No system may be the motivating cause of human behavior, but don't
forget that every system does restrict which behaviors may be acted upon
and that when the objective conditions make certain human behaviors
impossible then those behaviors will not happen.
On 7/3/2018 9:17 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Right. No System is the motivating cause of human behavior
It might help us solve the problem if we stopped allowing ourselves to
be led by the nose, and became Questioning Vigilantes.
The mark of a good citizen is one who participates in his/her
government. By participating, I mean much more involvement than
voting once every two years.
It makes no sense to me, this habit of allowing other people to think
for us, without questioning what they are doing, who benefits, who
does not benefit, and the impact on our total economy and security.
If I had a Magic Wand, I'd wave it and make Deception a crime of treason.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/3/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes, but every time a new system develops, a small group of people takes
control and uses the system to benefit the members of this small group.
Whatever the system, the people who end up at the top are very intelligent,
self serving, and manipulative. These are qualities found to some extent in
every human being, but more in some individuals than in others. I'm not
arguing against having a better system, but I am arguing against seeing a
specific system as the motivating cause of human behavior.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2018 10:44 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Denmark Imposes New Restrictions on
Immigrants
Certainly this is a complicated pattern of human behavior.
And there are many, many causes. But our trust of one another is not
encouraged by any form of government that is structured like a pyramid. The
few on top must have enough control over the layers below them in order to
maintain their authority.
Capitalism is currently the "controller of choice". But I don't see it as
the root problem. In fact, we are seeing the transition from Capitalism, to
Corporate Capitalism. As I've pointed out in the past, Mega International
Corporations are muscling in and taking control over nations. But we could
as easily be taken over by the Military Model. Any of these will enable the
Ruling Class to control the Masses. Again, this has been my major concern
regarding religion. We are controlled by a small group of "Priests" who are
the spokesmen for the Authority.
But all of that is just a corner of the problem. We have been conditioned
from the very beginning to protect our own. Whether it is to protect our
extended family, or those who look similar, or those who agree with us, we
go about establishing borders which we can defend, and stand guard. It's
called, "Survival of the Species."
Those who desire to control us are quick to use our own defense mechanisms
to their advantage. Divide and conquer. They turn us against one another.
And, since no Ruling Class ever desired to be all things to all people,
there exist many flaws in their ability to control. So the Ruling Class
uses deflection as a method of control, blaming the System's short comings
on "them!" "It's the fault of our porous southern borders",our Leader
exclaims. "Those Illegals want to sneak in and take your Land away, take
your jobs, rape your womenfolk."
Survival of the Human Species depends upon the ability of the People to
think. To exercise our brains. This is another place where the Ruling
Class has taken control. They own the Media. They set the curriculum in
our schools. They own our entertainment, teaching us to love violence,
teaching us to thrill over gambling, teaching us to disrespect those whom we
defeat. Words such as Love and Compassion are sneered at, and we are told
they make us "girly".
Our super huge TV screens portray a muscle bound Rancher, cigarette between
his lips, a "Bud" in hand, astride his Ford 150, headed across the range, or
cruising past a bevy of skimpily clothed "Cow Girls".
Sound cool? Well, as old P.T. Barnum was fond of saying, "There's a sucker
born every minute".
Cordially,
Carl Jarvis
*********
This sweep of Xenophobia, affecting the US and western Europe, this is
not all based on Capitalism, is it? This is fear of the other. You
could find it back when the people in one cave were afraid of those in
another.
Denmark Imposes New Restrictions on Immigrants
Nyhavn, a waterfront district and popular tourist destination in
Copenhagen, Denmark. (Lars Plougmann / Flickr Creative Commons)
Denmark is requiring residents in 25 majority-immigrant enclaves to
send their children to mandatory Christian and Danish values classes
or risk losing their welfare benefits. It's the latest in a series of
immigrant-restricting proposals not only from the Danish government,
but from far-right politicians across Europe who are revising
government policies regarding immigrants.
In June, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban implemented the "Stop
Soros"
law (named after Hungarian philanthropist George Soros), which bans
individuals and organizations from providing aid to undocumented
immigrants.
As Vox explains, " [The law] is so broadly worded, that, in theory,
the government could arrest someone who provides food to an
undocumented migrant on the street."
Also in June, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini proposed a
census of the country's Roma population, drawing parallels, as CNN
observes, "with race laws approved during the regime of Benito
Mussolini." It's not yet a law, but as Al-Jazeera reported Sunday,
local authorities cleared a Roma camp of approximately 450 people
shortly after Salvini called for the census.
Denmark's laws, however, are particularly striking, both in terms of
how they target specific areas based on immigrant population, and in
the severity of punishments for noncompliance, which in some cases can
result in jail time or loss of the country's extensive welfare
benefits.
Advertisement
The Danish government, The New York Times reports, is "introducing a
new set of laws to regulate life in 25 low-income and heavily Muslim
enclaves, saying that if families there do not willingly merge into
the country's mainstream, they should be compelled."
The series of laws, also known as "the ghetto package," includes
proposals to double jail time for certain crimes committed in the
neighborhoods and to punish parents for sending their children on long
trips to their country of origin. One proposal that was rejected for
being too radical would have banned certain immigrant children from
the 25 enclaves from being outside their homes after 8 p.m.
The proposal requiring mandatory Danish and Christian values
education, however, was passed by the Danish parliament last month.
From the time children are 1 year old, the Times explains, they "must
be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not
including nap time, for mandatory instruction in 'Danish values,'
including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language.
Noncompliance could result in a stoppage of welfare payments. Other
Danish citizens are free to choose whether to enroll children in
preschool up to the age of six."
Danish Minister of Education Merete Riisager explained the reasoning
behind the law to The Copenhagen Post, saying, "There are a number of
parents who come from the Middle East who have a totally different
understanding of pedagogy, childhood and school than their Scandinavian
counterparts."
In addition to Danish and Christian education for preschoolers, Time
magazine reports that 5- and 6-year-old students in 24 Danish schools
will be " 'guinea pigs' for a new policy aimed at integrating
non-Western immigrants into Danish society. From 2019, it will become
law for schools that take more than 30 percent of their students from
"ghetto" areas to force their students to take language tests."
Denmark has long struggled with how to balance its generous welfare
state, intended to serve a small, mostly white, Christian population,
with an influx of immigrants, many of them Muslim. The white Danes the
Times quoted were as supportive of these new laws as they were
disparaging of immigrants.
Anette Jacobsen, a retired pharmacist's assistant, praised the welfare
benefits that gave her and her four children free education and health
care, saying that "she felt a surge of gratitude every time she paid
her taxes,"
but maintaining that she and other white Danes are deserving of
Denmark's benefits, unlike immigrants, who Jacobsen believes abuse the
system. As she explained, "There is always a cat door for someone to
sneak in," and, she continued, "their culture doesn't fit here."
Never mind that, as Rokhaia Naassan, a daughter of Lebanese refugees
and a resident of an affected neighborhood told the Times, not only
does she speak fluent Danish, she talks to her children in Danish, so
much so that her children's grandparents complain that they can't talk
to their grandchildren in Arabic. In addition, Naassan and her sisters
said, they'd move out of their neighborhood if they could afford to.
When they were growing up, the sisters said they rarely encountered
Islamophobia. Now, Rokhaia's sister Sara wonders, "Maybe this is what
they always thought, and now it's out in the open." She added, "Danish
politics is just about Muslims now. They want us to get more assimilated
or get out.
I don't know when they will be satisfied with us."
Ilana Novick
