FIAT NATION

If America Backs Your Currency, Then What Backs Your Nation?

We talk about money every day. We need it and we use it but we never stop to think about what it is. Money has been assigned positive and essential value in our minds but we never stop the think about what it truly is. "Money is money," people will say, a reflexive and circular way of looking at it.

A dollar is just paper and cotton fibers. By itself it is pretty worthless. But it represents something else, something that is said to have value. So, money is not value but a representation of it.

Once upon a time, a dollar represented a dollar's worth of gold or silver. This was the Gold Standard. Literally, you could go into a bank a redeem a dollar for a dollar's worth of gold.

For 167 years, the U.S. lived and prospered without a Central Bank. Then in 1913, Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, made a deal with the devil, and agreed to one. Since then, we have had depressions, recessions, bubbles and economic chaos.

The Federal Reserve System is not a federal agency, nor is it a completely private bank. It is a banking cartel whose rules are enforced by partnership with your government but not for your benefit. The government protects the banks in the cartel.

Is it a coincidence that the IRS and the Fed were voted in together? After these laws, the government had to ask the Fed for money and the Fed would print it. And it used the new Income Tax to collect funds for deposits. This changed Wall Street, allowing it to create a business of currency manipulation and trading in financial commodities.

The Bank held sway over everything and hammered anyone who got in their way. Then in the 1960's, we had a cultural revolution like none other in modern history. And among the many things the new generation questioned was the viability of the Fed and the purpose of Wall Street. These new radicals elected a young President who shared their concernes.

Executive Order 11110 was issued by this new President, John F. Kennedy on June 4, 1963. It allowed the U.S. Treasury to print its own money for the first time in half a century. This new currency, was backed by silver and called Silver Certificates.

Five short months later, on November 4, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. Lyndon Johnson rescinded Executive Order 11110 on the flight from Texas to D.C. after he was sworn in. Kennedy's body was even cold yet. 

Later, Richard Nixon, a favorite of the banking cartel, was elected in 1968 and took us off the Gold standard, in 1971 making the dollar a fiat currency.

Fiat money is a currency that has value only because of government regulation or law. The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning "let it be done", as such money is established by government decree. "Fiat" in the modern sense really means "fuck it."

So in essence, our money is backed by no tangible thing with inherent value. It is the value of our goverment that props up our money.

But what props up our government? Well, it used to be family, faith, intelligence and a patriotism based on the aforementioned qualities. Now we have familes in crisis, self-centered religion, a celebration of ignorance and we've turned "I love America" into a suspect statement.

Money is only as good as its country.

A country is only as good as its people.

People are only as good as their values.

We now live in a Fiat Nation, a country whose foundation is the weakened values of a citizenry represented by a leaders who've been bought by the banks. And this is so because we haven't stopped hating each other long enough to demand better.

But there is hope and it comes in the form of old style protest. The media, the government and liberals blasted the Tea Party. The media, the government and conservatives now blast Occupy Wall Street. Both movements are a manifestation of the people to give substance to a fiat America. Our protest, our anger and yes our patriotism are the value that back the currency of our nation.

We are the Gold.

Let's reclaim the Standard.

copyright 2010

AMERICAN BRAINWASH

Herman Cain hit upon something that so many Republicans and Democrats are afraid to say because saying it leads to a bigger truth.

"Black people have been brainwashed!" said Herman Cain. It was a provocative statement, but he did not go far enough. We are all brainwashed. Our country is not in the hands of the people or our elected representatives anymore. We all know it but refuse to stand against the banks and corporations and choose instead to hate each other. How's that working out by the way?

But specifically, as to Black America, Cain is absolutely correct. We have followed Democrats down the rabbit hole of freedom but have little to show for it. We believe Republicans block our progression but when Democrats do things that hurt us, we either deny it happened or we blame others.

Get the anti-detergent, I am here to un-wash your brain with a little story about your country.

ONCE UPON A TIME, Black America loved Republicans. This was the party of Lincoln, the party who went to war with their brothers and died to end slavery. No matter what the revisioninsts say, the Civil War was about the sin of slavery and no matter what Democrats say, their party wanted to keep us in bondage.

Then after the war, America thrived and the Republicans, now in power thanks in part to black votes, aligned with wealthy industrialists, banks and companies. They took the dark people for granted, allowing Jim Crow, lynching, discrimination and a further disintegration of America's good heart. The Democrats fell to ruin.

The Black people got tired of this treatment, especially when the country went into a Great Depression. So, we realigned ourselves with the Democrats, the guys who loved slavery and everything about it and fought to the death to keep it. Talk about the lesser of two evils.

After this, the Democrats got behind the dark people, but only to the extent it took to use their millions of votes to keep power. Democrat FDR served 4 terms using black votes, died in office and the Republicans were so afraid that we amended the Constitution to stop a President from becoming a king.

