April 23, 2009

The Middling Classes

The middle classes, ultimately, must be abolished. I would venture to suggest, and beyond that, I would heartily support, an abolition of all such distinction, but I am not as naïve as to think that should be possible. Yet, do not confuse my conviction, as it were, for a fanciful Bolshevistic idea. Pray let me continue, gentle reader...

It might be suggested, by many dubious and charlatan-minded pseudo-scientists, that, all things are compelled to a middle state. And again, one might conceive such idiotic notions of centrifugal balance; as if the state of affairs are determined proper by extreme physical force, in order that none may arise above the one, and that the one may never dominate the many, so that we as a people, in general, may achieve a common and uniformly wealthy or otherwise prosperous existence.

Such existence is tantamount to banality. For inevitably it is established, by such scientific means, that there is a quantifiable and 'falsifiable' rule of order, as it were. To that effect, a certain dictatorship, or which ever sort of authoritarian principle, or any variation of such similar guiding judgments, which inevitably necessitates categorised thought and action gives way to those who champion these ridiculous and tedious notions of behaviour. And to these wretched and painful truths, we the people cry amass 'up' and 'down' accordingly - regardless of the affects our vain and contrived opinions might have in public utterance!

Do not mistake my intent, gentle reader… I have not the slightest intent to attack one’s sense of propriety and accord with the World in which we have all awkwardly and suddenly encountered it – I would do you little credit and even less of a service. But merely to consider that you and I, as it were, face this unfortunate state with such propriety as is internally deemed fit, and to that extent, are perpetually tied. You stand irrevocably tied to your relations and affairs as I am continually bound by out-dated and, as modern times have shown, unnecessary consideration of respective needs and abilities. We are all now supposedly to be held accountable, yet we have forgotten the joys and inconveniences of the requisite responsibility. To be held accountable is, in fact, a delusion. It is a plague upon the conscience; accountability is a convenient phrase for the inevitable shift of responsibility, and at that, it is a temporary state of mind – more so, one which is easily removed. If one were ever to realise, on a rainy and otherwise unpleasant day, that one felt no further obligation to one’s employ, one might disregard all connections thereto; in such a light, one is held responsible only for that which one has hitherto accomplished, and subsequently – and fundamentally – not accountable for any success or failure which, as we so often see, befalls common interaction.

But then, as so many needless writers have often idly questioned on such days… what is to be done? As accountability has been dismissed, and responsibility has been established as conditionally asserted, where do the fearful reader and the frightful writer take refuge? What of our natural need to perpetuate internal order? What of our desire to maintain calm in the creation of the tempest? What of our desire to artfully describe otherwise trite and useless fears? What is to be done with our ever-loathed fascination with resolution and completion?

So at first there was a mention to the middling sorts, was there not? What of them and their relation to this line of non-conformity? A reasonable question, though it is that even such speculation is lost upon them! As they sit in their comfortable middling homes, in sprawling and identical neighbourhoods, and as they enjoy their sprawling, identical intentions, and even when they scoff at our sprawling, identical ideas, they too consider what it is that they might to do. They too sense, despite their well-programmed conceptions of normalcy and propriety, that some one thing stands incorrect. Some one thing is out of sorts in their labours; some one thing is incongruent with their social obligations; some one thing is amiss in their inter-personal relations (or for that matter, desires); and most painfully of all, some many things are inappropriate when they look in the proverbial mirror – as so many have asked of them and as so many have been beheaded by such suggestion. It is, in all practicality, best to not bother with them, as they can not be saved in their current state of route boredom. They, as we, have no inert desire to be saved from themselves! Thus, they must disappear – and thus they so desire, my considerate reader…

Yet they have no desire to be free, as it were. Whilst they must disappear, it is in such a subtle degree of disguise as to prove useless, as they find refuge in slight deviation from the previous generation’s success. The middle class was born as such:

And it was, that the great and mighty immigrant arrived in such and such a year, and, having great love and care for his immigrant family, took up a profitable situation in the most decrepit and unfortunate of employment; that the immigrant’s joys, pains, and sufferings were relayed in the first tongue and translated to the now ‘native’ child in an other regard; that this ‘heir’ inevitably cleverly conceived of a vague notion of perpetuity, so as to provide for his progeny; and within a century’s time (or less) the great-grandson might too rub elbows with those who had, in similar generational fashion, once enslaved and degraded the forbearer of the coal miner, or the tailor, or the wine merchant, or the dung-mongerer, or the convict in chains. And thus have they arrived in the Suburban dream World! At last they too can purchase the treasures of old at new, reduced prices!

I am the last to discourage or disapprove of a man who, for which ever reason or by what ever means, wishes to disappear… far from it. Yet, I am hard pressed to approve of an intent to recreate within plasticated lines, and I should do better than to condone careless accumulation in the name of achievement that ‘would have otherwise been denied to them, elsewhere.’ To assert that one would have been denied some thing some where else is a defense of inequity – and to that effect a plea for unworthy recognition.

