We are sitting in a park in Interlaken, Switzerland. I pulled out the IPad to make some notes and on the screen popped up a message that an Internet signal was available. That happens sometimes in the US. In Denver there is public Internet, but the signal is weak and undependable and once you negotiate the pages and the word-barf contract to log in you find that they want your credit card and $10. Here the signal is part of the commons.

Imagine! A public utility offered without lining the pocket of some investor!* **

Anyway, the news and blogs are alive with Obama’s triumph in Libya, the usual. Another conquest. Soon the ports and harbors will be alive with ships arriving with loot, and there will be parades where military heroes are taken down the streets in large golden chariots. Perhaps Gaddafi will be pulled down Wall Street in a cage pulled by elephants so that he can be jeered and derided. Man I love this country!
Continue reading “Booty on the way from Libya!!” →

We noticed in passing by cemeteries over here that grave markers often use the official Superbowl numbering system, XXXIIV, etc. I guess it makes the people buried there seem more significant than they really were.

We took a cable car up the mountain for lunch yesterday. At the restaurant they have put in a wildflower trail, so we wandered among the cows with the lovely sound of cowbells all around as we viewed the exhibits. Most flowers were dead or out of season but the natural flowers outside the enclosures were alive and healthy. God I love metaphors!

At one point I was trying to read the name of a flower, and leaned backwards into a yellow tape and got a shock! It was an electric fence. Man, I tell you about the fourth time that happened I realized I should not touch that yellow tape or go beyond where they put it up.

Over at 4&20 there’s a debate going on about mean old Gubbmint and how it victimizes everyone. Big Swede, who enjoys privilege because his property rights are protected by government force, hates government.

Here’s a little example of how f****** stupid the US has become over the decades, even Orwellian: Imagine twenty thousand acres of forest. Imagine that government, some outside power that comes down from Jupiter, “owns” it. We all get to wander on and off, hunt and fish there, as long as we abide by common rules. As a local democratic force we might develop resources on the land while preserving it for future generations. We would argue like the devil, of course, but somehow muddle through.

That’s called “oppression.”

Imagine that the same 20,000 acres is owned by Steve Forbes. Signs go up, and government and private agents patrol the boundaries. (In Montana the Department of Fish and Wildlife patrols private boundaries for landowners.) Keep Off! Signs appear everywhere. Trespassing can land a large fine and even jail time. Though the wildlife is no longer the exclusive property of the king, we cannot hunt on the king’s land.

That’s “freedom.”

When the king controls the volcabulary and we cannot even use words to mean what they actually mean; when slavery is freedom and democratic government is oppression; when the king sets the table for his friends and fences everyone else out and calls it freedom, we are royally screwed. That we don’t know that, that we cannot even understand the concepts, is tribute to the effectiveness of the National Association of Manufacturers, who set off in the 1930’s to reverse the course of history and stop democracy in it’s tracks.

They succeeded. Go vote about it now and see what it gets you.

We made it out of the Alps, spending last night in Chamonix, France, and traveling to Courmayeur, Italy today. The transportation system here is remarkable. Not only are the trains and buses clean and spacious, but they are on time. There is public transportation to and from everywhere. Not only that, but there is a remarkable trail system here, with signed trails between every community. No distances are given, only the amount of time it takes.

The transportation system in the US, by comparison, is not very good. Buses are reserved for the needy, and trains were replaced by autos after World War II. What passenger service we have is only in or between heavily populated areas. Public transit between smaller towns and cities is difficult at best. The country was designed for ownership of cars.

It is what it is, but so much of the US is that way because business interests wanted it that way. Oil companies wanted automobile travel, which led to suburban sprawl and gridlock. Neighborhoods are designed with few services, necessitating a drive for the simplest of errands, like getting a quart of milk. Market advocates like to brag about efficiency, but we are not efficient. We are wasteful in our habits and our towns and cities are poorly designed. If markets caused that, then perhaps markets could use some fixing. Or maybe we can simply scrap that ideology and try things that actually work, and work well, in other places.

