10 reasons Terminators destroy 'Twitter-brains'
(This a copy and paste of a text to link orginally posted by NOW on the Epic Thread--max)
Paul B. Farrell
Jun 2, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EST
10 reasons Terminators destroy 'Twitter-brains'
Hypnotized, you'll forget dot-coms, subprimes, the next Great Depression
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- In the next "Terminator" sequel, Skynet will "send back" a new, more dangerous "Terminator," not another titanium killing machine but "Twitter Code." And after that, the "Tweet Code" will further limit communications between humanoids, from 140 words to 17 syllables, the length of a Zen koan but without the wisdom.
Two more Skynet weapons further controlling us, destroying our humanity.
Why Twitter, why Tweet? Because both reflect a disturbing trend, the rapidly decreasing attention span and intelligence of the human brain. It's no match for Wall Street's version of the "Terminator's" Skynet that is rapidly expanding it's dominance over the public.
Seriously, Wall Street's Skynet has access to massive data bases on the behavior patterns of all humanoids: Transactions on securities, credit cards, loans, taxes, telephone calls, internet, and soon, all medical records, plus a financial innovation arsenal of quant algorithms and the K-Street network of 42,000 lobbyists gives Wall Street Skynet control of government, and absolute control of investors and our so-called democracy.
Folks, this is too real to make up. Less than a year ago, Wall Street banks were insolvent, near bankruptcy. Then in a swift "disaster capitalism" maneuver by Henry Paulson, Wall Street's Trojan Horse in Washington, they raided our Treasury and the Fed, while our clueless reps in Congress stood by.
Eight short months later, Wall Street's back in "business as usual" with bigger salaries and bonuses, while taxpayers hold the bag for over $5 trillion in new debts, a record $546,668 per household reports USA Today.
Wall Street Skynet and its arsenal of Terminators
Forget the metaphor; Wall Street is the real Skynet. And the Twitter/Tweet Codes are just a few of their many nanobots -- financial-innovation Terminators -- infiltrating the investor's brain, dulling our long-term reasoning powers, replacing them with new short-term irrational neurotoxins that will block their capacity to detect the broader strategies of the Wall Street Skynet Conspiracy.
That coupled with a memory purge is preventing us from assembling the "Resistance," a rebellion against Wall Street's version of Skynet.
Wall Street is hypnotizing Main Street investors: That way we forget the past, embrace the illusions and are easier to manipulate. In a trance state, we'll be unable to resist them.
If you don't believe me, here are the 10 nanobots anaesthetizing your brain. They are inspired by one of America's greatest business writers, Stanley Bing, author of a few books in my library: "Crazy Bosses;" "Rome, Inc.;" "Sun Tzu Was a Sissy;" "100 Bullshit Jobs;" and "What Would Machiavelli Do? The End Justifies the Meanness."
Bing writes a Fortune column. His latest, "Lessons We'll Forget," tells me that Wall Street Skynet is operational: "The moment the human animal is comfortable again, it immediately begins the important task of forgetting everything painful that has happened to it."
The past two years were painful, like the Great Depression, yet the investor's attention span has become so short, we're forgetting the pain, even cheering Wall Street.
So here's Bing's intriguing message, adapted for investors who are Terminator fans. Your memory will be purged now as you read about Wall Street Skynet's strategy. And that purge is setting up Great Depression 2, Wall Street's third crash of this century:
1. You'll forget ... that economists misled us, and will again
Bing says "economics is a bunch of bushwa" -- that's nonsense, BS, hype: "Economists are obviously not only behind the curve ... they are in many cases the cause of it." The memory purge is in progress. We see it in the recent upsurge in the "Consumer Sentiment Index," an resurgence of exuberance that says the masses are ready to be misled again.
2. You'll forget ... new crooks are plotting to steal your money
Our brains are designed to deny and suppress bad experiences. Bing says: "Next time this all happens, people will once again be surprised that the guy who ran the exchange [Madoff was Nasdaq chairman] is the person who also managed the Ponzi scheme." And you've already forgotten that megacrook, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. His Ponzi scheme was 15 times bigger than Bernie's, and Congress didn't indict him.
