Keeping It Real About College

So I will call this one Keeping it Real About College. It is written from the perspective of an older student a year out from finishing his educational nonsense. So what are the pros and cons of going to school at a particular age?
    So the young kids have advantages. They have dorm living and such so they can focus on school, and a lot of them have parents wiping their ass. But in reality they have no clue who they are. They don't know how to play the game, and I know the game. I'm the Mastermind. Remember the Megadeth song. Okay, that was self-absorbed, back to the pro et contra. They have a lot of energy but a lot of them will just end up fucking up, partying and changing majors. If they graduate, they will have piles of debt and nothing to show for it but some STIs and a misdemeanor record. I have seen this happen so many times. Most people never even use the degree in the field. If these kids work, they get experience and if they are worth a fuck they move up and make the degree irrelevant. If they don't they get out of school with no idea how the world works and end up at your local Shrink crying to get some Zannies because Mommy and Daddy lied about the degree being worth a damn and being a ticket into the middle class. The middle class does not exist. College feels like adult-day care, where people dump their kids because they don't know how to tell them to grow up, and it gets them out of the house and allows Papa and Momma bear to get frisky again and join that swingers site they have always wanted to be on. Parents will also try to live their dreams through their kids, and this is a big factor in them pressuring their children to go to college. Many older people have their head up their ass when it comes to economic reality. Keep in mind that everyone is somewhat full of shit most of the time, unless they are swilling salt-water for regularity.
    As an older student, you will have few of these problems. You may have to adapt to academia, but so will younger students. You will have had to work before, so you know what you want to do. These kids probably won't exist to you with their weak ass immature problems. So you can focus. On the flip side, you will be juggling work and school. But you will have had a lot of fun when you were younger, so this should not be a distracting factor.
    Some of your professors will seem like twatbuckets, because of a lot of them are, being people who played by the rules and never worked a day in their lives. But you will handle their shit and keep going.
    It's a lot of paperwork and red-tape. Being the smartest person in the room is especially odd when a person in that room is someone with a doctorate. There are some fields that will give you a job on completion of the four-year degree. There is a lot in the nursing field because these Jabba the Hut looking folks called our fellow citizens love their burgers.
    As far as K-12: I would just fire all the teachers, repeal compulsory schooling, hire new teachers. You could force some vocational or life training onto high schools, and make sure they give kids that option. I would standardize college credits across the board, at least across the state and maybe even include a course on navigating higher education. You could start doing 'dual-credit' as part of the regular graduation plans. College level science and math is more advanced than high school, but nothing else is at the college level outside of the last 30 credit hours you will take out of a 120-hour degree plan. It is the same stuff, done again.   
    Here is pro-tip: CLEP out of the nonsense. Hopefully, you get some AP done before you go. You can often check your books out from the college library. Amazon Prime is your friend on shipping. If you want to do business, become a manager somewhere. If you want to do technology, get a certification. There are states that have the balls to let you become a lawyer without a degree. If you want to become an artist, just do it.
    About that debt. Well, there is military service, Americorps, occupational programs where available. I'm still waiting on someone to 'check the bank' and when he gets before the judge tell them that he was just trying to take care of his college debt.

The Gangsta Version of American History

Satire follows-

What do you know about that OG Uncle Sam, yours truly? Let me keep it real for once, about this here American Experiment. Don't be like Clinton: inhale. Europeans show up, 'Nice place guys, I think we will stay'. Pulled a Columbus. 'You Indians look cold with your skimpy clothes, have some blankets. Shit, our bad, we forgot to check them for small-pox. Now this shit is depopulated and we can't fuck enough to make it right. Damn Micks are enjoying potatoes and expect freedom at some point. Guess we will need some free labor. Because who wants to pay motherfuckers for building a country anyway? Alright brothers, we dragged you across the ocean and you are now 3/5ths. We will eventually free you but we have a nice serving of Jim Crow waiting for you down the line. What, it doesn't taste good? It's better than 3 squares of slavery. This White Man's burden is a bitch. Fine, no more segregation. What do you mean we are oppressing you legally? Prisons are like summer camps I promise.

Ah, where was I? Damn Mexico, you looking good. What do you mean 'no'? You don't say 'no' to big daddy OG Uncle Sam, don't make daddy go Manifest Destiny on you. Alright Jews, we will be on the level about you killing our boy Jesus and make you full citizens if you help us make this hustle look legit. JC had that beef with the Pharisees who were tripping off the law and shit. He said fuck the laws, but came to to overthrow, but to fulfill and shit. No Mexicans, we done jacked you and punked you out, you can't come back over and work. What do you think this is, a meritocracy?

16th Amendment. Yea, just give us your shit and there won't be any trouble. Look man, I ain't gonna stand here and wait till Armageddon and the unleashing of the Beast Romney and shit talking about ratification and all that. You best decide Joe Public, because Uncle Sam doesn't like waiting. Wait, Federal Reserve. I've got to think on this. Feddy, you saying we can just invent the money and our boys in Congress can hit this like a credit account? Deep game. Oh Jackson killed the bank and you are going to put that genocidal Just Another Crazy White Man on the money? I like your style Feddy.

