| ||||||
|
This page is the original source of this review, though you may also find it on Amazon or other sites. | ||
Book Reviews Home | Free Audio Books |
Book Review of: Occupy World StreetA Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform Price: $13.29 Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours | |
Review of
Occupy World Street, by Author (Hardcover, 2012) (You can print this review in landscape mode, if you want a hardcopy) Reviewer: Mark Lamendola, author of over 6,000 articles. In Occupy World Street, Ross Jackson provides a surprisingly accurate view of the current political/economical condition of the world. What I most like about this book is the author shows how what passes for "economics" today is mostly a way of trying to hide and excuse the criminal political system. He doesn't say it as bluntly as I do here, but the ruling criminal class views the rest of us as mere farm animals. Jackson provides enough detail, evidence, and analysis for any reader to see that. IMO, there is no hope of change until enough people understand just how truly bad things have gotten and why. This work does a good service by describing the current situation, but falls short by not providing enough substantiation of what the author is describing. Partly, I think that's because information sources have been so aggressively suppressed. But his bibliography leans toward the dubious and leaves out many sources I would have expected there. At the very least, he could have referenced the huge number of relevant reports produced by the Government Accounting Office. He could have mentioned the $21 million PER HOUR the Pentagon burns on the "Acquisitions" program, and noted that the GAO shows that only 5% (correct, five percent) of this money results in any fieldable weapons. Of those that are fieldable, how many are actually fielded? Very, very few. This program is simply a wealth transfer scheme, transferring wealth from the peasant class to the small number of criminal elites who control certain corporations (and who also control CONgress). All of the money spent is in the "unproductive" sector, meaning it causes a net loss of jobs compared to if that money had not been diverted to this purpose. What I like least about this book is I don't feel at all connected to his solution. IMO, there are plenty of things we in the 99% can do to improve the balance of power. He doesn't go into any of those. What he proposes is, to me, a sort of meta government akin to the council in Star Wars. And this book has a few factual errors (see end of review).
So Jackson describes the problem but then goes off on a solution that is really a "tomorrow" thing rather than a "today" thing. Examples of what we can do today, all missing in this book, include:
But, no, he leaves action to the "wise elders" and other elite currently not in the 1%. Maybe that's not what he intended, but his solution goes on for page after page about what "they" will do someday rather than what "we" can do now. While his solution might be good at some distant future date, he proposes nothing for now or the interim. As we have discovered from the utopian visions of the statists, changing one form of subservience for another just doesn't work. So I'm not all excited about his utopian vision either. Jackson says to think local, but he proposes a global solution. What if the sheeple of the major nations tossed out the criminal class--as has been happening in smaller nations? What if our militaries actually defended us against domestic enemies and arrested the gangsta government goons? What if we in the USA had an actual department of justice, instead of a department of injustice? A real DOJ would necessarily lock up every member of the IRS gang, thereby ending domestic terrorism--why can't we sheeple insist on law enforcement? What if we suddenly did? What if we were to hold actual elections with sane candidates who actually saw this nation as something to be nurtured and respected instead of raped and plundered? Maybe, after more than a century of criminal domination that is just wishful thinking. As Jackson points out, small countries have a much better chance of installing legitimate government than the big ones do. Much less is at stake for the criminal class, so freedom is more likely to emerge in those places. And yet, there are peasant-class stirrings even in the large nations. A huge issue I have with his new world order vision is he envisions a great softening of sovereignty. Already, we have Supreme Court Justices saying our Constitution is no good and that they need to look at how other countries do things to reach decisions. Such statements morally disqualify a judge from being on that bench. But wait, it gets worse. The United Nations is pushing for all nations to enact laws that protect predatory violent criminals from their law-abiding victims rather than the other way around. How could we be protected from such insanity if we aren't sovereign? It's not clear if Jackson believes any sacrifice to achieve his vision is worth it, but that is one heck of a sacrifice. While I agree with Jackson that the kleptocracy now ruling/ruining the world needs to be put out of power, I don't think drinking this particular Kool-Aid is for me. So what is the alternative? We have already seen what happens when individuals make sane, informed choices; for example, fuel consumption in the USA is dramatically down as more people decide to waste less gas. We are already seeing how many ethnic groups (including Europeans and "whites" in America) are shrinking in population by having fewer children; why can't others also do that? Jackson doesn't address the two causes of overpopulation:
