Screen TV that there is not enough space in your TV for full-size human beings to be running, jumping, swimming and behaving like Wild Homo Sapiens. So it must be even more obvious that the Olympics are going to be entirely computer-generated. This is a shame, because I rather prefer the Wild, only because there is nearly none of it left on the planet, and so wild Homo Sapiens are rather precious.

So in response to this year's Tibetan Olympics, held high in the Himalayan intermontane plateau, I propose a new event, which will henceforth be known as the Everests. After all, Mount Olympia is just a molehill.

The EVERESTS will be local. Everyone will participate, so long as they own a remote control.

Their preparation will require them to buy a plane ticket to fly to a foreign land, where they have few friends or family, or where their friends or family are living in an isolated ghetto that is living in its own little world that has nothing to do with that foreign land.

Then these competitors will be required to get a job and to do it. They must not think about what is the product or the purpose of their job, but they must work very hard at it, and earn lots of cash. At the end of the week, they must spend some of that cash to get drunk on cheap booze, so that they are ready to work again on Monday. They must not, under any circumstances, fall ill or get sick.

They must also spend as much of their cash on rent and food as is possible, but they must save up some of it to buy the latest 60 inch Disposable Television from their local supermarket. Oh, I forgot. First they must save up their cash to buy a big, big, big car. Then they can drive to the supermarket to buy their Disposable Television.

And now the competitors are all prepared for the Everests. They must use the remote control and clasp it in one hand while clutching a beer or a bag of crisps in the other hand. They will all be winners, except for one loser, for the last one to switch off the television will be the Loser.

P.S. Apologies to the Nepalese for stealing their mountain for the name of this new competition. Free Nepal. Free times over. Free Nepal. Free Nepal. Free Nepal. Save Nepal. Save Nepal. Save Nepal.

Next blog post will be, the Economics of the Olympics, also known as The Doctrine of Human Wants, also known as Me, Me, Me and my Plastic Card.

Dave Gorman joins the Disillusioned

It is so nice to know that the celebrities are catching up with the real world. You're not alone, Dave. And you're not the last to find out that the world you thought was still out there, is already ALL gone, thanks to Globalization. Global Corporations, Mass Production, Industrialization of everything.

So maybe the other celebrities will finally let on that there is no dream out there, so put out the stars in your eyes, and save what you can while the sun shines.

The Globalists: World Economic Forum

So this is in the news today.

The ultimate collection of Globalists. People who want to set policies that affect the whole planet.

And organised by people in Geneva. And you thought the Swiss just kept time and sold substitutes for sex?

They also sell a value system (the sort that buffered Einstein), and lots of tourism. Environmentally damaging international tourism, from Weekend ski trips to Long-haul World Seminars.

Why do the Swiss let this happen? From their lofty position high in the leafy melting Alpine mountains, maybe they think they can look down at the world more successfully than everybody else? Or maybe the Swiss spend so much time brokering between divergent cultures that they are the quintessential globalists and peace seekers.

The Alps have a good ski season this winter, global warming not withstanding, so there won't be much complaint heard from them about how their Globalism is destroying their local environment. But what is left of the Swiss local culture?

There is not a lot of local culture left in Switzerland. And they seem to do nothing to stop the damage, let alone begin to reverse it. Think Nestle. Do the Swiss drink milk squeezed the same morning from the dairy cow on their local farm. Of course not. And they can't remember how to do it, even if they wanted to. They have sold their souls and their culture and their land for an easy life, for World Peace, in a way that was directed by their World War 2 experience. They have been pushed this far by the experience of a war that finished 62 years ago. How long can you be pushed, before it becomes time for you to be pulled?

Is there a famous Swiss Luddite in history? Or is there still to be one?

Is it possible to have World Peace without all-pervasive and inexorable Social and Industrial Globalism?