Britannia, you were like an older sister to me. But you can't try to check me like you did. But Uncle Sam grew up to be a bad motherfucker. We your bad motherfucker now. You got them Germs crying because they running out of sauerkraut. Germany, sign this Versailles shit. France you pussy motherfucker, why you starting shit you can't finish? Stay down Germany, stay the fuck down. You done boy. Sign this shit or we will fuck your shit up. League of Nations? Whatcha talking about Wilson?

Capone: You can't compete with this kind of Gangster. You thought you was hard didn't you Al? La Costa Nostra: we don't appreciate competition man. You can do your thing- but don't you ever forget who the baddest motherfucker is. Adolf you need some cheddar? My boys down on Wall Street got all of it. They just print that like its going out of style. Out of thin air. Ford you want to set up shop over there? My F-Dog, never missing a profit.

Goddamn its getting heavy out there. Look at Russia and Germany. Yea Japan, see we hear you and your boyz be having a turf war. Best back off China. We go way back. Look man I don't give a fuck about no national dignity Japan, best back the fuck off. How you gonna try and tell me that aint my turf? Shits been tight and I've been sipping after that Prohibition shit. You know how I get when I drink. Just ask Spain. You know maybe we went overboard and shit but you just can't talk to me like that when I drink. Alright, we done being diplomatic. You aint getting nothing from us. Do something about it. Pearl Harbor! How the fuck could you! Blowing up all our ships. You dirty rat motherfucker! What does Uncle Sam look like? I said What does he look like? Well Japan, does he look like a bitch? Bet your horoscope didn't see those mushroom clouds coming. Guess Japan finally listened to Shao Khan when he shouted 'you will never win'. Then why you got to treat him like a bitch? You shoulda seen that European Theater: I came in with that DDAY Shit. Fuck all that Eastern Front shit. We took that Nazi lederhosen wearing empire all on our own! Murica! We got murk in our name and you wonder why we always murkin.
Morganthau, that is one cold-blooded plan. But this German Race seems to be a problem. Goes all the way back to Martin Luther and his 95 Theses, with that 96th being about killing all the Jews. Apparently his drunk ass didn't find the right whore whose pussy he could fall into and be spit back out as the miscarriage of humanity that he in fact was. I don't judge but game recognizes game

 Russia what the fuck? Russ, This is our fucking corner man. FTM man: read the fucking memo. Read that memo? You didn't get the memo about Dresden? N-A-T-O baby we roll deep. REPRESENT the Representative democracy. Oh you want to gear up, Russ? WE GOT THOSE ICBMS baby. Aint nowhere my bald eagle can't shit on. Oh you know we don't play Russia. Nagasaki thought we played. They said hello to our little....boy.

That's right Korea. We done murked every fool who steps to us. JFK are you high talking all that peace shit? Lyndon, you got to take care of this fool or it's on you. Say hello to our Texas Syndicate Boys for me. Vietnam. Bring it you fuckers. Alright man, we cool, we cool. Running out of breath and shit, damn Vietnam you can throw some hands. I should call you UFC-Nam. See that American public, we fucked that boy up! Oh you say he fucked me up? You should see his ass. 3 million dead! Murica. We got murk in our motherfucking name.

Feminism? Who is going to make our sandwiches now?

Nicaragua was like, 'there are no MIGs why you doing this to me. Please God.' I was like, 'Niki, you know we saw those MIGS. How could you lie to us? You trying to bullshit Uncle Sam.' I gave her ass 20 minuets, to see if god came to help. Guess the Big Man was busy, or relapsing. You know He awoke on the 7^th day and saw what he had created, and swore to never take bars again? Who knows, maybe he had a case of the shakes when Niki was calling.

Monroe Doctrine! Russ, we told your ass to keep the fuck out. Iran, you can't leave me! Think of all the good times we had together. Think of SAVAK. Fine then bitch, Allah will never love you like I did!

Columbia got some good shit. Yea, we keep that shit coming. Drugs are bad for you America. Oh yea, you caught Cee Eye Aye shipping it in to get paper. Rule of law? I am the law! Got that white pony all spread out on some Grade-A DC hoes, those Congressmen love it. They go ham on those ladies man, hitting it like the cervix is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Our boy Manny got a little greedy down in P-Ma. You know what happens when you get greedy. Russia why you wanna quit now? What you mean you broke and sick? Ain't so hard now you Ruskie motherfuckers. Thanks man, thanks for taking that wall down. Now I'm gonna show you the ropes. Shock Therapy is the only way. I'll show you how we play the fucking game. I'm that OG. 'We won't expand NATO further' oh man Europe, Russ bought that shit, can you believe it? Make sure Yeltsin got something to sip on. That boy crazy.

Saddam, we gotta talk business. Nothing personal. You gotta get outta Kuwait. Oh you say that we said it was cool? Who will believe me over you? Shoulda known who you were fucking with and got that shit on tape. We turned out Saudi Arabia a long time ago. We been drilling that like a Vivid production for a long time, on the down low. We made you Saddam. See that international community? Fourth largest army and we got that motherfucker. One-hit wonder. What do you mean he wasn't shit International Community? Rwanda, we could help you with that war. But what you got in trade? Hold up Rwanda, we got Bosnia on the other line and they are whiter than you, we will get back to you.

Teddy Kazinsky, why you gotta be blowing people up? Teddy-K you ain't helping with the crazy-white man stereotype. You still owe Cee Eye Aye for that acid he loaned you in college.

