biotic corporatese

“stores remain an integral part of our omnichannel retail ecosystem”________________________ that overwrought statement comes from a press release from a “retail giant” announcing the now routine closing of “brick and mortar” stores…aside from wondering what committee is assigned the task of thinking this final vocabulary up ( and it is nothing If not final vocabulary ) i am inclined to think it is also an extension of the systematic attempt to make corporations biotic…alive…like the use of the term “ corporate dna “, “retail ecosystem” attributes living characteristics to an anthropogenic structure attempting to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts…which is a necessity since some of the parts are vanishing…the propaganda slant is that the vanishing is engendering a “healthier” situation…relativistic…does “healthier “ mean a more stable financial situation or is it symptomatic of “ecosystem” failure? the corporate “ecosystem” has become far more complex than its beginnings would have indicated… when the republic was young corporations were chartered for a specific purpose ( say road or canal building ) and for a limited duration ( once the road was complete the corporation ceased to exist )…they could not own other corporations or assets unrelated to their chartered purpose, nor could they make political or charitable donations ( no owned senators or corporate pr about how wonderful they are because of their good works as they take all the money they can )…not anymore…corporations are now recognized as “individuals” invested with rights ( one wonders about where the ”obligations” that generally are listed with “rights” have gotten to in this case ) and they behave like “individuals”, some of whom display a marked sociopathy in their self-interest…in their relentless approach to competitors ( especially smaller ones ) and their disregard for laws that might limit their prerogatives in seeking profit ( this i can document from personal experience…and here we encounter the suspension of early prohibitions in the area of political donations…money and power are fungible and money can make things disappear as well as appear )…and the ethics of seeking that profit are shaky at best…there is a singular focus on credit, especially in-house credit with a good deal of propaganda concerning the benefits while concealing the costs ( frankly i think debt is a national political agenda…a fair portion of the political establishment finds social spending an anathema and that would be because it mitigates at least part of what would be debt for the less privileged among us…debt is the only thing that makes new money [interest] and debt peonage where all the polity can afford to do is service interest on their debt in perpetuity is capital’s dream state of affairs ) and they spare no expense on advertising ( read propaganda again ) that subverts the consumer’s sense of value by striving to convert the discretionary into the necessary…corporations are not sociopaths...they are a legal screen ( and defense ) for the authoritarian ( admit it, all corporate structures are top-down authoritarian regimes and any leadership that they puke out into the public sphere is bound to be of an authoritarian bent ) sociopaths who create and control them…capital loves money and will go to almost any lengths to acquire as much as they can because ( again ) money and power are fungible…we all need to consume to survive and i am not innocent of “discretionary spending” that is not directly tied to subsistence ( clearly so since I am posting this on a website via a computer on my desk…that’s a start )…we are all embedded in “the system” and extrication is not a simple matter since some of what was once discretionary has actually become necessary…gasoline for instance…or electrical power…what can you do without electricity? my neighborhood empties out when there is an outage as people seek television and free wi-fi…we’re all wired in…opting out is a challenge.

what do you do?

in "the wealth of nations" adam smith uses the manufacturing of pins to illustrate how division of labor makes induistrial production more efficient...each operation in the process being done by one laborer..and in "democracy in america" alexis de tocquville agreed it was more efficient but wondered about the impact on the laborer asking "what can one expect of a man who has spent twenty years of his life putting the heads on pins"...a question of mind numbing deskilling and one that could lead to the opinion of that gibbering elitist edmund burke when he said "the occupation of hairdresser or of a working tallow chandler cannot be a matter of honor to any person to say nothing of other, more sevile, employments."...so how is it that there is a fair segment of the polity that makes judgements on the intrinsic worth of individuals based on how they earn a living? admittedly in what they call a clulture here, the question of what do you want to be when you grow up

( i aplogize for the quality of this graphic...it was the best i could manage ) creates the model for that judgement from an early age...and, for some, play is no escape...

