The Barbarians, The Prince and The 1%...

"Ultimately a society produces only two groups of men; the conditioners and the conditioned, the active and passive barbarians."

Lewis Mumford, 1951

Watching the documentary "Born Rich" by Jamie Johnson, raises questions about wealth, meritocracy and how the top 1% of the population own 90% of the assets of the USA.

A long thoughtful Blog with lots of LINKS for a cold winter nights reading...

The 99% are the Passive Barbarians - here are some statistics that may surprise you...

• 95% of the Global Population earn less than $40,000 per year - Source Kutoa

• 70% of Americans hate their jobs - Gallup June 2013

• 1 in 76 Americans are disabled by a mental disorder - an increase of 250% in 20 years, for children the increase in the same period is 3500%  - Angell 2011

• The average age for the diagnosis of depression is now 14  - Seligman 1998

• 23% of women between 40 & 59 are taking Antidepressants - CDC 2011

• Bipolar Disorder in children has increased by 4000% between 1994 and 2003 - NYTimes

The DSM - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - the Psychiatric professions "bible" for diagnosis was first published  by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952. DSM -1 included 106 disorders, by 1994 when DSM - 4 was published there were 365 diagnoses to chooses from - one for every day if the year...

In May 2013 DSM - 5 was published and while there were not many additional diagnoses to choose from, however, the qualification criteria for many flavours of mental illness have been reduced - especially when it comes to depression. 

This resulted in an open letter and Blog being published in the Huffington Post regarding the potential for Grief being diagnosed as depression during the first two weeks following the death of a family member... 

Also worthy of note is the fact that 69% of the DSM Task Force report having ties to the pharmaceutical industry...

So how does a political and financial "elite" numbering just 1% of the population manage to control 90% of the wealth and yet keep the other 99% from revolting against them and the system that enables them to flourish - simple - we call it Capitalism...

In order to control a herd there are some simple rules that have to be applied - for more information read  Machiavelli - The Prince 1517.

1. Compliance - laws, regulations and procedures must be enforced such that those falling outside the predicated norms are punished or removed from the herd.

You think you are free...? 

Look at what happened to Edward Snowden and Julian Assange when they attempted to publish a different version of the truth...

Radicals and Rebels will not be tolerated - VIDEO

2. Fragmentation - the members of the herd must be encouraged to fight amongst themselves such that they remain disorganised, thus reducing the threat to those in control.  

Religious Freedom will be encouraged - diversity and conflict between different tribes holding different but illogical beliefs in a variety of Sky Gods, under the control of Rule 1 keeps them from rising up under a common goal against the 1%.

The African Dinar -  why the USA actually went to war in Libya

3. Uncertainty - create waves of financial and economic uncertainty that destabilises the predictability of life for the members of the herd; where there is uncertainty there is dependency.

Making sure that the herd is shackled by debt from the Banks under the Government contrived scam of the Fractional Reserve system, controlled by the 1% ensures ongoing compliance - and consequential loss for those failing to payback the loans.

Get them early - make every aspirational job dependent upon the attainment of paper qualifications that can only be attained through student loans... 

Fear and uncertainty are the greatest motivators towards compliance.

How the 2008 Crash actually happened.

4. Control - ensure politics and governance are designed to support the objectives of the 1%.

When Governments manage the people, not lead or represent them, then the influence of the 1% can be effectively built in to the fabric of society - and the laws and protocols with which it should comply. 

Convince the Herd that they are ill if they are not able to cope - and then prescribe them drugs to control their behaviour accordinglyy...

Get rich producing Sugar - a no lose scenario for the 1%

5. Perfection - give them an impossible aspirational goal of perfection;  physical, mental and financial. Their perpetual, but ultimately futile, attempts at achievement will keep their focus away from challenging the very system that creates the false aspirations in the first place.

The Personal Wealth, Personal Development and the whole MLM industry is complicit here; from the selling of creams and potions to utilities and jewellery to the attendacen at mass rallies walking the Hot Coals with NLP Master Wizards; a sure fire way of keeping people out of mischief, whilst helping the Corporates make big profits.

It is a sad reflection of our world that those who earn just £12,000 per year are in the top 10% of  incomes worldwide - if you earn just £575 per year you are already in the top 50% of incomes worldwide...

We hold the Trumps, Kardashians and Buffets in such high esteem that we forget we are not here to simply get rich and famous - but to live healthy productive lives that will ensure that our future generations actually have a planet in our solar system that we live on...

Be part of our own 1%...

In the USA, around 7% of the population has a criminal record and 1 in 15 have spent time in Prison - so if you go to see an NFL game with 80,000 spectators, you could be sitting amongst 5,600 convicted felons, and over 5,000 ex cons...

There is another group calling themselves the 1% - the outlaw bikers - these are the rebels and radicals who choose to fight the Rules of the Herd and go it alone..

We too can become our own 1% - the mavericks who don't buy into the Rules of the Herd, who can actually make a difference to our lives and those around us - we don't fit in, we don't comply and we are all unemployable...

We are the Entrepreneurs - we have that dull ache in the back of our minds that tells us that we somehow don't fit with the society that we have inherited, that we should live on the outside and go our own way.

No longer the Passive Barbarians we are motivated and inspired Barbarians who work, live and love on the fringes - a fractured gang of leaderless breakaway radicals who have the ability to change the world.

It's the responsibility of our 1% to change the world - 97% of the population of Village Earth are out there waiting for us to step up...