There’s some amazing engineering feats over here – a ten mile tunnel under Mt. Blanc, and a cable from system from Courmayeur to Chamonix that goes up to 15,000 feet. The cable system was the result of a bet between engineers back in the early 20th century. It is one of the longest spans in the world. That is the picture above.

Other things that I like over here:

Coffee is very good. US coffee has gotten better over the years, but drip coffee is a rarity here. Everything is pressed through machines. I have come to like caffe’ Americano with milk. That is an expensive habit back home, so I’ll go back to my usual. (Also coffee is drunk at a table or standing bar. There is no carry out and no cooffe on trains and buses, and no wasted paper cups like those that pollute the American landscape.)

Bakeries and pastry are quite varied. This is becoming more so in the US, but where I grew up we had three kinds of bread available, all white. Italian pastry is beautiful, intricately designed and dressed up with fruit. It is such a shame to defile it.

There is not a lot of meat or eggs on menus, so I’ve come to like various strains of pizza and some pastas. I am not hurting for energy nor am I hungry, and I’m not gaining back any lost weight. We’ve eaten a lot of cheese, which can be quite moldy tasting to the American palate. We don’t recognize any of it so try to stick with hard and off-white stuff and hope for the best.

Beer is everywhere, hardly a big deal, served alongside Coke and bottled water most everywhere. It is mild beer, pilsner and lagers, with alcohol content around 4%. It is far tastier than American lagers like Bud and Coors. It is sold by the can or bottle, and not in multipacks.

And wine is everywhere, many varieties and brands, none recognizable. I learned from various writers that even the experts cannot tell cheap wine from expensive, and so do not think much about what we buy. And even if we find something we like, the odds are we won’t find it again. Very good wine is quite affordable in Italy and France, and ridiculously expensive in Switzerland. A bottle that costs €4 in Italy might run 16 Swiss francs, though the two currencies are roughly equal.

We have not encountered any “supermarkets” in our limited travels. There are small markets that carry everything in small quantities. They are often just a hole in a wall that opens up into many rooms once inside. They can be quite fun, and are low-priced, usually locally owned.

Ice is a rarity. I do miss ice, but public fountains running a steady stream of ice cold alpine water are a true delight. But at 3AM after dehydration caused by hiking, lukewarm room water does not satisfy like ice water.

We have encountered no storefront health care – it must be hidden away somewhere. We hear ambulances now and then. Each country here has first-class public health care, according to WHO. Frankly, I have not encountered anyone not in good health except for a guy who sat on the next door balcony in Argentiere hacking away as he smoked 15 cigarettes. Poor devil.

Tomorrow we are off to Murren, Switzerland. I am guessing that the Eiger peak is in that area, and that in Clint Eastwood’s movie The Eiger Sanction, the town below where George Kennedy sat looking up the mountain was Murren. I could be wrong about that, but I do maintain strongly to this day that that was Clint’s worst movie ever. I love the guy and his work, but that movie blew bleu cheese chunks.*
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*It is indeed the location of the mountain and the place where the filming was done. The movie was panned, and it bombed at the box office. Pauline Kael called it a “total travesty” and Eastwood blamed everyone but himself for its failure. A British climber died during filming.

I am viewing American politics from a distance now, but I’ve not been involved on the ground level for eleven years, since the 2000 Nader campaign. I won’t vote again unless there is someone or something that is worthy of the effort. Not voting enables me to speak my mind, like the bumper sticker says: “Don’t blame me. I didn’t vote.” It’s the ultimate expression of citizenship: not to participate in the sham.

There are issues of importance. Who will be the next president/senator/mayor are not among them. I might vote for coroner, as when someone dies I want to know if foul play was involved, so a vote matters there.

The primary issues that are important to me regard civil liberties. Citizens United is a good focal point for confronting and exposing corporate power. The current amalgamation of corporations and government is eroding what we have left of our civil liberties, and the name of that game is fascism.
Continue reading “An ingenious system of government by distraction” →

So, we’re in a hotel in Argintiera, France. We are dead tired, having had a long climb and hike today. We are just settling in for sleep when we hear a guitar tuning up. There’s a market square across the way, and they are having live music tonight! I asked for a new room, but was told that it is just as noisy anywhere in the hotel.

