Pages Against the Machine

Keep your Thoughts and Prayers to yourself — they’re an insult. Every mass shooting is a political issue. I support the right to own firearms having grown up in a culture in which I was continually exposed to them, even having been on my middle schools rifle team. As a Kurd, I strongly believe that marginalized groups & leftists need to be armed for self defensive purposes. Despite “liking” guns, I have no illusions that they’re weapons & therefore do not “love” them as do so many on the right whom fetishize them. I disdain this bizarre “gun culture” here in the US & see it as a hallmark manifestation of the American id— The psychological root of the American Illness of gun obsession + shootings is ALIENATION due to the radical individualism so intwined in our mythology & fostered by our socio-economic system/media. Mass shootings are but one symptom. Across generations, the poison of white supremacy, subjugation, violence, & individualism have bred such toxicity, that unstable, desperate, & hate filled young men feel they’re entitled to enact some perverse sense revenge on society at large through the slaughter of innocents. We face a shameful moral dilemma in curtailing these atrocities while preserving the right to self defense. There’s no one fix all solution, yet there are regulations that should be implemented federally that could decrease the likelihood of mass shootings. Semi-automatic, center-fire rifles shouldn’t be sold to teenagers. Most states already require you to be 21 before you can legally buy a pistol. Background/psychological well-being checks should always required. Red flag laws need enacted for individuals under 30. My public high school had metal detectors & an armed guard. Probably not a bad idea. Also, all law abiding citizens should be able to conceal carry for self-defense after a thorough certification course. The unfortunate truth is that there are more guns than people in America & so there’s no way to prevent such tragedies, yet all actions must be taken to implement common sense regulations which the NRA has fought so hard against. Public Safety > Manufacturer Profiteering. Down with the NRA. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏿

Existential freedom is a heavy load to bear. We find ourselves in the peculiar situation of having been THROWN into a world we may not have chosen to be — after all, none of us had asked to exist… yet here we are… existing. This is the paradigm of which Sartre is articulating; that for whatever reason — if any — we came into the world, it is unknowable to us & was forced upon us. & given our high level of self awareness, we are FORCED TO CHOOSE who to become & what to place meaning upon. Sounds easy right? Well, think of all the times you couldn’t decide which restaurant to eat at or which movie to watch given endless options. Were there not times you just wished someone would’ve come along & decided for you? It seems that the more freedom one has, the harder making a decision becomes. ERICH FROMM details at length in his book “ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM,” the psychological reasons why individuals in bourgeois liberal societies are so willing to give up said freedoms in exchange for authoritarian rule. For it is much easier & comforting for the individual to conform their identity & their behaviors to something external — a fascistic movement, a religion, or a culture — than it is to take RESPONSIBILITY for defining one’s own existence. In exchange for one’s freedom, one obtains a shared identity & is presented with a blueprint on how to live, who to be, & what to ascribe meaning. This trade off often happens unconsciously & makes life appear easier as the path forward is clearly defined. The existentialist shuns such blind acceptance unless they’ve consciously CHOSEN it. For the business of the existentialist is that of consciously CREATING themselves in every moment & with every decision, rather than allowing themselves to be defined by mere circumstance. For meaning is not found in life, but rather it is constructed. This can be a revolutionary call to self empowerment & liberation despite its obvious conflict with Marx’s economic determinism. I believe that to truly be a radical — let alone a revolutionary — one must first & foremost become an Existentialist. Seize upon your existence, Comrades!

Proponents of Capitalism love proclaiming that “socialism” fails which is quite the claim given that Capitalism by necessity, depends upon aspects of socialism being implemented to prevent it from collapsing. Rife with endless contradictions, theoretical Capitalism inevitably self destructs. This is why even the most Capitalistic countries historically have had what are actually considered mixed economies, as without an interventionist government the system itself would face inevitable collapse and revolution. What’s a contradiction you ask? Inherent paradoxes and problems inescapable to a given system.  A major fundamental contradiction of capitalism is in regard to employment — The free market cannot and will never be able to provide total employment for every single citizen needing or looking for a job, b/c without any form of planning/coordination, there just isn’t a way to ensure that there will ever be enough positions available at any given time to keep up with the demand for work. At first this scenario actually benefits the employer because he can now find workers willing to produce for him for a lower wage given the scarcity of work. In the long run though, he will find that his determination to hire as few workers needed & at the lowest wages a bad idea. In his race to maximize the efficiency of the production of goods/output, he’ll find himself in a situation in which his workers are overproducing at a rate exponentially outpacing demand, particularly after he’s laid more and more of them off as machines have continually rendered certain jobs obsolete.  When less workers are working— and those that are working aren’t getting paid much — a point will be reached in which no one can afford to buy those products anymore and the entire value of said product will drop/the market will crash. The quest of the Capitalist for efficiency and maximizing profit will destroy his own business in the end. (Enter Imperialism) You see, Capitalism itself isn’t even the best system for an entrepreneur to start a business under for this reason and the fact that it is inherently monopolistic (a whole other story involving banks)