3. You'll forget ... that regulators are also political hacks in disguise
Bing words: "The law is an ass ... Virtually all of the regulators and legislators who were supposed to be monitoring the finance industry were certainly lawyers, as were the lawmakers who were asleep at the switch." The truth is the SEC, CFTC, all staff lawyers and their lobbyists are just more "politicians" gaming the law for their personal gain. Once the bull's back and you're making a few bucks (on paper), you'll forget all this.
4. You'll forget ... bankers are stupid, and will make stupid loans
Whether it's Rome, the Dutch Tulip Bulb Bubble, the Panic of 1837, or the dot-com insanity, "every panic in history has been precipitated by the same stupid sequence of events." Cash-rich bankers back too many greedy speculators, overextend, run out of cash. Banks go broke. Markets crash. Why do they never learn? Because bankers have a gene that makes them not only greedy but "stupid," says Bing. And "as soon as nobody is looking they'll do so again." Worse, bankers "forget" even faster than investors do.
5. You'll forget ... that America's run by a powerful wealthy elite
About eight million billionaires and millionaires run America. This small minority own and control about 90% of America's total wealth: "They're not smarter. They're not happier. They just know how the game is played and, for the most part, what to do to stay there. Sometimes everybody forgets that the whole thing is designed to keep the powerful in power and the rich in their McMansions." The other 300 million have no real power because America is not a democracy: "We'll forget that, of course, as soon as the markets simmer down."
6. You'll forget ... that the news is just another Wall Street 'Terminator'
Fewer newspapers, fewer reporters and "more blogspit" means "everything will only get worse" with the news, says Bing. "At the height of our troubles, the food chain [still] goes from security analyst and quote monkey straight to the wires and blogs and directly to you. And you read it and think whatever occupies your brain pan for the most recent five minutes." Then five minutes later, another relentless data dump of Wall Street's mind-numbing propaganda is crammed into our overloaded brains. We either forget, or go mad.
7. You'll forget ... your anger, and you'll let them get away with it
The subtitle of Bing's "What Would Machiavelli Do" -- The End Justifies the Meanness -- reflects the viciousness in today's public dialogue: Anger drives people to rebel, to join a revolution, the resistance, take responsibility, fight back. Instead, we'll wimp out, forget.
8. You'll forget ... nothing lasts forever (except Wall Street's hype)
Nothing? Remember the 2004 election when Reaganomics was hot? When Rove talked of a "permanent GOP majority?" Later when Bush had "a lot of political capital and planned to spend it?" When the Dow roared above 14,000? Obama's riding high now. Beware, Bing says: Nothing lasts, "not good times and not bad times either." Nothing.
9. You'll forget ... what's really important as soon as the bull roars
There more to life than stocks, the economy, your career and a retirement portfolio. And no matter what, Bing says, you'll eat breakfast today. Just don't forget it tastes better with loved ones. They will always help you forget everything else, if you haven't already.
10. You'll forget ... you can fight back, but the will is gone
Bing ends gently: "We just forgot all this stuff. Stuff? What stuff?" ... fade to black.
As investors forget the pain of the past couple years, our silence alone will crush the Main Street Resistance. At the peak of the dot-com insanity, on March 20, 2000, I posted a column: "Next Crash, sorry, you'll never hear it coming." Investors were deaf: Then again on March 24, 2004 we warned a second time. Same title. But Wall Street was deaf, let their disaster fester, adding fuel for the catastrophic credit meltdown in 2007.
Warning: A third disaster is festering. The worst is yet to come. Yale's Robert Shiller says: "We recently lived through two epidemics of excessive financial optimism. I believe we are close to a third episode, only this one will spread irrational pessimism and distrust -- not exuberance. If that happens, our economic problems will become much worse than they need to be, and our social problems will multiply."
Bing's "Lessons We'll Forget," is a perfect explanation of the coming third episode. And we have no will to fight back. The Great Depression 2 coming in 2011 is our destiny because 95 million investors are forgetting the lessons of prior "episodes" ... and will do nothing.
Now relax and listen to this soft peaceful hypnotic voice: "Yes, relax as I count backwards from 10 to 1. When we reach 1 you will wake up refreshed, optimistic. You will forget all the bad warnings from Bing, Shiller and Farrell about past and future disasters. Just stay in the eternally blissful 'Now.' Once awake, you will only remember this one fact: 'Wall Street is a trusted friend'... you won't forget that now ... will you?" |
