“Evil is that Evil Does” – A Modern Clarification – The Trump-Musk-Putin Axis

Image of a dark sky and moon in the back and a lightened office with smart people discussing in front
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“Evil” is not some mystic and mysterious force with superpowers that rises somewhere from a fiery underground, staring you in the face with red eyes and breathing stench and fire.

A fine and not yet so modern phrase is: “Evil is that evil does.”

And that is entirely true. Before the advent of enlightenment and the civil society which also introduced the same right for everyone, evil was a term in religious contexts to make people afraid and manipulate them. Ghosts frequently played a role in that kind of thinking as well.

With the rise of a common basic education the term was critically reviewed and by and by found ‘old-fashioned’ and misleading.

But we need to come back to a modernized idea of it to state dangers more clearly:

EVIL is what people do by adhering to destructive values.

The values that worship money, the rich, the powerful, no matter what.

Some sort of currency is needed to make sure you can take care of your daily, basic needs. It wasn’t always money people used to exchange goods. Shells, sometimes even rare and beautiful ones were common in some parts of the world.

But whatever it is people use, when they start worshipping the wrong things and thus values we will get into trouble – such as the US currently are facing with a non-entity as their intended head of state.

How to Know Good?

The most basic two phrases putting it in a nutshell are these:

    • “Avoid pain.” For everyone.
    • “Act in a manner that the principle of your actions could be transformed into common law any time.”

The first is the Buddhist concept.

The second is my translation of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, that great philosopher of the 18th century and one of the leading figures of the enlightenment.

To get to the bottom of truths you need to take time to think. At first that could take some practice too.
But don’t worry! Because anything human beings do or create can be understood by other humans – even if it takes a little more time at first!

So in case you were wondering how to know evil from good, these are the yardsticks to use:

“Does it avoid pain?”
“Could the action/behaviour be transformed into general law for all, any time?”

 

Elections 2024: The Shame of the US-culture – Dictatorship in the Making – Plutocracy: The Reign of the Rich – The “Hard-Times Effect” – Let the Fight Continue

animated image of US flag shopping cart and text "bought 'US' some president" and the number 2024
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In all the nightmare of news after the recent voting there’s one glimmer of comfort:
In the past, hard times had similar effects on elections, all around the world: Where there’s unemployment, rising prices and uncertainty in forecasts for the future, the right-wing populists always had the stronger arguments – because they make false promises and don’t care about truth.

“Republicans”…?

Let’s remember that they mean ‘business’, in the true sense of the word, the ‘G.O.P.’, that party calling themselves ‘Republicans’.
In ancient Greek that kind of naming was called a ‘euphemism‘: Naming something bad using a fine term.

(The term ‘euphemism’ was invented first for the ‘Black Sea’ known in the Mediterranean to be full of dangerous and troublesome waters and winds, the ‘Pontos Euxeinos’, the hospitable sea…)

This party and its followers simply accumulate money. They don’t really care about others in times of crises, and never will: They didn’t in the past and they won’t in the future. There’s ample proof in newspapers such as the New York Times’ or Washington Post’s past editions, both having been awarded Pulitzer prizes for their reporting quality and reliability.

Dictatorship ahead…

To summarize the ‘quality’ of this man who’s been elected in this year 2024 for president of the United States of America, at the moment the most powerful nation on this earth (why…?), a couple of many more truths about him – signs for a possible intended dictatorship:

    • The Supreme Court Justices at that one-time revered legal institution as well as highest and last legal instance in the US’s legal system, are necessary for a change of the constitution in order to ’empower’ a dictator(ship).
    • They were in majority selected and instated from his political stronghold – during his last time in office.
    • Via Twitter (now X) he initiated the attack on the Capitol in January 2021.
    • He was ruled guilty on 34 counts in May 2024. Yet, the Supreme Court(!) confirmed his immunity during his time in office.
    • He has committed several acts punishable by criminal law, especially fraud, bribery and embezzlement.
    • He was indicted on sexual abuse and found partly guilty.
    • During the 1960s he drove several of his businesses into failure on purpose in order to save his own assets, thus willingly ruining thousands of small stakeholders.
    • In fact: He is criminal and ruthless.
    • He is best buddy with Putin in Russia. Another dictator.
    • There’s only a fine line left to divide them (him and his actual ‘stakeholders’) from a dictatorship.
      By a coup, or even without one…

That sorry excuse for a man, now president-elect, has prepared his way to dictatorship. And with him such people as Elon Musk, another embarrassing entity calling itself a human being.