I could endure this if the guitar player knew more than four chords. I even know them – C, Am, F and G, the most overused chord progression on the planet. The drummer is above average, and the lead singer has a low tone David Bowie-type voice. Might as well enjoy it.

So what to do when kept awake by live music? Sirota time! He wrote a really good piece on the Innocent Bystander Fable,this idea that Democrats are powerless to advance a progressive agenda because of mean old Republicans. He destroys the myth in short order. Of course they are not powerless! I take it one step further – they use this as an excuse because they want what they are getting: The Republican Agenda. after all, both parties have the same financiers, so whose policy is it going to be? Voters, or bribers?

Anyway, a comment at the end of the article was so good that I reprint it here:

Because if the President is so powerless then why does it ever matter who is sitting in the White House? If the President is powerless than there is no reason whatsoever to support Obama or anyone else for the office, it would be a waste of time, energy and scarce resources.

We had a delightful dinner last night with two young Frenchmen. We were in a small hotel in Trient, Switzerland. We sat at a long table, my wife and I sharing corners with the two. There were perhaps 30 people there. On the menu was rice and beef. My wife and I were sharing a beer, which turns out to be important.

We are not served individually for the main course. Instead, a large bowl of rice and a large bowl of beef in sauce is passed around each table. (It was delicious.) As we served ourselves and ate, the more vocal of the two men toasted us, seeing that we too had a beer. The conversation was choppy at best. My wife has some memories of French and the more outgoing young man had some English in his memory even as he had dropped out of college in his second year. So we got by.

Here’s what he learned from us:

American jobs are very insecure. If you lose your job you also lose your health care.

American unions are very weak.

American public pensions are very weak. Most people don’t get enough from them to survive, and have to continue working in some fashion, above or below the table.

Colorado is not a city. Colorado’s mountains are beautiful but not like the magnificent Alps, which have formidable and massive glaciers.

Here’s what we learned from him:

You don’t want to be overeducated in France, as employers don’t want high skills to fill low jobs.

Education is not free in France (post-secondary). You have to earn your stripes with good scholastic performance or it can be costly.

France is not a beautiful country, and our friend does not like Paris’ or any big city. He loves Britannia (Brittany, France), which is somewhere on the English Channel. The water there is too cold to swim in.

The French Riviera is too cold for swimming, oddly. I said I liked girls in bikinis and that swimming itself was not an issue. He agreed and said that it was better when they did not bother with bikinis. At that point his friend interjected that sunglasses are useful, as if women did not know that ploy.

His parents are retired on 800 Euros a month, and that is enough to be comfortable. Prices are very reasonable in France.

He said McDonalds’ food is tasty but he does not eat it as he thinks it makes people fat.

We asked him if we could immigrate. Not very damned likely.

We have spent the last two days hiking the spectacular Italian and Swiss Alps, with very much climbing and descending involved. We have climbed and dropped 6,100 feet in two days. I am very pleased at our ability to do this in our advancing years. This morning after a 2,800 foot ascent I was able to run up a hill to fetch my pack, and it felt very good to do so, as if I still had 20 year-old knees. Sadly, going down these hills, the knees are very much aged 61.

I was thinking as we walked today about “The tragedy of the commons,” a Malthusian essay put forth by Garrett Hardin in 1968. In it the author speculates that any time we have unregulated access to resources of any kind, that each individual’s tendency to maximize his own advantage invariably leads to over-utilization and eventual destruction of the resource.

It’s got two things going for it that right wingers love: One, Hardin claims that we can go on for centuries before tragedy sets in, so that they can always claim to be right in the future even if wrong in the present. Second, they have a ready-made solution to the problem: Privatize everything.

I have seen overuse of the commons in the US, where ATV’s, snowmobiles and four-wheelers destroy habitat, each one contributing just a bit. Ranchers always want more grazing rights. Our highways are overrun by vehicles so that each city is it’s own nightmare and there is hardly a thoroughfare anywhere that is not noisy and polluted.

So Hardin is on to something useful, though the American right wing is, per usual, off an a nut-bound tangent. We do need to regulate use of the commons. In that I include air, water, airwaves, land and health care.

