Sunday, December 26, 2010

"All the "Free Money" is Gone!"

There comes a time in everyone's life, when they realize that money is not free and entitled, but what has to be earned -- not by extortion and/or deception/bullying, but in the marketplace of value exchanged for "fair value," which is the free market of many choices.

In Hawaii, the marketplace is usually determined by eliminating all the other choices -- so that there is no "other" choice -- but yes or no, and not the fullest range of possibilities, which is a political, or impolite incorrectness. One is expected to do what one is limited to do -- which they believe, makes them a true and loyal "Democrat," -- which is their agreement, that they will consider no other way of thinking about anything, except what they have been taught (told) to think, is the only way things can ever be rightfully done.

And so as one goes through life, one will frequently be asked to "vote" that they fully agree to whatever limited options (ultimatums) they have been given, as an expression of their free will -- and will also agree to persecute, prosecute, identify and isolate all others for the violations of independent thought. Such conditions, will invariably be called, "The best of all possible worlds," or "Paradise," because it is the vision of one enlightened leader who does all the thinking for everyone else -- with dire consequences for failing to maintain the "bargain." Even James Hilton's Shangri-La, in the Lost Horizon, envisioned such a kingdom isolated from the rest of the world, for which the inhabitant who left at the end, immediately age the hundreds of years they actually are, but have been immune from the aging effect, of life in the sheltered confines of Shangri-La.

Meanwhile in Hawaii, people actually age prematurely, as the effects of too much sun, wind, and corrosive salt water -- it is thought, and not as a result of the oppressive conditions of a high cost of living, in which many feel they have to work two or three jobs, to merely get by -- which leaves no time, energy and choice, for anything else.

Instead, there is this foreboding, that life can only get harder and worse -- unless they are delivered by a great savior -- who they will vote for as their only choice (hope).

Thursday, December 16, 2010

"The Pork Barrel Kingdom"

The consequence of having a "pork" culture is that people consume far more than they produce (contribute) -- thinking they are "smarter" than everybody else for thinking of that first.

But its effects show and cannot be denied -- that, "No, I didn't eat all the extra plate lunches (pupu platters) the politicians left."

In Hawaii for too long, there has been this culture of denial and deception -- that reveals itself, though the media, schools, universities, and government studies may "prove" otherwise -- that nothing is related to anything else, and one can therefore solve the traffic congestion by building a rail through empty pineapple fields, and that one can mysteriously balloon to a tremendous weight and out of shape condition overnight even though one hardly eats and exercises faithfully.

So in that world of disinformation and misinformation, all things are plausible, and bad liars (lawyers) become king, in an upside-down world. One tries to point out these things, but few will listen -- and instead, they will be called fools for not jumping on the bandwagon and eating more than their fair share -- thinking that is the smart thing to do, and what makes them "winners."

But in the end, as the health care industry knows, justice is served, and these "health care professionals," milk these people for the last half of their lives -- as though they were cash cows, who exist for no other purpose but to max out their medical benefits. And that is the present medical care/insurance problem in the US as well as throughout the world -- in which a lot of people grew up in a world of scarcity that has now become a world of abundance, but they were never taught the discipline to exercise restraint and the freedom to choose wisely.

And so at any opportunity, they think they still have to eat more before everybody else can beat them to it -- with disastrous effects. It's time for a culture change -- and the local media to stop running these stories about Hawaii being the "fittest and healthiest place" on earth, just because they say so -- because everyone can see the reality in the faces and bodies of those around them.

That's why it's not good to mainline "pork" -- as the dominant cultural value and highest achievement.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

The problem with lawyers is that they think that anything they want you to believe, is the the "truth," and so produce testimony that "proves" only what they want you to believe is that truth.

But the reality of the matter is that Hawaii's greatest problem is its skyrocketing cost of living that makes it prohibitive to live there -- so that rather than people flocking there to live, people will choose to live elsewhere -- and the first to go will be the best and the brightest, who could choose to live anywhere.

Thus Hawaii becomes the latest casualty of the many Pacific islands that fail to produce viable self-sustaining societies like Nauru, Micronesia, New Guinea, Samoa, islands of the Philippines and Indonesia, etc., where the people have to migrate elsewhere to the next rock before it becomes unsustainable, and the pattern is repeated -- which is actually the reason for the founding of the Hawaiian Islands in the first place.

Hawaii has squandered every natural advantage it has had -- thinking it is all just free, and they can live on it until it dries up -- without replenishing its resources, rather than just consuming increasingly more.

The real progress would have been the first truly enlightened green society -- by harnessing the sunshine, air, water, as the world's premier (first) state of the art pedestrian/bike/health infrastructure, rather than the last to adopt 19th century technology, as though they were the first.

Most of the communities in Oregon seem to be making this leap towards walker/bicyclist/urban gardener innovations -- while realizing more of the mass transportation and mass (media) culture, is an era that has come and gone, which of course, the mass media and other institutions of the schools, universities, and self-aggrandizing trade unions (government workers), are loathe give up as the sole reason for being, and would rather everyone just continue to conform to their "political correctness," and status quo.

The only ones remaining then will be the trade professionals who get to clean up at life's end -- when the predators become the prey.

But that is so 19th century mentality -- and not a leap into the future of greater viability for most, and not just the politically correct favored few.