These to me are bitter yet clear ways to express the range of my frustration and actual dread of what they intend to be doing.

The ‘Monetary’ Cultural Basis

One thing is obvious too: That dratted cultural basis the US have in unwritten laws of admiring the so-called ‘successful’ writes it in clear and large Menetekel-letters:
Never mind about others, diversity, responsibility, or truthfulness. Just go for the richest man.
It’s been part of some religious bodies even: That he who wins more riches is fine in God’s eye. It’s a disputed reading of some old texts. But it’s been around for too long.

Let Our Voices be Heard

Let’s stay united as those holding the real values at heart. There are quite some troubles ahead. But there always have been. And there also always were those that would try to paralise clear thinking by false threats and defeatism.

Look back at the history around the year 1000 – by the Georgian calendar – that is being used to this day in its modern version in Western countries: The patterns are pretty familiar…

The fight of the voice, in writing and in talking, is the one I mean: Every voice counts, remember that too!

Take your democratic right into your hands and let your political representatives all around the world know personally what you want. Each and every day.

Peace, equality and diversity.

Election 2024: A Male Criminal – Or a Female Writer and Lawyer? – It’s NOT a Question!

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The lengths they are going to in the Republican party to find anything they could use against the Democrat Ms Kamala Harris is a good sign:

She is a strong candidate. And it’s good to know that there is one.

She wrote a book once – and it was not a scientific thesis or an article. Once upon a time she did not properly mark a quote or two in place – but a little later in the book.

SO?

The Republican candidate has been convicted on several counts. He was proven guilty.
And he has been known for criminal behaviour and ruthlessness before – reported by solid, reliable newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, both awarded prizes for independent and reliable journalism – by independent organizations, such as the Pulitzer prize committee.

Additionally the Republican candidate still faces 4 separate criminal charges against him.
Look into the Republican candidate’s past – and you will have ample opportunity to find more of the same: Hate, populism, cruelty, selfishness and greed.  The link is one to a documentary by another winner of awards, documentary film maker, Michael Kirk* on PBS.

All of you who have the vote in the USA, think again: Who is the better choice?

Check the values! Look at what the parties stand for. Vote wisely.

For the community and the values that support not just a few, but the majority of people; for diversity, the lookout for others, peace. Democrats.


* Quote on Michael Kirk (s. link above): “The winner of every major award in broadcast journalism, including five Peabody Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, two George Polk Awards, 15 Emmy Awards, and 12 Writers Guild of America Awards, Kirk has produced, directed and written more than 100 hours of FRONTLINE — including multiple installments of “The Choice,” the acclaimed election-year series profiling the two major-party presidential candidates.”

There’s a Method to the Madness – Or: When Male Life Runs Berserk – Or: When Business Meets Cruelty

Image by Bárbara Cascão from Pixabay

It can be one of those dark days in life when you face real evil in your own life for the first time. I have read so many books and ‘digested’ so many stories, those that were told in person and those that you see on the big screen; yet, to see real evil is new to me, even.

A few patterns emerge:

I. The Patriarchal Hierarchy and Willfulness in Play Again

    • Patriarchy not for decades but for thousands of years has enforced the stereotypes:
      Man is the ‘hunter’ – and not just for game (deer, wild boar, etc.); women are the ‘hunted’, the ‘booty’.
    • Any man who is really interested to be counted among ‘the guys’ will do what he can to ‘get it’ as often as possible.
    • If it should so surface, the management power in business can be used to ‘serve’ the ‘booty’, the ‘dish’, right up – nice and ‘easy’:
      • *Women, single and apparently easy to fool into believing they did something wrong can be used in order to ‘try one’s luck’:
      • Hire them under a pretense then do your best to get them into the ‘prone position’.
      • Should that not work legally, in a manner of a certain time, fire them under those pretenses.
      • Repeat from *.
      • And so turns the merry-go-round of jobs and people who seem to be job hopping – when in effect they are part of that secret game of ‘push and shove’…