Billy Clinton. I feel bad for the man after Monica: Once you go Kosher, Goy never tastes the same again. Hillary married to the only man on the planet who has a Facebook check-in for his meat-stick and a Guest-book for when the server goes down.

Baby Boomers about to retire and shit. We gonna have to give them a little something. Say don't we have an iceberg for these fuckers? Can we send their old ass out to sea or some shit and hope they hit some ocean liner called the Rest Home? What, no icebergs? Global Warming? What the fuck are you talking about Science, it was cold as balls across half the country last year.

Shit, if it gets hotter we can finally see Canada in a bikini. Nah, she aint that type of girl. All moral and shit, talking about universal healthcare and all that. But we been deep in her for awhile. She was a good girl until the lights went off. Left those tar-sand oil stains all over her bed. Talking about China acting all thirsty, she never knows if he is in yet.

That's right Britannia. Deeper baby. Take it all in. You gonna swallow it when I pop. I ain't asking. You taught me everything Britannia. You deserve to take it easy: we got this Empire shit. King George wished he had our power.

Hold up: Arabia, did you just try to fight back? Oh we'll make you sorry. Just ask those orientals in Hiroshima. Oh yea, that's right. Why you gotta make us do this to you?

Afghanistan you so fine we won't pull out. Patriot Act baby. Don't like it, then you don't really love me like you said. Republic? Yea, its all about my REP. Millennials, we done told you to get the fuck up out of the house and get a fucking job. What do you mean no jobs? I stole a whole fucking continent in my day. College? Yea we got you. Good work Millennials, doing the right thing, busting ass for years. You got it, you graduated. Now, how about that Twenty Gs I loaned you now Millennials? You best pay up. Oh you didn't read the fine print? Can you fucking read? Shit, I almost forgot, most teachers get into graduate school on a C average with liberal arts degrees. Still, you best pay me or I'm taking some shit in trade. I don't give a fuck if your mom has cancer. Do I look like fucking UNICEF? Finland has free college you say? Hey Finland why you gotta make me look stupid like the Red Army in the Winter War? Healthcare? Haven't you heard the Dead Kennedys song 'Kill the Poor'? I wasn't much for punk, but I always said it should be the national anthem. Eddie Bernays said it would be bad for Public Relations though.

The People were like, 'middle class' and I went back to Mount Rushmore and just busted a fucking gut, 'GOT EM'. That's right Big Green Machine, die for the family. We always take care of our own, that's what the VA is for. What you doing coming home all crippled with your Stephen Hawking looking-ass. We don't want to see your ugly ass hanging around. You had to shoot some kids? Why the fuck you crying like a bitch?

Arabia, you got to chill. Did you just try and fuck with homey Israel? Israel a crazy-motherfucker man, you don't want to do that. Say Izzy, you need some heaters for this shit? Izzy on that Meyer Lansky shit. But that's why we cool Izzy. Izzy, Izzy, chill. Arabia do you want us to stop holding Izzy back? You keep making demands like that and we gonna step aside. You know where Izzy comes from? A straight soldier if there ever was one: Saul. King David, that Don Corleone who was so hard he promised safety to his enemies and took out they whole family. Palestine, we support your human rights and all or some shit. But your boy Grand Mufti was all about that German sausage. You see that picture of him shaking hands with Hitler? Shaking Adolf's Rebecca Right when you know that nasty motherfucker didn't wash after firing off some of his knuckle children.

Saddam, hey man. You live near Osama's people. What do you mean you don't run with him? You look like you could be brothers. UN, we need you to look away while we do this. You don't want to see what we are going to do to this camel-fucker. International Decency? Decency Deez Nutz. Saddam you and your boys best come up out of your house. Catch a square with Sammy! Why you scared? Lion of Babylon, more like the lion of bahababah. Shock and awe, you though we were fronting? We know you cooking shit in there! We gave you the fucking ingredients!

See Iraq, we took care of the bad man for you. He was terrible. But Uncle Sam is a real man. You need my shoulder to cry on? Yea, we got a little rough with the place. Fucked this place up. Sure, we will fix it for you. We know some people, but it won't be cheap. Quality is never cheap. You keep crying and getting bitchy. You know what would make you feel batter Raq? I know it was good for you. This place is a dump. Feed those fucking kids. Sanctions for 15 years? Why you getting all heated? Call the international community! Do it! None of those motherfuckers will do shit. No one loves you Raq. Damn, girl, you got to get checked. Looking like sour cream or a yogurt factory down there. You so fucking dirty if you swim in the gulf BP would get blamed for the damage. You got ninja turtles hiding down there? What do you mean I gave it to you? I gotta get out of here.

Ahmadinejad? Who let your monkey ass out of the cage? Somebody put his ass back in the zoo, maybe with the GW Bush Ape if we need to.

Media, why you gotta call me a liar about why we had to get rid of Saddam? Look, he wasn't cooking. But off the record, I can tell you why we did it. My boy Cheney is actually a demon from the 9^th circle. If his body dies his soul will return to hell. He sustains himself off children, and the Raq's happen to be the most succulent. They left something out of the Book of Revelations. When he gets home he is going to clique up with Dick Nixon. You think Satan is the prince of darkness, wait till the Dick Squared ticket runs things. Nobody wants to see that. Hurts my feelings when you call me a liar. What do you mean Gulf of Tonkin? It was a misunderstanding. My bad, but you gotta get over the sixty thousand dead already.

