The way we live

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We (most of us, the masses, the regular people) live beneath a layer of bureaucracy and petty regulations of every aspect of our lives, which we've been fooled into thinking is necessary for our lives. This layer of infinite red tape is not necessary for us to live; we got along just fine before it existed. It is, however, necessary for the system to live. The moment you're born, you're registered in files and databases. Your existence is part of the system. You go to school, you learn the laws and customs you're presented with, and from day one you're taught to exist within a system which demands that you fit into that system; not a system designed to support and encourage individuality and excellence.

Exactly how many rules, laws, regulations, and by-laws apply to your life every day? Everything is govered by red tape, from the diameter of the base of your kettle to the content of your morning news, from the amount of sugar in your breakfast cereal to the time you're supposed to slot into place at the office. Every complaint must go through the appropriate channels, to be lost among the morass of further red tape. Eventually, if you're lucky,, any grievance you might have might be rewarded with some material gain, a little money or a new desk at work, something ultimately meaningless. Meanwhile, you're still govered by the same layer of bureaucratic nonsense.

But wait! "Elections!" you say"? Sure, we have those. Every four years or so a new figurehead is put in the public relations hot-seat, to spin things for us. But when was the last time either of the major parties fronting the system ever offered you any real choice in the things that matter? Did you vote for war? Did you vote for the latest big foreign trade agreement? No. These things are not open to discussion. They happen whether we want them or not. Other matters, inconsequential matters, are discussed at election time, and we are offered the choice of Spin A on inconsequential matter X, or Spin B on inconsequential matter X. This is the sad reality of our alleged "democracy".

Who is on the other side of this layer of bureaucracy, who are the people it serves, and why is it there? Heck, that's easy. The ridiculously wealthy elite of the world. They have money, power, control, and they don't want to lose it, so naturally it is in their interests to either maintain the current level of control, or increase it. So who are they? I'd say the owners of the larger banks, the guys who own the oil, perhaps those ancient European royal families... folks like that. Is it a conspiracy theory? Well, if you call it a conspiracy theory to suggest that people with power don't want to lose that power, then yes.

I repeat: the system in which you live is not necessary for you to live. It is merely necessary for the system to live.

Many regulations are not necessary for life and you are right on that but the modern system is an alright system, it needs some improvements but not a complete and total overhaul. We did not get by fine without it, life was worse before the modern era. Actually, this system is not bad for supporting individuality and excellence, it is possible for an individual to rise from a low position to a very high one within society. There is entrepreneurship and all sorts of things to support a change in social status, I mean, in a book I read, it mentioned a Harvard economist who used to be a gang member and went to UTA for his undergraduate degree(UTA is a school in Texas that is decent but is not known for being very hard to get into and is ranked a 4th tier school by US News) and this is not a fiction book either. The modern system is not a caste system where the gap between the top and the rest of society is unbridgeable. It is a relatively good system.

Again, I don't actually see any suggestion on what exactly this other sytem actually is.

I suspect that might be intentional as well. Scaramouche I think is just presenting the argument that things could be different then how they are, and that there is some better system out there.


That being said, I think that before we start taking to the streets or the like, we should have a pretty good idea about what exactly it is that we should be doing. Rather then just what we shouldn't.

Well, we will probably evolve into a better system anyway, I mean, competitive pressure from the rest of the world and our desire to keep up will probably force us into certain improvements. I say evolution, not revolution, revolutions have a high cost and don't necessarily pay off, like in the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the radical change in the German weimar republic from crappiness to Hitler(who may have vastly improved things but in the end screwed everyone over with WW2 which really hurt Germany), and so on and so forth. Anyway, radical changes are usually somewhat bad often because of radicals, I mean, the success of the American revolution was largely because of the fact that the founding fathers were really not very radical at all (except for a few but they did not do quite as much with establishing a constitution and such). Evolution tends to be better than revolution and things are definitely not so bad right now to risk so much trying to form revolution...... Anyway, just putting my 2 cents into this because I know that change is something that was mentioned.