Current Events The Natives are Restless
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Third Saturday Seminar 2011-2012
Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom
Session 02

15 October, 2011
9:30AM til 12:00 noon
Room B-102, Lone Star College – Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000

The Natives are Restless
Does “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS)
Have a Point After All?
Does it matter?

Will anything be different because of it?

Curt Gibby


Last session I characterized today’s America as “The Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Since then the nation’s has become fascinated by phenomenon of “Occupy Wall Street”

There is no way for a normal human being to absorb everything that’s going in the world today (or why) or even why thousands of people have spontaneously felt the need to join others in a public spectacle called an occupation in cities all over the country, but it’s certainly worth paying attention.  Perhaps it is more a case of a growing popular outrage at the sorry, blatant, destructive  misuse of power and privilege by those entrusted with it being expressed with more civility than it has been imposed on all of us, and although words and symbols are used to communicate, they are the frosting on the cake.

Perhaps it is a shared awakening —

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”  — Goethe

Here is a place to start 

Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City[5] based in Zuccotti Park, formerly “Liberty Plaza Park”. The protest was originally[6] called for by the Canadian activist[7] group Adbusters; it took inspiration from the Arab Spring movement (particularly the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo, which initiated the 2011 Egyptian revolution) and from the Spanish Indignants.[8][9]

The participants of the event are mainly protesting against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among other concerns.[10][11] Adbusters states that, “Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America.”[12]

To get details about what is going on in different cities click in the SuperScripted numbers in “[]” They will take you  to the footnotes (if you are connected to the Internet.)

By October 9, similar demonstrations had been held in Washington, D.C.,[13] Los Angeles,[14] San Francisco,[15] San Jose,[16] Boston, Chicago, San Diego,[17] Houston,[18] Philadelphia, Miami,[19] Salt Lake City,[20] Portland, Maine,[21] Jersey City,[22][23] Trenton,[22] Portland, Oregon,[24] Seattle,[25] Denver,[25][26][27][28] Charlotte, Kansas City, MO,[29] Austin,[30] Ann Arbor,[31] Cleveland,[32] Dallas,[33] Minneapolis,[34] Sacramento,[35] Tampa,[36][37][38] Atlanta,[39] Albuquerque,[40] and Santa Fe, New Mexico[41]

Did you notice that the Adbusters are in fact a Canadian activist group? – Interesting.  – Curt

There is a timeline of Occupy Wall Street at: which officially began on Saturday, September 17, 2011 as an occupation of Wall Street, the financial district of New York City and is an ongoing demonstration.[2]

The right wing and establishment media have been having a field day because when they interview OSW participants there seems to be no generally agreed list of “Demands” for our Fourth Estate to pan or extol.  However, the above text I captured from Wikipedia probably cuts to the chase for many with it’s list of social and economic ills which are certainly clues, but do they get to the heart of the matter.

Its really about a lack of accountability, not only for bad governance, but for the dogged refusal of our politicians and their predator friends to own up to their greed and incompetence, but more importantly on the unwillingness of the citizenry to hold those responsible accountable and expect them mitigate the effects and learn from their mistakes or be voted out of office (as provided for in the Constitution.)

Somehow we have be willing to take comfort by the spectacle of vociferous mutual demonization of each other by our political factions and accountability never becomes an issue or is anything resolved. in our incredibly short news cycles (our attention span) But now I think we have allowed things to go too far and the “OWS” appears to be gaining energy from the simmering frustration of a wide range of the American Public.

Who knows what direction this can take.  Over there or here at home.   Certainly, very little of the Arab Spring is developing as was hoped by the brave demonstrators in Tahrir Square in Cairo. But then, the race is far from over.  This is only the first lap.  Will the people be able to keep faith in the revolution through the good and not so good (sometimes at great personal cost?)

For example, many of the Millennial Generation  were taught and actually believe that government should in fact live up to it’s responsibilities.  Will they still have enough stroke to influence future elections as they did in 2008.  What about the Tea Partyers and the Libertarians?  What about the Independents?

For fun and enlightenment:  Here are a couple Daily Show Videos that help us appreciate some of the dimensions of the “OWS” spectacle. (sorry about the commercials at the start.)