Oh you think I'm paranoid Lady Liberty? We know you been 'hoeing it up' with Islam. Of course we can read your emails. Who the fuck is texting you? Constitution? My boys wrote that shit, you think they believed all that shit? The Founding Fathers of the WASP Set were a special sort. Quoting Cicero like he wasn't a slum lord in the Roman Senate. Talking about Brutus. More like Brattus, shanking one of the greatest generals in history because some people need the freedom to enslave others. They seemed pretty good about it so I never thought of pulling them aside and telling them how the story of the Roman Republic ended.

Drive by on that Libya motherfucker! Qaddafi had to be hit. It's all about the game.

Say FSA, we gotta get that Frodo Baggins-looking Assad outta there. FSA, you off the chain cutting off heads and shit. Mad respect. Putin, you elf looking motherfucker! Sorry Vlad, I got a little heated. My bad. Say Europe I made that Ivan motherfucker my bitch! Nah, nah Putin, we cool man. No I ain't talking shit. You know Europe always crying about shit like the bitch she is. Say, if you go back into Europe, double wrap that shit because she got some of those commie crabs. Tarantulas up in there. Putin you just can't be all standing up for your country and shit. New World Order. The game always changes. You gotta change with the game. Why you trying to play Captain Save a Hoe with Syria? Syria I'm about to go to the nearest booth and change into my Captain Slap A Hoe costume. Nah, I was just playing Syria.

Ukraine, big daddy will take care of you. We can work together. Damn We the People, shut the fuck up about some motherfucking freedom. Man we got cheeseburgers and football. What kind of faggoty shit you talking about the Bill of Rights? Whatcha talking about China that we owe you some money? Don't get loud with me. You getting loud? I don't give a fuck about no trillions of dollars. Maybe your stupid ass shouldn't have given that shit to me? Shit motherfucker do I look like I pay you back if you can't collect? I broke into the house I live in, I didn't buy this shit. I jacked my Caddy too. Work smart not hard. We will be on the level as long as you keep that cheap shit coming. Japan, you was a man back in your day. Be a man again.

None of you got the balls to dump the dollar! This world is mine. That dollar is your god!

Gay Marriage? Hell no. Then bitches could marry bitches. You could lose your bitch to other bitches. Gay dads turn kids gay. Man, fuck you Science ain't nobody care about all that facts bullshit. Evidence suggest homos are born with a particular sexual orientation in studies? Who the hell reads anymore when you have America's Got Talent to watch. Man, don't you know the orphanage builds character? Anything is better than having a bunch of queers running around raising other queers. Ferguson, why you gotta try and flip the script? We gave you everything. So what we were hard on you? You ought to thank us. See that shit up in Africa? AIDS like a motherfucker. Get your shit together like paleface. So what the White Man smokes meth and commits most crimes? Did you see how black you were driving when that our boys in SS uniforms pulled you over and worked you over?

Asians, who the fuck are you to tell Whitey about making bank and having strong families? BNBG White America. Democracy? Demos, dems my bitches. Police State? John Q Public, we are doing you a favor. You would like prison. You will never have to worry about a proctology exam again. It will be performed by amateurs using their manhood.

Depressed? Our boy Shrink has stuff that would make Seal know he could fly. Cluster A, Cluster B or Cluster C. Can we talk away this crazy? This crazy is so crazy no one wants to be around it, so someone has to be paid to listen to it. Or do we have to medicate this crazy? Or do we need to contain this crazy and throw away the key? Can't concentrate? Oh Shrink has stuff better than what they cook in the 'Meth-West', know what I'm saying.

Another mass shooting? You people have the ability to refuse service to customers and you are still selling guns and ammo to white people? Ha.

Equality? But if we were equal you couldn't get rich could you? You want that fantasy don't you? OG Uncle Sam makes dreams come true. Free-trade baby. But ain't nothin free in this world. I got too much bling huh? The Golden Rule- he who has all the gold makes the rules. I got all the gold. Oh you want to see what we have in Ft. Knox? We pawned that shit with the Red Dragon store on the corner. I'll get it back I swear, we just gotta hit a mad lick on some third world fuckers first. Pimping ain't easy. Keep it sleazy brothers and sisters. Don't forget your sleep meds, because we all miss the American Dream. Don't worry about FEMA camps man. You smoking too much of that Colorado dank. Just heads up though- if you ever see a Golden Corral that no one walks out of, well, wink wink, nod nod. Inflation? You fat fucks should thank my Elites for high food prices. Whole country looking like some Jabba the Hut extras for the new Star Wars movie and shit. Only in America! God Bless America! 2015. How could you say I'm racist, when we got a brother as the public face? Christie is running? Shit I'd vote for his ass if he actually ran for it, know what I mean. He needs some cardio. Hey at least we won't have another Weiner scandal with him, he hasn't seen his own junk in years, let alone taken pictures of it. Bachmann? IRS Lawyer at the head of a lower taxes movement? Man, but she got some moves, you remember in 2012 when she was Deep-throating that innocent meat dish with Perry? He is on the down-low, you know? Pelosi, looking like some Monsanto trans-species experiment gone wrong between a Dotson and a female.