Since then, Blacks have voted overwhelmingly Democratic. Politics have cast Republicans as the devil, the people who hate Black America and Democrats have been cast as the lovers of Blacks, the people who just want everything to be fair and to make up for the sins of the past.

Both notions are completely false.

The Republicans are trying to reset American values back to the days when we put God first and believed that our nation was favored because our Constitution contained basic Christian values at its core. Unfortunately, the reset also carries with it the implicit desire by many to place Blacks and others in eternal second-class citizenship and maintain a corporate power structure that reinforces this notion. Sorry conservatives, but you know this is true you just don't think it will apply to you. You are wrong.

The Republicans tell you you can do it without the government's help but then they stack the deck against you so you will fail by providing no protection against the evil hearts of men which they claim to abhor but which their policies covertly support.

The Democrats are trying to move America forward, to accept the changing culture and economy and fit it to the cause of Americanism. Unfortunately, their progressivism is an ideological dodge. The Democrats, like the Republicans are the tools of corporate America and the big banks and their paternalistic and condescending attitude toward Blacks have kept us in cycles of poverty, incarceration and stagnation.

The Democrats give you a Black President and then refuse to support him. Then when he fails you, they ask you to hate Republicans because you know, they are evil.

The Democrats tell you that you need them to get to freedom and they will protect you from the evil men but then they secretly stack the deck against you so you will fail and then they blame it on their enemies and nothing changes.

Black people hold a strong belief that history shows you the truth. America's historical treatment of Blacks says it all. If we believe this, then the history of the two parties gives us reason to doubt them or to consider them equally. If this logic fails you, then I submit that you are indeed brainwashed.

America is not perfect. Our Founders wanted us to keep working on it, to create "A more perfect Union." And we are doing it-- slowly. But we must not be fooled by divisive politics which divorce us from the truth: that our inherent power as citizens is the heart and soul of this nation.

So, toss your brain into the machine. Bypass "white" and "colors' and set it on "tough stains."

America will be great again, when we are.

copyright 2011

REALITYSHIP

Marriage And Relationships Are Never Going To Be What They Were, So We Should Concentrate On What They Can Be.
Relationships between American men and women are at an all time low. As the marriage rate declines, divorce and vitriol have risen. Since 1970, the marriage rate has been in free-fall according to The National Marriage Project and if the trend continues, unmarried couples will be the norm.

If marriage isn't working, then we need to examine not just the institution but the basic relationship that underlies it and we cannot be afraid of theorizing about ways to solve the problem.

With this in mind, I believe that the western version of the 20th Century "relationship" is now obsolete and in the 21st century, what people need is nothing less than a new paradigm of intimate interpersonal connection.

We need a Realityship. (C) 2011

Realityship - noun.. 1. An intimate interpersonal involvement which is commensurate with true nature, the limits of love and the necessity of respect and friendship. 2. A relationship devoid of hypocrisy and devoted to longevity. 3. Gary Hardwick's latest brain fart.


So, what does this mean? Well first, it means the end of marriage.

For most of history, marriage was more or less a business agreement between two families who set up the marriages of their children. Romantic love, and even simple affection, were not considered essential.

Monogamous marriage is now an old institution and now that we don't die at 35, people find it hard to sustain. You didn't live long enough to get tired of each other, then suddenly we did. (Thank you modern medicine!) So once we lived longer, we invented no-fault divorce, community property and ushered in The Age Of The Disposable Relationships. This has led to The Children Of Divorce who have since sent divorce rates, birth rates and psychological analysis soaring.

I know this is jarring. Most of the people in my generation were the product of marriages. It's all we knew and what we were taught to want one for ourselves. The baby boomers are the first generation to falter in our quest for lasting matrimony. But if we can accept that in our lifetime, we have gone from rotary phones to satelite-phones, from TV tubes to flat screens and from landing on the moon to landing on Mars, then we can certainly conceive that the next generation will not need a relationship theory that does not work for them.

I know what you're thinking.

"Marriage doesn't need to change: we do. People are selfish, weak, narcissistic and love shitty reality shows and bad music, that's the real problem, man! Also, you heathen, it is obvious that marriage is failing because people are losing faith in the God whose Word marriage is based on."

If this is true, then how successful have we been in changing people by reversing societal evolution to fit long-standing convention which has fallen from popular favor?

The answer is never. Society changes, the tradition falls and a new one is built from the old. And as for the religious argument, it's a long story but my sentiments are pretty much expressed here.

The goal instead should be a friendship, a sharing of resources and in the advent of a child, a life-bond and commitment to that child that takes precedence over the couple's individual desires.

With 75% of black children born out of wedlock and 52% overall, it is clear to anyone who is watching that people are giving up on marriage but still want children. But if parents don't form some kind of alliance in favor of that child, we are lost.



We've all been taught that marriage comes first then the rest and if you go against that order, then there's something wrong or bad about you. But at this point in time, we can no longer live and judge by a code which bears no impact on reality. Either we accept that society is changing or we accept that we are all a pack of devils who are going to Hell in a handcart in which case all of this is moot.