Wednesday October 5, 2011

Parks and Demonstration -America cannot expect a bunch of disenfranchised park-dwellers to come up with a solution to its economic woes — they have a political ruling class to do that.

And this

Thursday September 29, 2011

Democracy on the Lurch – Wall Street Pepper Spray Incident (6:06) (Chris Meloni as Tony Bologna)

Although not everyone may agree with or know Wall Street protestors’ goals, all people can agree that one reaction to the movement was unacceptable.


From ““Taken to Task: Occupy Wall Street’s Nattering Nabobs of Negativity”” (There’s a video too)

By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Frday, Oct 7, 2011

One critique of the protest is it lacks a unified message or mission. Indeed, in my reporting I found evidence of people supporting any number of issues, including:

    • Higher Taxes on the Wealthy
    • Prosecution of Financial Fraud
    • Anti-Fracking and other “Green” issues
    • Mortgage Modifications
    • Campaign Finance Reform
    • Anti-War
    • Universal Healthcare
    • Student Loan Forgiveness and, of course,
    • Jobs, Jobs Job

I suspect that among our membership there will be a mixed responses to the above “issues” that may become apparent as we proceed.  Actually, we’ll mostly agree that they are “issues”, but opinions about  how they should be resolved will vary to say the least …

And I couldn’t resist adding my own two cents with the following —  Apparently no one thought of:

  • Stagnant savings and money market accounts because the Federal Reserve is printing and pouring money into banks at Zero percent interest.  There is now 1.55 trillion dollars sitting in the member bank accounts at the Federal Reserve for which there is no demand.  Strangely, that amount seems to match the amounts in the Qualitative Easing (QE) programs.
  • Planned inflation to make it easier to pay America’s debts (and destroy savings)
  • A Congress and Senate who only care about their petty differences and nothing about their responsibility to the people of common sense.  How can they expect us to take them seriously? 
  • Affordable health care that keeps getting more expensive. 
  • A financial industry that insists that it must be allowed to take unreasonable risk and still be bailed out by the taxpayer.
  • Plans to dismantle social security and medicare to make up deficits when it is the only financially solvent program in government.  Nor will they stop medicare fraud, nor work up a realistic plan for paying Doctors so they will willingly treat medicare patients.
  • Everybody seems to be content to sit back waiting for “the government” to pull a political, social and economic rabbit out of a hat and return us to paradise.  Wake up folks.  Governments don’t solve problem they cause them, often by refusing to protect the rights of citizens from the assault of special interest groups.  At the moment the Fed is calling the shots, and doesn’t seem to notice that nothing it does has a positive effect, yet it doesn’t know how to let go.  It is the people that make an economy work, not government, not Wall Street, not corporate oligarchs.  Are we a nation of laws that treat and protect everyone equally, or does our government enforce laws more equally for some than for others?
  • The president has an important job, but there is no divine mandate.
  • Etc.

What would you add to the list?


But enough of that …

 

Continuing from our last meeting… A perspective (1895)

 The true historical upheavals are not those which astonish us by their grandeur and violence. The only important changes whence the renewal of civilizations results, affect ideas, conceptions, and beliefs. The memorable events of history are the visible effects of the invisible changes of human thought. The reason these great events are so rare is that there is nothing so stable in a race as the inherited groundwork of its thoughts.

   The present epoch is one of these critical moments in which the thought of mankind is undergoing a process of transformation.

   Two fundamental factors are at the base of this transformation. The first is the destruction of those religious, political, and social beliefs in which all the elements of our civilization are rooted. The second is the creation of entirely new conditions of existence and thought as the result of modern scientific and industrial discoveries.

   The ideas of the past, although half destroyed, being still very powerful, and the ideas which are to replace them being still in process of formation, the modern age represents a period of transition and anarchy.