Think about a store and how absolutely full of stuff it is. Now think about how many times you’ve gone to that store over the course of your life and how full of stuff it was. Now think about how many of those stores there are in your town…. and your state… and your country… Now multiply all of those things together with how much stuff is found in each of those stores… and then every other single type of store ever having existed… Where does all of this stuff come from and where does it go? Truth is, is that it goes nowhere. It doesn’t magically disappear no matter how many landfills we dig or seas we dump it in. It just stays here on planet earth accumulating and accumulating from one generation to the next… How much longer can we keep this going until we finally run out of places to put it all — more importantly, until we run out of resources to make it all? No one knows. There is no plan. There is no concern. There is just consumption. So don’t worry, the free market will adapt to keep providing the solutions to the exponential problems and crises it continually creates and perpetuates. Just hold on tightly and buy more stuff Happy Black Friday!

History didn’t exclusively start in Europe. How absolutely unfortunate it is that we really only know half of the worlds history.

The Central Intelligence Agency — or more accurately, the Capitalist Insurgency Administration — operates independent of governmental control and accountability and is responsible for coups, assassinations, drug smuggling, death squads, torture, regime changes, and covert wars throughout the past century that has left the modern world very much fucked… Why you may ask? All to protect the interests of big business and free markets. Go on, Google “CIA regime change” and “CIA Foreign Elections” to learn about the 80+ times the CIA destroyed democracy and national sovereignty to protect the bourgeoisie of the world.

I find it particularly amusing that amidst the current “Chinese Scare” happening here in this country, there is a lot of talk in conservative media about how the Biden administration wants to move toward implementing a “social credit score” like that of the CCP. They proclaim that the assigning of a numerical score to an individual as to determine ones access to resources and societal benefits is tyrannical — that it’s absolutely unfathomable that a system like that could even exist… And yet… Here we are in America, with a system exactly like that already in place. A system that assigns a number to people that determines their economic fate; it affects ones ability to rent a house, ones ability to buy a car, get a mortgage, receive a loan, and even in some cases get a job. Our credit system here in the US is based upon financial worthiness and determines all the aforementioned things, including many others, all of which truly impact ones life and access to resources. It’s a fraud system no American ever got to vote on but rather just have implemented upon them by the banks and financial institutions that were handed control of our government. Our credit system oppresses people and reinforces an economic caste by cutting out large swaths of the population from the ability to maintain financial stability, build wealth and maintain wealth, start a business, and on and on. It allows for banks to charge vastly higher interest rates for those deemed less credit worthy — oftentimes those that are struggling with poverty and don’t have money to begin with. This perfectly reflects our neo-liberal paradigm in which those with the least end up having to pay the most whereas those with everything pay nothing. It’s a rigged bullshit system that needs destroyed. I for one much rather have a credit system that motivates people to be better members of society than one that reduces the entirety of an individual’s worth to their financial history. That ain’t freedom .

In the United States everything has been relegated to the market; we look at every basic human need from water to housing as a commodity rather than necessity. There was a time when housing in this country was affordable, particularly in California, and most anyone working a full time job was able to buy a house.  Then housing became a commercial enterprise and the whole idea of “flipping” houses became a thing middle class people started to do, inevitably leading to mass gentrification.  The government used to build massive public housing projects for lower income people to provide affordable housing — my family being a product of the “projects.” Then the government stopped that. Zoning Laws in cities were passed to prevent multi-residential buildings from being built in neighborhoods whose residents were naturally more concerned with increasing their homes property value than ensuring adequate housing stock. Wall St and the Banks fucked over millions of families post 9/11 with junk mortgages as a debt based money making racket; that collapsed and millions lost their homes in the aughts. Billions of dollars of foreign capital started pouring into the housing market buying up  houses in our big cities with straight cash offers — investments for rich foreigners that decrease supply and push up prices.    Then there is AirBnB — a double edged sword. On one hand it’s awesome but on the other it decreases supply. It’s also the only way a lot of people can buy now, expecting to rent to help cover their mortgages. Now millennials are entering the “market,” often already tens of thousands of dollars in college debt looking to buy “starter houses.” How fucking cringe — starter houses… more of the same BS The gov needs to intervene & pass laws to prevent the flow of foreign capital into our housing markets. There needs to be a federal low interest mortgage provider to ensure everyone can get a shot at home ownership. Rent control should be a nationwide mandate. Homelessness should be eradicated.  Rent should be tax deductible. Nowadays there are two types of people — those that can buy multiple houses with cash offers and those of us who can’t buy one at all.