II: Intricate Business Calculations

    • Say, your branch of business is facing a severe slump. No sales, much and that due to a saturated market segment.
    • Yet, you need to take care of customer demands in a certain department.
    • But the budget doesn’t allow to hire a person or persons over a longer period of time.
    • Additionally you have found that searching these people takes time, effort and some experience to filter the really good ones.
    • What do you do?
      • *Find an agency that does the searching and finding.
      • Hire the good ones.
      • Make them work hard and almost reach the finish line.
      • Bother them and intimidate them in a tough market with ridiculous claims of misbehaviour.
      • Even invent false claims of shortcomings and spread those by and by among colleagues and the rest of the management.
      • Use the accumulated ‘reasons’ to base a lay-off on and – fire them, after a year.
      • Then pretend to be searching another, better fitting employee – for another year.
      • Finally, hire the next candidate.
      • Repeat from *.
    • What’s the result?
      • You get the agency ‘on the cheap’ because firing those employees too soon for reasons of being unfit saves the fee due to the agency – who will have to return at least part of it.
      • You save lots of money on salary, you actually pay half the price, because, in alternating years there’s an employee.
      • Then, there is not….

III: Intricate Business Calculations No 2

    • Say, you need to lend employees to other companies.
    • But the economy is slow, salaries are too high for some businesses.
    • In addition, really well-trained employees are hard or impossible to find.
    • *So, you start actively searching.
    •  Make them an offer of the appropriate high salary.
    • Hire.
    • Let them work in the actual customer’s place.
    • After a little while start bothering them, s.a., with ridiculous claims of misbehaviour, intimidate them.
    • After a few months working this method get them to sign a ‘reduced-hours-per-week’ agreement.
    • After a year, fire them.
    • Result: Cheap salary; except for the employee facing unemployment and job hunting all over again – all concerned are satisfied.
    • Repeat*…

IV: Intricate Business Calculations No 3

    • The business you have runs well, but sales are slow.
    • The economy’s contracts with trade unions rule that every four years salaries have to be raised.
    • Also, that beginners in the company or a certain job earn less than the ones already in place for more than four years.
    • What do you do?
      • *Hire employees, sign the contracts.
      • Every four years, make lay-offs appear necessary, firing the previously hired employees.
      • Fire under pretenses, also after four years.
      • Hire from other countries, even far away where knowledge of local conditions, contracts, systems, taxes and prices is nil.
      • Keep a couple of employees – perhaps even with different contracts out of trade union conditions – to make the image credible that you have employees in place for long periods of time, the ‘faithful ones’.
      • Repeat*…
      • Result: The salaries stay low and the employee turnover is not too apparent so the company’s reputation is safe.
Whatever the patterns – they are shameful to watch and cruel to suffer from.
Additionally, it’s a huge waste of resources for any country’s economy…
Make it stop. Now.

In War there is Conflict – Conflicts need Solutions – War is NOT a Solution!

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Whoever told us that life is either wonderful harmony – or we will have war? In the sense that you cannot have it both ways?

Da…n and blast to all who believe it! Is it that male (patriarchal) idea that you have to have predominance and prove ‘strong’ by shouting at people a lot? Because that way you establish ‘authority’?

Maybe. But war is not a question of gyms and some old-fashioned training ideas!

The civil society brought an even more wide-spread understanding of responsibility and the preference for peace and calm that let us thrive for a good life and good relations in peace.

Conflicts are a natural part of human life – always were, always have been.
(Cruel) arguments or wars are not ‘natural’.
They are the consequence of a mindset that values predominance and ‘first place’ the most. To force your opinion or your preferences on people is  – according to that idea – a sign of strength and power.

BUT – and this is one of those BIG BUTS – it is a question of perspective:

Because anything that causes pain and suffering to many people – and additionally over a long period of time – is not a good thing! Period.

There are many ways out of conflict, some are short, because the conflict is small.
Some ways are long, because the conflict is large.
But whatever it is, if we respect the fundamental human rights we will do all the negotiating it takes, even if years, to avoid pain and suffering. Full stop.

Quiet vs Talk? – Talk and Quiet!

sunset trees lake

Times can be tough, I have seen many and gone through a lot of such times. I still consider myself lucky, in many respects.

I find that talking can be overestimated. But so can quiet. As has been said similarly elsewhere:
there’s a time and place for everything.

Sometimes we talk to others in order to exchange ideas, or information.

Sometimes we talk to others to feel close by being understood and listened to.

Sometimes we talk to others so we can make the heart’s burden lighter, or to let off the steam of anger.

Sometimes we talk to others to clear up things or answer questions.

But often, there’s nothing of the above necessary. We are at one with ourselves and our emotions and ideas.