So what are the rules of a Realityship? So glad you asked.

Men cannot trade sex or extended adolescence for responsibility to family. At some point, a man has to become an adult and do adult things. Running from a stable relationship and the care of children will only find you old, alone and bitter. Men who abandon their kids take away a negative psychological baggage that ruins them and poisons everything else they touch. And under this burden, men crumble succumb to weakness and pathology and become the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Women cannot trade their most fertile and productive years for the fallacy of male equality. Women and Men are not equals anymore than apple and oranges are. Legally yes, women and men should be seen as equals but the social notion is a trick that tells women to trade female power for male attributes which they can never possess and do not need. The result is a Sisyphean-like social life where women struggle to "have it all" and end up with nothing. (See Faludi, Susan Backlash.) Women should instead seek to increase societal respect for female power which men and women have been trained to see as inherently inferior.

We must respect the time value difference of the sexes. A single woman at 40 is a very different thing than a single man at 40. A young woman is ripe; a young man is green. A woman's youthful years are more critical than a man's especially if she wants to have children. The upshot is, if you want to have children, don't think you have twenty years to do it and men don't waste a woman's time with bullshit. If you don't know what you want, do her a favor and keep it moving.

Children take precedence over personal animosity. Not much to say here. We clearly know now that kids are the only losers when parents are stupid.

Chivalry and Modesty must return as accents to romance. Without a silly tug of war with women over pettiness, men can afford to be a gentlemen again. And women can afford to accept this behavior as a tribute to their charm. If no one seeks to take advantage, then everyone has an advantage. And yes, I know this is easier said than done.


And the big one, we must at last, leave behind juvenile notions of sexuality. Every man I know who left his wife and family to get some "new stuff" has ultimately regretted it. And every woman I know who divorced a man because he "cheated on her" has regretted it. In both cases, the men and women find that the people they hooked up with next were no better than the ones they left and the value of sexual fidelity can't pay a bill, raise a child or keep you happy.

Let me be clear. A couple would have the option to take themselves out of penis and vagina prison and spur the notion that you go to hell for sleeping with people because you broke some cosmic or divine rule of copulation. You see, the people who are going to screw up were going to to it anyway and we have thousands of years of history to prove this is true. I know it will ruin TV, film and books but it's a small price to pay.

So how would this work as a practical matter?

Leslie and Steve both want kids but neither of them wants the perceived hypocrisy of an institutionalized, religious-influenced sexually-limited union. So they put all of their cards on the table and agree to support their kid and live together or in near proximity. As long as both are reasonable and committed to the child, and each execute mutual wills, it should work.

This is usually the place where I put my last pithy remark and close with some "How clever am I?" but I'm afraid I don't have one this time.

By the way, I still hope things will get better. I still hope that people will somehow magically be propelled by love, passion, faith and family. I hope that men and women will find some kind of power to defeat our proclivity to attract then destroy. And I hope we will learn to put our natural tendencies aside or at least learn how to hide them better. But most of all, I believe in the resilience of human beings and I know somehow, we will find a way to make it all work.

Copyright 2010

TO LOVE, FALSE GODS AND ALUMINUM FOIL

Today Let Us Remember That Love Is More Than A Notion.

There's an old joke that the most confusing day in the black community is Father's Day. The joke is funny because under the irony and sting there is truth.

And if it's true, then Valentine's Day can be the most depressing day.

Each year as the day approaches, legions of people face the terrible moment when they realize they have no Valentine, no love. Sure, you may have your children, a friend, your mother but what about LOVE, romantic love, sexual love, love that makes you blush when you recount it? Well, that's the problem. Many are living without it or with poor substitutes for it.

Which brings me to the title of this piece. Many years ago, I wrote a bad poem with this title. In essence, it said that there was Love with a capital "L" and then there was the False God of love, a poor substitute which was presented as Love but was really like aluminum foil, smooth, pretty to look at but as soon as you applied any pressure it wrinkled, cracked and fractured, showing its frailty. ( I know, but I admitted it was a bad poem)

Love is elusive, fickle and indescribably beautiful. It is not one emotion but all of them tailored to an individual and perhaps moments in time. Love started life, straightened our spine and taught us to walk upright, it built cities then tore them down and it has propelled human beings through chaos that has washed away all the lesser species. It is rare and there isn't a lot of it in our world--




But there's a lot of aluminum foil.

So as we celebrate this day let us look past the false gods of love. Let us shun those who write eternal checks to God that their asses can't cash, then leave their children loveless. Let us condemn those who fill life's promise with lies with hidden selfishness and leave those who loved them unrequited.

We must remember that the First Love was a spark of pure energy, a notion that illuminated the universe and made order of nothingness. It filled the heart of its own creation and allowed a lowly species to dream of civilization, nobility and greatness.

And later, this same love sustained a humble priest named Valentine as he was tortured to renounce his faith but would not and died a martyr on February 14th.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Copyright 2011