…

   It is not easy to say as yet what will one day be evolved from this necessarily somewhat chaotic period. What will be the fundamental ideas on which the societies that are to succeed our own will be built up? We do not at present know. Still it is already clear that on whatever lines the societies of the future are organized, they will have to count with a new power, with the last surviving sovereign force of modern times, the power of crowds. On the ruins of so many ideas formerly considered beyond discussion, and to-day decayed or decaying, of so many sources of authority that successive revolutions have destroyed, this power, which alone has arisen in their stead, seems soon destined to absorb the others. While all our ancient beliefs are tottering and disappearing, while the old pillars of society are giving way one by one, the power of the crowd is the only force that nothing menaces, and of which the prestige is continually on the increase. The age we are about to enter will in truth be the ERA OF CROWDS. (And this was written in 1895)

An excerpt from the INTRODUCTION to THE CROWD – A STUDY OF THE POPULAR MIND (La psychologie des foules (1895)) BY GUSTAVE LE BON, NEW YORK, THE MACMILLAN CO. (1896)
“THE ERA OF CROWDS.”     You can read it online or download for free the entire English translation here

It is about time we took our lives back and that means “Unleashing our Wisdom!”

How about a Crowd of Wisdom?

Let’s Talk about it Saturday!

Current Events: As usual we will start out with 45 minutes of current events …. 

The Lone  Star College Montgomery ALL Program:
Academy for Lifelong Learning Program Description
A.L.L. Fall 2011 Course Schedule (PDF)
Map of campus and parking lots

Third Saturday Seminar
To refer to an ancient Chinese saying, our world is in interesting times and individual citizens are assaulted with a blinding array of propaganda from every conceivable source. The Third Saturday Seminar is about demystification of what is going on around is. Time will also be spent on current events. 3 Sessions. No fee.
Lone Star College-Montgomery BI02
S    9/17-11/19   9:30 a.m. – Noon    Gibby
Spring Session TBA
Come, join the discussion! Let’s see if there is hope!


Public Service Announcements: Here some other  ALL Courses you may want to attend……
Chaos in the Middle East
Increase your awareness of history in Islamic countries and Western Europe and gain insight into the chaos theory. Hear about lessons of history predicted today’s Middle East uprisings that resulted in a state of chaos. This course will show how the universal natural law, described by chaos theory explained the rise and fall of the 15th and 1 6th century Catholic Monarchies and how that history lesson applies to the recent rapid fall in power of the autocratic rulers of the Middle East. 1 Session. No fee.
Lone Star College-University Center at Montgomery
16020    W    11/2  1 – 2:50 p.m.   Peek

Science/Philosophy/religion

The Roots and Enduring Legacy of the Enlightenment
We will discuss how a few men, from Copernicus to Newton to Voltaire to Beethoven totally changed western civilization resulting in the Renaissance and Enlightenment, encompassing the Scientific Revolution, and overturning centuries of dogma based on Aristotle and the church.
1 Session. No fee.
Lone Star College-University Center at Montgomery
16053 W 11/16 11 a.m. – 12:50 p.m. Haydel

Also our friend Ahmad Solomon suggests these events in October:

October 18, 2011 (Tue) from 06:00 pm to 07:30 pm The Winds of Change in the Middle East: Perspectives and Projections James Baker Institute – Rice University
His Excellency Nabil Fahmy, former ambassador of Egypt to the United States and founding dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo, shares his views on the significant political changes taking place in the Middle East. (RSVP)

October 28, 2011 (Fri) 6:30 pm  Anthony Shadid of New York Times will speak at RiceUniversity
Location: Grand Hall in the Rice University Memorial Center (Student Center) Map:   “What My Eyes Can See: Covering the Arab Revolution”  Anthony Shadid is a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 and again in 2010 for his dispatches from Iraq. View his writings here.
November 8 is Election Day (It is?)  Early voting starts Monday, September 24 and ends Friday November 4th
School Board members and other elected officials and constitutional amendments.
Sample ballots:
Montgomery County

Harris County

There are 10 state Constitutional Amendments – and they are analyzed here:
CONDENSED ANALYSES OF PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS November 8, 2011, Election

And listed here

And other confusion here

enjoy

Remember that quality of a Seminar depends on the participation and perceptions and preparation of it’s attendees and  their willingness to share with  the other members.  The links and the comments I provide are intended to be a quick start into the issues of the subject, but in way a limitation to your own search.


See you Saturday — Thanks for your support!

Curt Gibby
Director, Third Saturday Seminar
P. O Box 73207
Houston, Tx 77273

http://northstarinst.org/TSS/
gcgconsult [at] n-star [dot] com

P.S. As usual if anything in this notice doesn’t make sense, please let me know. (You won’t be the first, I will appreciate it and say, “Thank you,” Curt)