Americans are fond of complaining about how voting is choosing between the lesser of two evils — And that’s the furthest they take their analysis choose to settling on the very American understanding of a battle of good .vs evil happening in our world… This is defeatist thinking as it allows for the individual to resign, accepting fate, given that there will always be a struggle between good and evil in the world in the Christian mindset.  The truth is that there is a far more accurate analysis of the situation and it has nothing to do with the generalized morality of Christianity but instead of class —  an analysis notably missing in the American consciousness. The deal is that we live in an invisible dictatorship. Sure we have some freedoms to criticize the government, go to church, and own a gun but how free is the average citizen? Not much at all. 6 in 10 Americans can’t cover $500-1k emergency. Few have adequate healthcare. Housing is hard to come by. Workers have zero say in how their corporations they work of are run. We don’t choose where our tax money goes. Our children are sent off to wars we don’t want. Workers don’t get vacation, adequate sick time, or maternity leave. College debt crushes students. Credit scores oppress and create castes. On and on and on — but you do have the freedom of voting!  You get the freedom to vote for one of two parties that represent one class — and you ain’t in it. How is it that we the majority of Americans allow for the minority of the super rich elite to rule over us against our Interests? Simple — it’s because their rule has largely remained invisible and they ensure to keep it that way.  They program and brainwash us into believing we are all free and prosperous, while behind the scenes they manipulate the entirety of the media and political system to perpetuate the lie and their rule. They’ll allow their propaganda media outlets and puppet politicians to lead us into civil war before they allow us to discover who the real enemy is — them, the ruling hidden classes hoarding and siphoning away all the worlds wealth. Enough is enough. Working peoples of the world must unite. This is our world too.

Down with the Militarized Drug Enforcement Industrial Complex waging a domestic war against us and our freedom here in the United States. - I could write a book on this and realized my original caption was turning into that — Instead, I’ll focus on the conversations in the comments. - I’m thinking I need to do a talk or podcast episode about this 🤔 _______________________ Book cover: “The Pleasure Seekers,” by Joel Fort

A call not to violence but action — it’s time to destroy the things of which we allow to oppress us — addictions, anxieties, traumas, destructive tendencies, low self esteem, feelings of inferiority, selfishness, consumerism, dead end jobs, cultural toxicity, state authority, and most importantly fear itself. A true revolutionary must win the struggle against themself— The Self of which has been constructed & programmed by the opposed system. To fearlessly examine/question ones beliefs, values, & behaviors to determine their authenticity or wether they’ve been implanted as a control mechanism is crucial The ruling classes have programmed us, the whole of Americans into to becoming individualistic consumers unable to conceive of ourselves as a mass, as a whole unified front of working people with unlimited power and agency over the future. Theyve conned us into willingly playing their game by their set of rules. Theyve brainwashed us into believing there are no alternatives to the system they designed. Theyve tricked us into believing that when we question inequality we’re envious & should be ashamed, that the taxation of the rich is theft rather than societal obligation, that their corruption is lobbying, that selfishness is a virtue, that systemic problems are personal responsibility issues, that government cant solve problems despite all evidence pointing 2 the contrary, that an ever growing police state is freedom, that starting wars is a moral imperative, that it’s ethical for a few individuals to enjoy all the benefits of society but not the rest, that the hoarding of all wealth by the few isn’t greed, that true criminals are poor people rather than those stealing and exploiting millions of others, that achievement and status are everything & those without it are lazy/failures, that work is life, that fame is the only path to acceptance, that life isn’t fair so why bother, that the acquisition of material abundance is happiness, that suspiciousness of everyone is rational, competition is better than cooperation, and the biggest lie of all — That if we just work hard enough & long enough for their exclusive benefit, we may too one day join the club.

The individual is a product of society whose mode of being is conditioned by the world around them. Enter this great invisible and modern unifying phenomena dictating how we interpret and interact with the world around us in real time — “the spectacle.” Capitalism has inadvertently created then poisoned the spectacle through selling us artificial ideas of what it means to be human through endless commercialization & consumerist propaganda. Our society is now sick. When a society is ill, the individuals within the society grow ill, as a polluted pond will inevitably kill the fish. This is an inescapable paradigm that conservative figures and thinkers downplay, ignore, or reject in favor of their liberal individualistic notions of selfhood. For the record — no amount of cleaning your room will fix the top down problems within our society as the Jordan Peterson’s proclaim. Conservatism writes off systemic issues and problems as merely issues and problems related to individual character and the mythos of personal responsibility. But our personal responsibility is to be toward each other — as demonstrated right out of the gate by our parents towards us upon birth… The truth is that we are not fragmented individuals separated by a quantifiable otherness but that… We — humanity, are a product of each other’s existence, messily and beautifully in-tangled in the whole of being. This is an inescapable fact. We don’t enter the world as clearly defined individuals, but as pure expressions of “being-for-itself “ re-emerging in a new form only to then drift into the mold of the world around us. Our identity & sense of self becomes derived & established based around the identities & selves of those surrounding us, all of which are governed by the overarching material conditions and historicity of the times. We are products — not individuals — with illusions of individuality. We define ourselves through our interactions with each other. For your well being dictates my own and my way of being in the world shapes yours, therefore we must commit to a mutualistic struggle for a better world, rather than strive for individualism and the emptiness it has to offer.