i have driven a truck, worked in industrial manufacturing for decades, and now hold what passes for a retirement "job" in recieving for a "major retailer"...is that the ultimate measure of my worth? i am also a parent and a grandparent and i hold 156 succcesfully completed undergraduate hours...there must be some merit in that...isn't there more to all of us beyond "what we do"? okay, humans like to compare themselves to others to see how they stack up...there has to be a better graduation than occupation/net worth...what is that actually a measure of? i have to think it is basically an index of how much we can acquire in the way of material goods...how deep we can dive into the consumerist sump...i am unaware of your circumstances, but i already have more "stuff" than i can use between now and when i shuffle off this mortal coil...beyond, possibly, food i don't need anymore...that is a matter of complete indifference to capital...need or not it is sure to come...and at whose expense? another can of ethical worms slithering about...what i "do" is central to my ability to consume...and as far as the hegemons are concerned that is half of my reason tio exist...the other half is to work and create "added value" that can be siphoned off as profit through stock portfolios and tax evasion by the above hegemons...they have a distinct interest in focusing my attention on what i "do" from an early age ...they want you to ponder it deeply as well...to compare yourself...to strive for more "stuff"...they reap most of the wealth from that and it has been that way, on one level of consumption or another, through most of recorded history...i don't know about you, but i am "stuffed".

it's 2023...isn't it?

depends...contingency ( there's that word again...inescapable ) is at work here...all you need to do is look at time zones to realize clock time is an arbitrary system of both command and control ( what time is it and when do i have to be at work? ) and an effort to give a framework to the experienced elasticity of time..."time flies when you're having fun" and boredom is a defense against toxic social situations...either way, time is not consitent in its passing...calendars are not fo much more use...it's not even christmas yet in the julian calnedar and new years isn't for another thirteen days..although it will be 2023 on the fourteenth...it's the year 230 in the french revolutionary ( which i am told is actually a misnomer ) calendar and new years was on the twenty-second of this past september...on the eighteenth of july ( the first of muharram ) the islamic claendar turned over to the year 1444 while the jewish calendar made it to the year 5783 on rosh hashanah ( the twenty fifth of this past september )...so who actually knows what year it is or how quickly...or slowly ( or an admixture of the two ) whatever year you choose to believe it is will pass? time isn't really very well defined...commerce runs on clock time...nature on event time ( a version of time far more closely related to reality...ask my asparagus )...and when i assert chronal autonomy it passes in a variety of ways ( usually quickly )...whatever your year is here's hoping it is a better one than the last and that you get, at least, some measure of equanimity and some of what you fancy...however you view it your alotted time isn't getting any longer.

the municpality as HOA

the citing official was reasonable and as polite as was possible given the situation...he also, willfully or not, telegraphed that one of my neighbors was involved when he told me to make what i planned to do "neat and tidy so no one complains"...so much for neighborliness...i will also say that he was passing out citations for alley violations all down the block so it was not a case of singling out...and the third point was there was a considerable amount of detritus from the great elm collapse of 2019...and with that we have exhausted any points that might favor the municpality...they gave me five days ( until christmas...thoughty of them ) to conform or "tickets will be issued as soon as the sixth day"...this one can accept since it would involve revenue...i was off today so i cleaned up...

i established a pile by the street per the instructions i was given...well with in the five days...if the municpality has not retrieved it by the 26th i will be firm in my belief they owe me money...they will not see it as such...and i am inclined to belive they will not be picking this lot up any time soon either since the weather is due to take a turn for the arctic ( even if it is warming )...where the municpality has veered completely off course ( due i believe to one of my whiny neighbors ) is insisting we deconstruct the bush pile my wife has constructed as winter bird habitat...

note the number of filled bird feeders and the birdbaths ( including one "heated" [even though it is only "heated" enough to keep the water liquid ] birdbath ) which are meant to sustain any number and variety of birds...the brush is shelter...i believe the mayor is in for an earful over this and rightly so...there are limits to what the polity should coutenance from politicans...what next? cut down the hawthorn in the front yard? change the siding color? move the house three feet to the left? the municpality is not a homeowners association even if my neighbors feel it should be...we will se how this unwaranted intrusion pans out and i will be posting a photo of the pile from the alley...which,ironically, the birds will use as shelter as long as it is there...on social media every day the municipality negelcts to come collect it...one supposes to be fair i should only start on the 26th...i am not feeling all that disposed to give the municpality any benefit at this moment...we will see where my attitude is at tomorrow...as it stands right now they can all go pound sand

papal pretentions

earlier this morning michelle goldberg's column in the new york times ( on line, it isn't in the print edition ) carried this lede...