In such times, being quiet can be the order of the day. Know that our near and dear understand.

In hard or sorrowful times, a good cry can help. Or letting off steam by punching something

Hugging near and dear helps.

Work helps.

And laughter helps. Always.


(First published in 2021, reposted.)

Vote Democrats: Elections 2024 as Proof of a Strong Democracy in the US

President Biden and Vice President Harris meeting with Former President Obama (Image Wikimedia Commons)

The two attacks on the actual Republican candidate may be false – fake – a fluke to ensure his presence in media. I am not naming names, these days, if I can help it. Real or staged there’s no room in a real democracy for such acts of violence.

Be that as it may: He has been proven to be a person with no responsibility except towards himself and those with money. The kind of money that comes in cartloads. Bluntly put.

The Republicans stand for all the values that endanger a democracy. Their candidate was actively involved in the attack on the Capitol. They do not favour the support of the unfortunate, support weapons and their lobbies, and in general are in favour of an economy that is regulated by the markets alone.

But history is ample proof, in the US as well as elsewhere, that this does not work. The favouritism with capital will constantly shift the wealth of a society towards the already rich and wealthy – when everybody in truth is involved creating products, goods, marketable output.

Democrats on the other hand favour a wise and socially responsible policy for all concerned. Their advocating a society of equality, diversity and freedom in accordance with human and civil rights is legend.

Check the values!

Vote wisely, the Democratic party, as I stated before, may – just as any human institution – not be perfect; but they strive to do the best for the whole of a society – not just a select few.

And: They made the first African American president Barrack Obama possible!

When Business Meets Conscience – Or: The Inhuman Side of People

Skyscraper, image courtesy pixabay.com

Business: It’s probably the term derived from the verb, “busy”, which means, at least, to be very wrapped up in work.

I have gone through quite a number of businesses, that is places of work, which happened willy nilly: While studying I had to work my way through it – and took care of my kid.

We all know – or at least some of us do – that “business” is an entirely different matter from being ‘just’ busy.

“Lay-offs” are a term connected to the darker side of it. Since they mean, letting people go in large numbers due to corporate issues.

To think though that you have been hired on false pretenses and also let go after such and such an amount of time, without previous knowledge, yet planned in advance – is still a sort of higher level, rather a low point, not to say, an abyss of falseness and abuse.

I tend to be loyal, hard-working and also have a good and very good quality output. Numerous references say that. I am – also referenced multiple times – a good colleague.

To feel (ab)used this way feels disgusting, actually. Yet, there are a few comforts in all the darkness of this situation:

    • I know a couple of people who haven’t yet handed over the whole of their conscience at the door…
    • I also know a couple of people who care about me as a person enough to support me.

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
(Nelson Mandela)

Stop the Republican Candidate – Vote Democrats!

Screenshot taken from democrats.org at 18-08-2024_15-44-37 CEST — showing Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and followers

The former president D. Trump running for office again and being part of that party misleadingly calling itself “Republicans” is not to be pitied.

I wonder if it wasn’t a ruse even — that attack. But that is actually not really important at this time. He is neither to be trusted nor is he a good man, or ever was.

His past is full of financial irresponsibility, he actually only recently has been found guilty in a court of law of the United States after a proper action before that court.

He has hurt thousands of ‘little’ people during the 1970s that had trusted him and his enterprise, ruining their existence by taking their money and getting out in time himself.

He was best buddy to president Putin in Russia, who even supported his election the first time using illegal, online measures that have been proven.

Link to the Pulitzer Prize committee‘s official site, stating that fact:

“The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner in National Reporting — Staffs of The New York Times and The Washington Post”

Seems he is billions of dollars ‘worth’ — but when you look at his deeds (not his words) you will find it proven, too:

He ist not worth your vote.

Why Democrats? Because although being human and thus not flawless — they are the only ones smart and strong enough to prevent the hell of a second presidency of that Republican sorry-excuse-for-a-man.

Vote for peace and equality.

It’s the Bible even, that says it clearly:

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
(English Standard Version, 2016)

No to Violence! — The Attack on a Former President

Image courtesy Arek Socha on pixabay.com

Whatever somebody may have done or is doing: There is only the court of law and a proper action before it in a working legal system to convict and punish them.

Nothing is an excuse for such an attack as has been made known today. Without knowing any details yet since I have learned to take in news at a measure I still feel that in view of past criticism I owe my readers this clear statement:

There is no excuse for violence.