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Author Topic: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government  (Read 8691 times)

HappyDaze

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #15 on: September 03, 2021, 07:19:01 AM »
On the other hand, I have hope that we will eventually develop sufficiently advanced technology to kill the need for government or bureaucrats.
That sufficiently advanced technology would be magic, right? If fantasy becomes reality, evil wizards are as likely as benevolent ones, and if it's an evil space wizard, we get Palpatine. Then we get hyperspace skipping and the borders go away entirely.

oggsmash

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #16 on: September 03, 2021, 08:40:10 AM »
On the other hand, I have hope that we will eventually develop sufficiently advanced technology to kill the need for government or bureaucrats.
That sufficiently advanced technology would be magic, right? If fantasy becomes reality, evil wizards are as likely as benevolent ones, and if it's an evil space wizard, we get Palpatine. Then we get hyperspace skipping and the borders go away entirely.

  I would also suggest that it does seem like some of the worst sorts of people are drawn to power.  Give those sorts of people the level of power where such things are possible, no way in hell they let everyone have access to such things...because someone has to be in charge, right?

RandyB

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #17 on: September 03, 2021, 08:43:55 AM »
There is an amazing documentary about the topic of the Technocratic globalist government dreams of the political class in the 20th century and how it went horribly wrong. It's called All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. I strongly recommend it.

There was never a conspiracy. It was just people openly wanting a dream of  a one world government run by "experts" using "science" and "technology" (especially computers) and "policy" to create a society run like a machine in perfect harmony.

They thought they could control the environment, people, political movements, the economy, and basically everything. But only because they assumed nature was like a machine.

The "scientific and technological elite" named in Eisenhower's Farewell Address alongside the more famous military-industrial complex.

oggsmash

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #18 on: September 03, 2021, 08:51:03 AM »
  In some ways I think technology was beginning to allow for a decentralization of power.  The internet allows for a great deal of sharing of ideas (some good, some horrible) and discussion.  It allows for any person with a phone to share what is global news with video footage, removing the Massive corporations from constant control of narratives.  It allows people to do their jobs from their homes, allowing more time to think, be around people they love, to do what they want (transit times are probably more soul sucking than most jobs).  It allows digital nomads to both live where their lifestyle is the cheapest and leverage large salaries for the skills they have.   It allows people to make over a thousand dollars a day swapping out crypto currency and having to answer to no "boss".  It allows some woman in utah to become very wealthy writing ebooks sold on amazon about love affairs with bigfoot. 

    I personally think right now, in many ways there is a little too much freedom flying around for the sensibilities of powerful people.   A workforce that is tied to debt, and usually also experienced divorce (family splits ensure two households, two sets of debt, and often two workers) is the best thing for many corporations that need employees and really, really need consumers to buy things they do not need with debt to feel better about their lives.   

   The future extrapolated out along a "freedom curve" leaves waaay too much time for people to reflect as to what their government/trusted officials are actually doing.  Just an extra hour or two a day from removing a drive into and from work is A LOT of time.  Time, is the most important resource any person will ever have, because it is definitely the one resource that once wasted can never be replaced.    I do not see the future following a "freedom curve".  I think there is going to be a whole lot of world wide clamping down on internet access, the ability for the common man to take an active interest in his own investments, and some way to get more things into people's lives that burn time and prevent too much reading/thinking.  In some ways I guess enough freedom could take care of this, if enough people use their time to play games, watch stupid tv shows, etc.   

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #19 on: September 03, 2021, 10:12:32 AM »
That's why it's so important to fight for a free internet, and develop technologies that are sufficiently decentralized as to be beyond the scope of government control.
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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #20 on: September 03, 2021, 06:26:59 PM »
It's also important to fix the world's financial system.

1971 was a magic year. Fifty years ago, Nixon took the final step in unpegging the dollar from gold (FDR started it, in 1933), and allowed it float freely. The immediate result was predictable, and awful -- a decade of stagflation, where a mix of high unemployment and high inflation destroyed jobs, ruined savings, and caused rationing and gas lines.

The longer term effects were worse. With money no longer backed by anything substantial, governments were free to print as much money as much as they thought they could get away with. If the government increases the amount of money by 5%, they get to keep that 5%, and it's paid for by a rise in prices. This is a hidden tax that nobody voted for, but it's worse than most taxes because it doesn't just affect your income or spending, it also affects all the money you have saved. Your bank account becomes worth 5% less. This hurts everyone, but it hurts the retired and other people on fixed incomes most of all.

How much has the government stolen by inflation? Between 1934 and 1971, gold was $35 an ounce. That wasn't a price, it was the definition. Central banks around the world could take a dollar to the US Treasury, and get a specific quantity of gold. Today, gold is $1,827.46 an ounce. The difference between the two amounts is how much the federal government has stolen, gradually, over 50 years. They've robbed us of 98% of the value of the dollar, and left the public with only 2%.