You think voting would be so easy if it worked? I play to win. I never lose. Stop talking big about rising up. Drones and Google baby. I got this locked down. I hate to break it to you, but no Austrian bodybuilders are coming back in time to stop the real OG. You want to change the parameters of the American Experiment do you? You think it's failed in it's mission? Not everyone can be street-smart. Ha. I sent boys to the moon, and you think that it's failing, rather than succeeding at what it was really about in the first place? Goddamn you stupid. Oh I took the Lord's name in vain. Motherfucker I roll with the Dark Father, you seen that Skull and Bones shit? My favorite part of the Bible: and Jesus saith onto his disciples coming out of the cities....woe onto Capernaum for it hath not the food to satisfy our munchies! It will be better for the Tyrians on the Day of Judgment for they have the better weed!' Nancy Grace doesn't favor legalizing right? Well, that bitch should. You know how I high I would have to be to part that red sea of Ms. Graceless and let my people go? Drier than the Atacama down there.

US: Greatest country in the world. You think its bad here, have you seen North Korea? Of course the food is safe. Don't buy that hippie horseshit about cancer in the food and environment. Has Daddy ever lied to you? Man it's getting cold. Hear about that pro-marijuana bill in the Texas House? This must be the sub-arctic weather conditions spilling from Hades. Why you so worried about your kids when you running around getting lit and fucking like you need another one that you can't take of?

Aliens? I don't know nothing about that, but I can tell you what I hear. See they are just some Chimos and Chesters that no one else wants out there. So they come here as a prison sentence sticking shit up a fat man's ass having him squeal like some interstellar version of Deliverance. You know why we cut back on SETI? I can see them putting aside centuries of peaceable actions and just deciding that whatever species produced Honey Boo Boo broadcasts must not be allowed to coexist with them in the same state of matter.

I love seeing those social security taxes go up. Most of you won't even make it to collect at this rate. Congress buys more blow off your taxes than a nation of John Belushi's could consume. Ever better than jacking a whole country is jacking a country and having them think that it's virtue to give me their money.

International Law! Charge me international Criminal Court! I'm the original Teflon Don! I'll be off like OJ in no time.

These politicians calling immigrants parasites when they live off tax dollars and contribute nothing. That's rich, I tell you what. Why you worried about the barbarians coming to the gates when barbarians built the gates? We are the barbarians of the world my children.

Why you reading this, don't you have a place to be, like a job? I'm sure the Clip Haired Cunt in HR is going to be understand. But word is that its been a few years since she, you know, felt like a woman. So I wouldn't bet on it. You got that rent to pay right? Think your landlord will take a pint of blood in trade?

Probably not, but you can always donate some plasma if you come up short at the end of the month. You own your home? You mean you pay the bank rent. Oh you own it outright and you think you bad. Well, you still gotta pay the county right? I better let you guys be on with your business. Next time you see the sunrise, remember- all those wars and those deaths were so you could see a golden arch McDonald's Arch rise above your otherwise beautiful skyline. The best part about all this was when I said 'free country' and you motherfuckers gave everything for it like it wasn't an oxymoron.

Social Contract

Abstract

Civilization as a process over time that people subjected themselves to. The process of extinction of the hunter-gatherer way of life has examples in written history. Advantages used by settled groups such as superior numbers of those in cities against those of hunter-gatherers led to their conquest. The rise of the state: irrigation for crops likely the cause of the rise of government. In the economic arena, there was the rise of crafts
There was a corresponding change in religion from Shamans to priests and the end of equality and the rise of class. The beginnings of war came thereafter.
The other end of civilization: Collapse and rebuilding, invasions by non-settled peoples. Civilization collapses and settled people are invariably conquered by non-settled people.
Is there a Social contract? Was the social contract ever presented? Is it a valid contract between equal parties?
The basis of every society is the Social Contract, which is entirely fictional and no more real than Rawl's Veil of Ignorance.