however when i logged back on this was the new lede...which is just as well since i was having difficulty with the idea that the times editorialists were just now familiarizing themselves with the narcissistic element in politics...i have to think there is at least a touch of narcissism at any level of leadership, coprporate or otherwise, and this would of necessity be a bit more pronounced in the more public and popularity ( even chartisma? ) based world of politics...and , one supposes, the farther up the political hierarchy one examines the more fully embraced narcissim is ( as we have seen in the recent white house denizen )...no lack of hubris in the political world..."i am the decider" was a fully dubya way of expressing it...however it does extend a bit farther back into the history of the office...nixon was paranoid and obsessed with his historical reputation to the point of criminality...and, among other blatant howlers, he said , " i would have made a good pope"...despite his quaker aposticism...even deeper, martin van buren penned a 776 page autobuography...always an element of narcissim in that and i wonder who, exactly, has read it ( to be clear i have not...i am simply admiring the fact that he could find 776 pages of personal detail to write about...must have been a wonderful life )...that krysten sinema should be labeled an narcissit is probably not much of a deviation from fact...so is shumer and that jerk mcconnell...and the rest of the zoo in the nation's capital ( and let us not overlook the jibbering bozos downstate here )...i am simply surpried the times was alert enough to identify its error and send the offending lede down the memory hole.

uncivil

“War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.” — GEORGE ORWEL_____ “Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” ― Adam Smith _____ "They don’t want us to feel safe. They don’t want us to be safe."_________ ___ let me preface this by saying we have a right to be who we are in so far as that being does not interfere with, or terminate, another's right to be...clearly a much easier to propose than to put into effect and there are, i think, readily discernable reasons why this is so...the last statement above is from an op-ed piece in today's new york times...in response to the shootings at clob q in colorado...and i agree that there are elements in this society that do not want the lgbtq community to be safe, or feel secure...they want them nervous and marginalized and afraid to speak out...all true...it is also far too specific...they...and by they i mean the hegemonic culture...the wealthy elite who are actually in control, as far as anyone can be, of events and direction...they want us all nervous and marginalized and afraid to speak out...they don't want us "comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too inteeligent."...they want us balkanized..divided and at one another's throats...the more bitterly violent the better...and why so? "security of property" ( and its fungible counterpart, power )"defense of the rich against the poor"..."those who have some property against those whao have none at all"...if we are utterly divided by pro life/choice/straight/gay/black/white/coke/pepsi/ford/chevy/budlite/millerlite/second amendment/gun control...we will never stop to ask why, exactly, it is those who are in control should be...one suspects that they would equate wealth with intelligence and hence say merit...i would be inclined to equate wealth with greed and capacity to do whatever is necessary to retain wealth ( see smith ) and its fungible counterpart, power...there is a civil war going on here and it is ourselves who are inflicting it on ourselves at the behest of the 1% ...wealth is self-absorbed, profoundly arrogant, and willing to kill in its own defense...or use someone else to do it for them

information? manipulation? profit.

“In opulent and commercial societies, besides, to think or to reason comes to be, like every other employment, a particular business, which is carried on by very few people, who furnish the public with all the thought and reason possessed by the vast multitudes of that labour. Let any ordinary person make a fair review of all the knowledge which he possesses concerning any subject that does not fall within the limits of his particular occupation, and he will find that almost everything he knows has been acquired second hand. From books…a very small part of it only, he will find, has been the produce of his own observations or reflection. All the rest has been purchased, in the same manner as his shoes or his stockings, from those whose business it is to make up and prepare for the market that particular species of goods. It is in this manner that he has acquired his general ideas concerning the great subjects of religion, morals, and government, concerning his own happiness or that of his country.”-Adam Smith from a 1767 draft of The Wealth of Nations.______________________________________________________________________few- not many, hardly any, a small number___employment-business, paid work, an activity in which a person is engaged, a person's trade, profession, or occupation.___business- commercial transactions or engagements, total bookings or receipts.___prepare- make ready, assemble.___species- a class of things having some common qualities or characteristics.___goods- saleable commodities, mechandise, wares.___market- the action or business of buying and selling, a commercial transaction.___purchased- aquired by payment. ( all definitions from the "shorter [only 500,000 definitions] oxford english dictionary" )______________________________so then a relatively few individuals ( campared to the general population ) make it a commercial enterprise in pursuit of profit to assemble information ( the editor is not about style ) of a specific nature/slant/ viewpoint which becomes the commodity they in they vend in the "marketplace of ideas" to a specific audience ( we all have our commodity preferences...why not information...even if it eludes the facts ) which we then "purchase", probably both monetarialy and philosophiocally...if you can call media philosophical...i have my doubts...certain lack of ethics as with all capital...mid-eighteenth century media criticism via the scottish enlightenment...as a side note, the "invisible hand" does not appear in " the wealth of nations"...the "invisible hand" is the invisible hand of jupiter and its impact on the solar system that crops up in a book on astronomy adam smith wrote in the mid 1750s...if economists admitted they hadn't read it it would be amore honest world...then again economists lie every bit as much as politicians do...theologians of greed that they are...everything old is new again.