This is even worse than it seems because of the Cantillion effect. Inflation doesn't happen all at once. If the government increases the amount of money by 5%, that doesn't mean the stock market jumps 5%, your grocery bill rises 5%, your car payment goes up by 5%, and your wages are automatically increased by 5%, in one fell swoop. No, the price increases spread in ripples throughout the economy. It starts in the financial sector, because they're the first ones to get the new dollars. Then it goes into the capital sector (industry and the stock market), as the financial institutions lend out the new money. It's only as new products get manufactured and prices pass down the supply chain that consumer prices go up. Among the last prices to rise are wages.

The people who get the money first (financiers and companies) get a great deal, because they can spend the money before prices rise, and pocket the difference. Conversely, the people who get the money last (you and I) get shafted, because by the time the money reaches us prices have already risen everywhere else. That means we don't get a cut. The result of this is inflation is like a huge spigot, that continually drains money from the pool of normal people into the reservoirs of the the rich and privileged.

You're probably tired of hearing this now, but it's even worse than that. I'm not going to go into details here, but inflation is also the reason why the stock market keeps crashing. It's why people have stopped saving. And there are a whole complex of reasons why it's relevant to the thread. It's why government debt has gone through the roof. It's allowed vast government spending, one things like wars and social programs. And most topically, it's one of the key reasons why governments have grown so much, and why governments like the US are pushing for more worldwide coordination and enforceable inter-governmental standards (global minimum income tax anyone?) to keep the gravy train flowing.

And even that's barely the start of the bad things. 1971, the year when the dollar became completely based on fiat, is an inflection point when nearly everything bad you can imagine about the economy and the government got much worse. This is what happens when the government is no longer held financially accountable.

Many graphs of bad things that started to go bad much more quickly in the unfortunate year of 1971:
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
« Last Edit: September 03, 2021, 06:48:10 PM by Pat »

Shasarak

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #21 on: September 03, 2021, 06:52:48 PM »
Fiat money is so good at causing stock market crashes that it even causes stock market crashes when there is no fiat money.
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Pat
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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #22 on: September 03, 2021, 07:23:05 PM »
You're confusing inflation and fiat money.

Shasarak

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #23 on: September 03, 2021, 07:33:49 PM »
Yeah, I am confusing it.

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Willmark

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #24 on: September 03, 2021, 07:59:15 PM »
On the other hand, I have hope that we will eventually develop sufficiently advanced technology to kill the need for government or bureaucrats.
That sufficiently advanced technology would be magic, right? If fantasy becomes reality, evil wizards are as likely as benevolent ones, and if it's an evil space wizard, we get Palpatine. Then we get hyperspace skipping and the borders go away entirely.

  I would also suggest that it does seem like some of the worst sorts of people are drawn to power.  Give those sorts of people the level of power where such things are possible, no way in hell they let everyone have access to such things...because someone has to be in charge, right?

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #25 on: September 03, 2021, 08:54:26 PM »
The thing is you can't really go backward. Returning to the gold standard wouldn't work.

This has to be fixed by getting to the point where you can change the entire concept of currency, and again, technology is the only viable solution to that.
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Mistwell

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #26 on: September 03, 2021, 10:48:18 PM »
That's why it's so important to fight for a free internet, and develop technologies that are sufficiently decentralized as to be beyond the scope of government control.

I am curious what your thoughts are on Bitcoin and other crypto currencies?

Jam The MF

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #27 on: September 03, 2021, 11:32:00 PM »
Pat and Pundit have me thinking about '2112', an album by Rush; particularly 'The Temple of Syrinx' and 'The Wizard of Oz'.  Behind any supertech maybe someone beyond most people, but a person nonetheless.


The Temple of Syrinx, is the best song Rush ever recorded.  Just awesome.  Imagine having that song going in the background, and a bunch of miniatures out on the table; Orc hordes everywhere, and heroes with Greataxes, Greatswords, and Greatmauls cutting wide swaths of destruction.  Good times!!!
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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #28 on: September 03, 2021, 11:44:53 PM »
The thing is you can't really go backward. Returning to the gold standard wouldn't work.

This has to be fixed by getting to the point where you can change the entire concept of currency, and again, technology is the only viable solution to that.
Can't go back to the same peg, but adopting a new gold standard would work fine. Or bitcoin. Anything where government can't just decide to increase the amount of money.

That's why it's so important to fight for a free internet, and develop technologies that are sufficiently decentralized as to be beyond the scope of government control.

I am curious what your thoughts are on Bitcoin and other crypto currencies?
People have been using that term for Facebook's Libra/Diem and China's digital Renminbi, and those are just electronic versions of centrally controlled fiat currencies.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2021, 11:52:02 PM by Pat »

Ratman_tf

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Re: Trend or Scheme Towards World Government
« Reply #29 on: September 04, 2021, 12:25:24 AM »
Pat and Pundit have me thinking about '2112', an album by Rush; particularly 'The Temple of Syrinx' and 'The Wizard of Oz'.  Behind any supertech maybe someone beyond most people, but a person nonetheless.


The Temple of Syrinx, is the best song Rush ever recorded.  Just awesome.  Imagine having that song going in the background, and a bunch of miniatures out on the table; Orc hordes everywhere, and heroes with Greataxes, Greatswords, and Greatmauls cutting wide swaths of destruction.  Good times!!!

Hey, man. Talking about gaming in a politics thread? Whatdaya think this is?  ;D
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