    The Social Contract is a concept used in political philosophy whereby a contract  binds together the ruled and rulers. It usually states that humanity subjects itself into society via willful choice. Abuses will bring punishment, and that law will rule over all and there will be some common good. There are two proponents of this: Rousseau and Hobbes. But has this ever been an event or is it only a concept used by philosophers to justify the existence of the state superstructure overlaying the modern social body? When one  views the history of the transition form the 'natural state' into settled people, there occurs something different from any compact between the governors and the governed. The change happened slowly, in a gradualistic process more akin to geologic time than anything we associate with history. The small roving bands became chiefdoms, and these chiefdoms morphed into monarchies as the transition from horticulture to intensive agriculture took place. The process was a total transformation of what it meant to be human. By the time society came into being in cities, there was nothing like a party to a compact, but merely a subjected populace and the rulers these de facto slaves supported.
    Thus, one of the obvious problems of the social contract is the idea of when it began. An additional one where different individuals with different social standing came to cut a deal to divide their rights and whether anything like this ever occurred. The formation and dissolution of society are so historically common that to pick any of the occasions of this would necessitate a book. Instead, if one is to be honest, one  must go back to the original transition between the 'natural man' as a hunter-gather to Homo Civilis, the being that today inhabits the earth. .
    Hobbes: 'The equality of ability arises from the equality of hope. Therefore if any two people desire the same thing which they cannot have they become enemies and try to destroy each other. Hence it is manifest that during which time men live without common power ….life is nasty, brutish and short.'’
    Rousseau: 'Although in this state he deprives himself of some advantages which he got from nature he gains in return others so great, his faculties are so stimulated and developed, his ideas so extended, his feelings so ennobled, and his soul so uplifted, that, had not the abuses of his new condition often downgrade him below that which he left.....'
    On the one hand, Hobbes claims the state of nature to be entirely undesirable. On the other Rousseau thinks that it has advantages but that so does the state of nature. The first idea of the social contract theory is that there exists man, 'in a state of nature'. What does this mean really? This state usually goes undefined. Beyond philosophers, what can one  find out about the state of nature? Aristotle says that man is a 'social animal'. But there are other social animals, so an examination of them will help. We clearly cannot compare ourselves to insects, despite our current numbers we are still mammals. To take an obvious example, Wolves also have a social structure. Lone wolves are wolves who live outside this social structure. Chimpanzee society resembles human society the closest: chimps have complex dominance structures and engage in conflict. So humanity, in its basic hunter-gatherer structure resembles a combination of a wolf-pack and a chimpanzee troupe. So this is the 'natural man' that the philosophers speak about without proper definition. His/her state of nature is an egalitarian extended family moving about surviving by hunting and gathering naturally occurring plants-the transition to society came later, and took many generations.
    The rise of the state is not something that can be easily tied down in a matter of fact. The rise of agriculture after many generations of horticulture and modifications of crops into  a form of wheat that could be cultivated en masse required an irrigation system which itself required administrators to oversee it. The hunter-gatherers thus would be slowly absorbed and driven off the richest land, and into the hinterlands. The rise of the Scythians in Asia would be an example and all of the nomadic groups that followed them. In the historical record, there have been many instances of non-settled people converting their way of life under a monarchy or another imposition. Norse Pagans would be an example. On another extreme are the extermination of Siberian peoples by Russian Cossacks and the settlement of North America to the detriment of its native peoples, that is, the act of genocide by settled peoples against non-settled ones.
The process of civilization was as follows: Acculturation of the values of the settled community. In the adaptation to the environment that they created, so was ascribed status, that is, a noble class which fed off of the work of others. At some point between the transitions from chiefdom to full monarchy, hereditary nobility took charge; social stratification then took hold, and deculturation of the skills and norms of the hunter-gatherers followed. They lost the ability to hunt and find food on their own, and became tied to the land even in times of drought and starvation. The birth of peasantry was the final result from the process; that is a group of people who were one harvest from starvation. Therefore, by the time the society rose, there was nothing like equal parties present to a contract. Instead, there was a king ruling over craftsman and then peasants with the point of the sword. Health and sanitation were horrible in ancient cities. Though it is not universally so, we know that the Indus Valley Civilization had clear streets and public bath facilities as well as indoor plumbing. Clearly infectious diseases followed these cramped conditions with otherwise would not have been in play. So the move to cities led to a loss of quality of diet. It is also a fact that most causes of infant mortality are diseases that found their breeding ground in ancient cities. So it is clear that the first mass of people to become dwellers did not benefit from it. It may have taken some time for them to lose the skills that allowed them to live on the land. Or it may not have taken much time at all: Families that supported themselves in the Great Depression via gardens and hunting have lost those skills only a few generations later.
    The spiritual values changed with the physical. The change in religion was one where the language of ritual and spiritual hierarchy took the place of Shamanic practices. People enjoyed ritual drugs, an example of which would be Soma in the Rig Veda. In contrast to a society which consumed beer in large quantities and whose priests held a monopoly on contact with the spiritual. The rise of the state meant the rise of crafts and with a division of labor came a class system, and these artificers had the task of making weapons for the army of the god-king. The monopoly on violence and the army itself gave them and edge in warfare. The difference in combat would have been of numbers and severity. War would have been just as brutal as hunter-gatherers, but now it was possible to raise thousands in an army where hundreds would have been the upper-limit in a tribal setting. The evidence of animism is everywhere in cave art. The transition to theism clearly came with settlement. The idea of a powerful deity, usually a paramount solar one as the king of the gods meant that the celestial/astral realms followed their earthly counterparts. The social order was divine. Thus, the change in economics meant a change in spiritual values. Language requires an explanation for dominance. Therefore, most ancient cultures merely said that the gods had written the social order in the sky.  The Bible acknowledges that writing was so powerful that literacy never spread outside of a scribe class. Therefore, the audience for the written tale would be small, though no doubt priests would pass it verbally to the common citizens. The idea that the social order was divine was, therefore, also a justification for the 'master-class' in treating its social inferiors as lower beings. Writing overtook verbal storytelling as a transmitter of culture for the elite. The people who were not literate did not have this. Literacy is one clear demarcation between humanity and its closest cousins and made the sort of varied multi-generational societies which have popped up all over the world as possible. It became possible to leave a legacy other than the biological. The written word enhanced the capacity for cultural evolution. Deification of the sun followed the transition to intensive agriculture. Celestial objects had always been venerated by now with the shift from a nomadic society to a settled one; the power of the sun to bring crops was seen as paramount. Time was always something humans had been aware. Winter would surely bring a shifting of the migratory patterns and types of game, but now knowing the very time of year in which one resided gained much importance. The very concept of a year would come from this. The proliferation of mega-scale architecture using stone monoliths as giant calendars came in this period.
    The repeated collapse of complex societies and their constant wars with nomadic tribes suggest that it is not a simple interaction. Thus, the social contract appears to have never been torn up, because with each collapse there is a rebuilding of the same type of society. Modern societies in the West are either democratic-leaning or republics. Both of these societies pay lip service to the concept of a social contract. What significance does the social contract have if it is nothing but a foundation myth for the modern west? If everyone born today was never presented with the contract, and their ancestors never were, then how would one register the displeasure towards the system? There are two schools of thought on this: to engage in political participation or to revolt.
    Democratic societies are in reality variations of representative republics, with only the Swiss Cantons practicing a true democracy. The myths of the state even extend into the realm of national founders. The national myth is a uniquely American behavior in today's world, in fact, the mythic nature of the explanation of national origins goes back to the stories of Solon and Lycurgus. They were both semi-mythical figures who founded two city-states that would bequeath the world a democratic/republican tradition which has planted itself in New Delhi, Tokyo, Seoul, Moscow, and Pretoria. Globalism has a political edge. Revolution seems to be an event where people clearly repudiate the social contract by overthrowing the political system. Revolutions are clearly a redefining of the social contract. But in reality many revolutions fall short, but why? Why did the Communist revolution in Russia, run by syndicalist 'soviets', lead to a totalitarian state? Why did the American Revolution lead to a country that was the last to ban slavery and whose presidents have power that King George could not dream about? Because shedding blood is the language of violent repression in the state and once formed, the state will only replicate itself. By accepting this language and its blood-sacrifice lexicon, you are inevitably leading to the very institution that a revolutionary society  worked to overthrow. Simply put the state was established by violence, and anyone seeking to overthrow it with the same will only perpetuate the same pattern.
    So if these 'wages of civilization' are so negative then what type of changes need to come about to address this? Firstly, a return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle is not desirable or practicable.  Ancestors made the choice to settle in cities and had a reason for doing so. Barring a near-extinction of the human race the global population would not be capable of surviving and the damage to most of the biosphere has been severe and would not make for ideal living conditions.
    You must question all the idea that is as absurd as the proposition of 'original sin' would be to an atheist. The myth of the social contract is positive in that it at least suggests that society have a consensual basis. The same idea is dangerous in that it misconstrues legitimacy of authority as based on some social contract which happened in the past, and binds future generations to it. The common alternatives are a 'love it or leave it' approach. If one does not accept the existence of the state one should just 'move to Somalia' or some other randomly chosen undeveloped nation. This is problematic in that it suggests that the globalized world has political diversification that it does not. It also binds each generation to the mythic events of the past.
    The social contract was an 'event' that never occurred. It is a concept used for political legitimacy. The actual process of transitioning from a 'state of nature' into civilized life involved slow and painful change over time. The change encompassed spirituality, technology, daily habits, and even the very perception of time itself. It culminated in a dominance hierarchy which was self-perpetuating and whose main method of keeping control was force. In the age of globalization the system of representative democracy has become common, as well as its foundational cornerstone the social contract.