And usually the best means by which we achieve and fairness in use of the commons is government. Hardin’s local pasture had no governing force at work, but a town council with open meetings would easily, even if noisily, have solved that problem.

The reason this all comes to mind is two days of hiking through pastures that have been tended and shared for centuries, and that are as healthy and verdant and any in the world. We have ridden on efficient and affordable buses and trains. The Internet is everywhere and easily accessible and powerful. They have excellent and affordable health care here, accessible to everyone.

The simple truth is that competition is a destructive force that needs to be hemmed in and contained. Competition is destroying the American health care system. Competition forced Wall Street rating agencies to overlook seriously flawed investments, knowing that issuers could shop around for the best rating. That aloneu nearly brought down the economy. Competition forces lying in advertising, monopolistic behavior and dishonest business practices. It’s entirely a false religion forced on us by hucksters who are paid to theorize by the very people who need to be reined in.

Europe works. It’s not perfect. They fight and screw up and get things wrong. But they do so many things better, including infrastructure, transportation and health care. It’s going to be hard to go back to the US and re-enter our lives now that we’ve seen how well it works elsewhere.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me to be no other than human inventions, set up to enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. (Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason)

Galileo said things that were plainly true and yet the astronomers of the court did not respect him. They knew of what we now call official truth. They quietly mocked him, as they were on the correct, if not accurate side of truth. These things come to mind as we see the massive cathedrals and palaces – these buildings do not represent faith. They are about power. Who would know about Jesus were those things implanted in our minds as youth? I was afraid to be disrespectful of him a young age, and also knew about the tithe. It was the spoils of war and the tithe that built these buildings. It was power speaking.

I have little run-ins now and then on the blogs, and I hear people speak the words that power put in their brains. The swear allegiance to parties and country. They know about Washington, Jefferson, Jesus and Lincoln. Each party swears the other is dishonest. Each mirrorrs the other.

We are products of power. Our “churches” are the cathedrals of Washington. They are built with the spoils of war and tithing. Both parties believe in the buildings and the ideology they represent. If someone says that ideology is bunk, like Galileo, exile awaits. But we are gentler now. Exile means that we do not advance in our career or do not get appointments. If we are really truthful about our emperor, we are called conspiracy theorists. That is the ultimate insult. The very accusation invites ostracism, perhaps confinement to an apartment for the rest of our lives. Certainly our careers are dead, unless we learn to shut up and look at our shoes and pretend not to know things that we know.

Ellul says tha after WWII, Italy stopped doing propaganda, or at least agitprop. Propaganda can be benign, after all. Agitprop is different – it seeks action, aggression, movement towards the ideas that the state wants us to move to – invade this or that country, hate this or that group.

After the war, religion ceased to important in Italy. Today is Sunday, and the churches are empty. I wonder if the two are connected. The US is swimming in agitprop and fear with police everywhere. Everything and everyone is branded. Metal detectors are as common as hot dog vendors in Times Square. We routinlely have our possessions inspected. We are as religious as any Muslim state. We are also a police state. The trick is to make it appear as though police protect us as they watch our every move. That takes propaganda, in the form of fear; what Mencken called “hobgoblins.”

Italy is peaceful. Police are rare. People do not fear one another. We walk the narrow corridors of Venice and we are not afraid of muggers. There are no guns. I think that this what we become in the absence of agitation propaganda: peaceful, happy people. Italians are well-educated, content. There are no signs of war even as, at US insistence, Italy is part of the NATO attacks on Pakistan and Libya. You’d hardly know it. These people are not at war. They are at peace with themselves and the world.

All in the absence of fear.

What with the London and Madrid terrorist bombings, Eurail security is intimidating. Walking through the Rome staton, police were every… Well, actually, hardly to be found. I did see two. They were very friendly as we quizzed them about the location of customer service.

People come and go, get on and off, and are not harassed, body-scanned, told to shut up, or privacy-invaded by WalMart cops.

Damned fools! Don’t they know they are supposed to be afraid? Don’t they know there are hobgoblins out there?