That's why these two demographics are growing dramatically in population while many other demographics are actually shrinking in population. Jackson's new world order won't stop the brainwashing and rampant over-reproduction, unless it also revamps the CC and the MM. I'm not sure we need government mixing with religion; that's how we got the CC and MM in the first place. However, education can go right to the root of the problem. Sane individuals can, one by one, counter the ill-effects of the baby factory dogma by pointing out to the afflicted individuals the misery, poverty, and abuse it creates. Once the "faithful" understand they are being lied to and this teaching violates their own scriptures and any possible sense of stewardship, they will stop the stupidity. People can come to their senses and connect with reality; it happens all the time. I think giving up on people as if they can't ever become responsible individuals is a tragic world view. We individuals need to lead by example and spread ideas about personal choices. That is how progress will be made. That is how progress has always been made. That is how the progress now underway is happening. Sadly, Jackson doesn't address this idea. This book runs 296 pages. It consists of seventeen chapters clustered into six Parts:
Factual Errors Jackson repeatedly uses the word "democracy," and his usage is in a very broad sense. For example, he refers to the USA as a "democracy" even though it has never been one. The USA is (according to law) a democratic republic. In fact, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both sternly warned against ever letting the nation deteriorate into a democracy. An example of a strict democracy would be the lynchings that commonly took place during Reconstruction. Rule of law, even at that time, meant no lynchings. But rule by democracy over-rode the law. Maybe fifty people gathered around and voted for the lynching. The lynchee, greatly outvoted, was a victim of democracy. A democracy is easily manipulated by predators and psychopaths. When our bicameral system was destroyed by yet another of Woodrow Wilson's assaults on law and order (the 17th Amendment), the USA took a major step closer to being a de facto democracy. Maybe at this time, it is such a form of government in fact. I just don't like it when people ignore the legal aspects and just give in to what the criminal class wants us to endure as if it's OK. I think what Jackson really means by democracy is a form of government where the people have significant input. If that is his meaning, then the USA is by no measure such a form of government. We have only farsical fakes of "elections" for federal offices, most notably the endless parade of clowns, crooks, retards, screwups, and delusionals that the Party puts on its controlled ballot for President. I can't imagine why any thinking individual would vote Demopublican, given the atrocious track record of The Party. But maybe there's just a shortage of thinking individuals. So the battered wife syndrome ("it'll be different, this time") continues on a national scale every other November and once again the classic definition of insanity plays out. Jackson doesn't address replacing this stage show with something meaningful. Inexplicably, Jackson accepts the "global warming by CO2" (GW) mania as established fact and expects the reader to also accept the faith-based non-arguments put forth for what is actually yet another con game. Not only is GW an excuse by which the ruling criminals can extract yet more from the ruled classes "for our own good," it hugely distracts from solving the very problems that would reduce the alleged causes of man-made GW in the first place. It's not debatable that mankind is severely polluting the planet; evidence is all around us. We need to reduce, recycle, and re-use much more than we are doing today. We need to get other measures going, as well. Diverting energies and attention into mindless non-debate over an issue of dubious derivation simply perpetuates the pollution problem. These and a few other non-fact anomalies are a tad irritating, but of no real significance to the work. Jackson correctly describes the current situation (except as noted), and proposes a solution that doesn't require the criminal class to suddenly have morals or ethics. What I've been wondering for a long time is what it might take to restore a law-abiding, legal, legitimate federal government in the United States. Since The Party took over federal "elections" during Reconstruction (its control being bypassed only once, by Teddy Roosevelt), the country has not followed its Constitution in letter or in spirit. Wilson's Reign of Error handed the criminals nearly complete control of the system, and by handing over the currency to private banksters Wilson's Federal Reserve Act turned legislators into mere lackeys of the moneyed class. Should you get this book? The cover price isn't bad, and you do get a smart person's opinion on the current world situation. But the book is one long op-ed piece, rather than a solid work of research and analysis. If you're looking for a work you can use to teach someone else the reality of today's situation, this is probably not for you. Ditto, if you are looking for ways you personally can be part of the solution. However, if you want some interesting ideas to bandy about with your "aware" friends, Jackson's ideas and perspective as presented here are well worth the cover price. |
|