Thus, the middle class is to be completely disregarded. For they seek to ignore their cousins who are tied to poverty, and they greedily assert claim to accumulate the wealth of their new-found friends. The middle class is a peculiar and unfortunate station in life, for it is a singular caste which is comfortable in social relativity supported by mediocre economic sustenance – all the while utterly dependant upon some foolish hope for better times and more advantageous means. As much as it pains me to think it, the lower classes have far too many practical burdens, while the so-called upper classes have no care for either of the two lesser categories other than might be found in a moderately interesting political essay. Indeed, it is only from the middle that it was conceived of lesser and greater, and it was only from the middle that political right could ever be established by these means.

Ultimately, this has been a poor and incomplete discussion. Those who are troubled to read such utterances will (and should) dismiss them, even if eventually. I fear that I have taken a middle ground in this vein, and that I run the risk of having become that which I seek to remedy. Then, if any one thing should be done, it would wisely be that such dialogue and nonsensical thought be continued, and then debated, and then defeated, until there is no longer a lesser, middle, and upper ground of perspective. It should be well desired that only one perspective should be necessary, though never could it be established that any perspective would in turn dominate such conversation. Thus, I leave you with my apologies for this exercise in banality, and pray your forgiveness for its lack of certainty, which I know you so warmly desire.

Yours, etc…

Kitaev

April 21, 2009

Free Trade and Columbia

The WSJ reports that President Obama might me more inclined towards free trade then either the left or right would like to believe. In this article, he appears committed to trading with Columbia. Money quote:

At the Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain, Mr. Obama asked to be seated next to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and the pair discussed the deal, U.S. officials said. During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama had voiced opposition to the pact, citing violence toward labor organizers in Colombia. The deal, which would allow free trade between the two nations, is awaiting ratification in the U.S. Senate and has already been approved by Colombia's congress.

Since taking office, Mr. Obama has struck a more-positive tone on free trade than he often did during the campaign. He and aides have spoken out against protectionism, and in Mexico last week he declined to raise the question of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite a pledge to do so last year.

Even so, the President's about-face on NAFTA (with I am pleased with) reminds us how much of a politician the man really is. I'm sure Columbia knows this.

100 Million = Bread Crumbs

Andrew Sullivan thinks that yesterday's request from President Obama is a fair response to the various tax/tea rallies from last week:
Yeah, it was pathetic in the grand scheme of things. But I thought it was a good sign that Obama understands totally valid concerns about future debt. If the tea-parties did nothing but remind Washington that many people out there do care about deficits and debt and spending - and rightly so - then you can almost forgive the opportunism and shrillness and amnesia about the last eight years that came with them. Still, it's only fair to give Obama some lee-way during his first year on long-term entitlement reform. He's pledged to tackle it, and better to keep him to that than to lob bombs and throw hissy fits right now.
I agree with Sullivan in a few ways, although I would be lying if I didn't scoff outright on the President's taking such spending cuts as serious. Andrew is also right is scoffing at the tea-parties sudden, blistering outrage over spending. Perhaps it is a good thing that Obama is at least acknowledging this outrage. It still seems, however, that his presidency remains a well run public relations operation. The fact of the matter is that this spending cut does little, if anything, for the American public.

Obama most likely understands that this anti-tax rhetoric is more than simple anti-left sentiment. People are scared--not only about the jobs they've lost, the mortgage they can no longer afford--that their government might start handing out money like tic-tacs with little if any real conception of how it might me utilized let alone restricted in the future. People don't hate entitlements. They hate entitlements that don't go away.

Harvard Economics Professor Greg Mankiw Provides this analogy:
To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had to be cut? By $3 over the course of the year--approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year.

April 19, 2009

Don't Tread on Me

This week, Texas declared (rather re-affirmed) its decision to from the union. I enjoy state's rights as much as the next fella, but need I remind Texas that the last group of state who decided to leave the union were forcibly "re-welcomed" back? Now the far-right Free Republic champions Oklahoma's recent resolution re-affirming their constitutional state sovereignty:
House Joint Resolution 1003 was authored by Republican Representative Charles Key of Oklahoma City and was championed in the Senate by Republican Senator Randy Brogdon of Owasso.
"The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp," the legislation reads.

"We now have an opportunity to be the first state to have it signed it into law," Key added. "Once the resolution is on the governor’s desk, I hope he will quickly sign House Joint Resolution 1003 into law. I also hope that when it is distributed to President Barack Obama and other elected officials of the federal government that they will recall the oaths to the United States Constitution that they all took and take heed.”
Can we possible be hopeful of any chance of Texas annexing Oklahoma? That would be awesome.

Earth Day

I am not sure how I might be able to explain my dislike for Earth Day; maybe I am skeptical that the sun's future implosion cannot be halted by recycling or perhaps I just really hate hemp. I suppose I just find it a little silly to take one day out of the year to celebrate the planet we live on every day of the year.

The environmentalist might say that is a perfect reason to keep one's mind anchored on conservation year-round. The skeptic-capitialist, however, rightly sees Earth Day as a means to simply sell t-shirts each year.

Beyond Introduction

Such a blog might only serve to keep one feeling as if his ideas are not know only to himself. That is all the introduction necessary I'd suppose. Key players will be introduced soon, once assembled and having given consent.