The Indirect Approach to American Foreign Policy

The Indirect Approach to American Foreign Policy

American foreign policy has been dominated by the question of preventing attacks on the Continental United States such as those that occurred on 9-11. I would have to argue that on balance the terrorist acts do not justify the response which has devastated two countries and has no end in sight, despite two declared ends to the Second Iraq War and an occupation of Afghanistan that has gone on longer than the Soviet intervention in the same country. The resolution to the current international tensions present in the world is that the United States should stop supporting covert operations in which the right hand of the federal government does not know what the left hand is doing, and stay out of regions in which is has no actual national interest like the Ukraine. Leaving aside the aforementioned crisis in Ukraine and the sequel to the Cold War which the human race can only hope will get stuck in development hell, the primary conflict the United States is engaged in is called the War on Terrorism. Terrorism, legally speaking is only the threat of violence to accomplish objectives, and there exist criminal statues for dealing with the act, statutes which have been applied to countless everyday people in situations ranging from altercations to domestic disturbances. So the idea is so vast as to include ordinary people decidedly not Islamic, let alone foreign.

Then there is the question of method: BH Liddel Hart, a noted strategist, favors an indirect approach to warfare, and it stands in direct opposition to the hyper-power approach followed by the American government post September 11th. Often cited as the 'good war' by vast swathes of the political spectrum, World War 2 was far less interventionist than any war since. Indeed, during the lead up to the war, Americans did not assist Spain during the Spanish Civil War and American companies helped arm and fuel Franco through various mechanisms. That is, the United States did not intervene in Europe in some attempt to prevent the rise of Fascism like it did post Great War to attempt to strangle Bolshevism in its cradle.

The American response to the destruction of three buildings in the World Trade center complex can best be analogized with an example using hypothetical real people. Suppose a kid, who could be rightly called a punk, puts a brick through a man's window, who could be named 'Sam'. This punk causes some damage harms or kills members of Sam's family and runs. Sam is angry and finds where the punk is staying, and in this case, he is a guest in someone else's home. Sam goes, kills members of the family he is staying with, and lays claim to the damaged home. But the punk escapes. Rather than track him down, Sam attacks a neighboring home because they shared similar interests with the Punk, claiming that he never liked the shady nature of the residents in the second household anyway. This is what America did in launching two invasions, killing hundreds of thousands and rendering millions homeless in a hopeless act of retributive justice which has left the U.S. looking like a unipolar rogue state. The recent contradictions relating to Syria are grand. America armed Syrian rebels to destroy the sole remaining secular Arab regime that had cooperated with it against Sunni terrorists in the past, and now claims a faction of the people it armed are so great a threat that it will again re-enter Iraq and attack targets in Syria after the American population clearly rejected direct intervention against the Damascus government.

The opposition to the idea of not intervening abroad is sure to include the moralistic component that underlies American politics. Americans are as outraged at a beheading as Romans were at the accounts of the Wicker Man ceremony. There is the constant glorification of military service in popular culture, which is a far cry from what most military personnel experience when they learn to 'hurry up and wait'. Self sacrificial ideas are at the heart of Western Culture, which draws its obvious inspiration from Christianity. Terrorism is an asymmetrical response to the American 'hyperpower'. There is a fear of this force, which managed to hijack planes, get past NORAD and accomplish what the major empires in the 20^th Century never could: a strike on the American homeland. It was a strike against the financial and government centers. The fear of this, and desire to change the Middle East through military action is understandable. Why not maintain such a military presence as we do when there are such wide-ranging threats? The post World War 2 Red Army was scary, and the existence of the military industrial complex grew out of a desire to dominate the Soviets and prevent a Red Pearl Harbor. There is a certain wisdom in being afraid of people who hold the Salafist interpretation of Islam and who have no obvious fear of death despite obvious American superiority on all levels. Islam is not a simple weak faith. There is a history of conflict between Islam and every other religion it encounters, and a theocratic impulse towards establishing religion. The American Republic even fought wars early on against Barbary pirates.

Fear of Islam in general ignores the disparate interpretations of Islam. It also ignores the modern roots of the Salafist organizations which has root in the very interventionist approach that is supposed to solve it. Fighting this global movement with military force merely leads to the replacement of the destroyed terrorist network with that of another, ad infinitum. 9/11 would have been best prevented by following existing protocol, or perhaps not fermenting religious extremism in Afghanistan, nor of setting up the apparatus for a modern Jihadist movement to kick the Russians out of this country. Surprise attacks are not going to occur as a result of state actors, and if it remains the role of the U.S. Military to combat other nations, and not small non-state groups, it should not be forward deployed in the current manner.

What would a voluntary withdrawal from the world stage look like and how could it be accomplished? Bases in Europe are antiquated. NATO should have been dismantled post Cold War, its expansion is absurd. A treaty with Russia, of whatever form, is the best way to redress any grievances. Putin is not Stalin. Massive commitments in the middle east have destroyed two countries and dismantled one terrorist network, merely to see another rise on its ashes out of American desire to overthrow Bashar Al Asaad. These conflicts are not something America should be involved in. American commitment to Israel began in 1973, so the fact that this relationship is regarded as sacrosanct is odd. Syria and Iran are nations with whom we need to be negotiating. Our commitments in the pacific are likewise nonsensical. North Korea is so starved and poor that if it ever crossed the DMZ its soldiers would spend more time eating than fighting. South Korea is perfectly capable without the American presence of arming and defending itself. China is not some Maoist backwater, but now the second largest economy on earth. Japan was long ago capable of building a navy and air force to defend itself and the idea of such a country being under our 'defense umbrella' is insane. Afghanistan is a choice of occupying a country until the end of time in order to force its various groups to continue pretending to be a nation or to bring the troops home and let that country sort itself out.

Humans are capable of great iniquity to one another in the name of conflicting metaphysical values, and the world can be a scary place, especially when viewed through a media filter that is owned, operated, and held in place by a handful of companies. Sensationalist internet reports, cable news of whatever bent broken by commercials to convince you that you are undersexed, unhealthy, or otherwise flawed certainly causes the person watching such programming to become more insecure about themselves and the environment. But this ignores cold hard actuarial fact that Americans are far more likely to be killed by a black uniformed police officer than a terrorist. It ignores the fact that this exact kind of paranoia led to the world wide atrocity called the Cold War and the subsequent war against the Third World that has never stopped. It ignores the fact that if you act as an empire you will be subject to the deprivations of liberty inherent in imperial action. It ignores the destruction of rights, whether they be natural or simply invented that should form the rational basis for society. It ignores the militarization of the police which has recently led to near revolt in Missouri. It ignores the fact that men who hold ideas can be killed, but the ideas themselves do not die. 'No man, no problem' doesn't kill the meme of the person that you killed. There is no way to democratize the middle east, or the police borders drawn up in centuries long struggles that predated the United States. We cannot kill our way to world peace, nor is this the sole national responsibility of the paramount world power.

Our Choices in the Election

What is the Cheddar at the End of the Rat Race?

'The use of money does not disestablish the normal process of creating credit. Money, it is true, is always being paid into the banks by the retailers and others who receive it in the course of business, and they of course receive bank credits in return for the money thus deposited. But for the manufacturers and others who have to pay money out, credits are still created by the exchange of obligations, the banker's immediate obligation being given to his customer in exchange for the customer's obligation to repay at a future date. We shall still describe this dual operation as the creation of credit. By its means the banker creates the means of payment out of nothing, whereas when he receives a bag of money from his customer, one means of payment, a bank credit, is merely substituted for another, an equal amount of cash.'

 Economist Ralph George Hawtrey, Currency and Credit (1919)