Game Over for Welfare Democratic States

Athens to Washington, New Delhi to London, all modern democratic welfare States have lately been the choice of billions.

Capitalism and Welfare Democracy do not mix for long, not without serious consequences. Capitalism tend to concentrate the capital in few hands whereas democracy pretend to give political power to the masses. These elected or selected representatives of masses then legislate to redistribute the public wealth by the means of taxation and welfare. Current governments always protect the present, the present generation of rulers and their support groups at the cost of future ones.

As these parliamentary democracies mature, their parliamentarians become so expensive that they go beyond the purchasing power of the common masses, who voted for them in the first place. Out of variety of tools at the disposal of democratic welfare state, the most common and effective ones are protecting the wealthy class, taxing the productive citizens and robbing their savings using a technique called Inflation.

The life of the current dominant system is probably in its mature and advanced stage. At the same time it may surprise us like an old bicycle which can remain roadworthy for many years to come. How long exactly, I don't know.

Agricultural Science, Green Revolution and Farmer Suicides

It seems that many farmers are reaching the dead end of No-Through road of Green Revolution.

Farmers' suicide is a subject too painful to discuss with the grieving families but it demands a public debate discussion about its possible causes and solutions. Wherever the Green Revolution was unleashed in developing countries few decades ago, marginal farmers are paying the ultimate price for its 'success' now. Are farmers the main culprit and deserve this harsh penalty or there are others factors that might have contributed to their demise.

To understand the complete picture, firstly we need to establish and define the major players of this game and their respective roles in it. 

Farmers of modern agricultural model are not farmers in true sense. They can be classified as miners because they are mining their soil and water. They can also be classified as petty-industrialists relying on cheap fossil fuels as their energy source along with other petro-chemical poisons and fertilisers as their farm inputs. Modern farmers can also be classified as 'Suicide-Bombers', going by the number of cancerous disease related deaths they bear in the process of perusing chemical farming.

Food production and politics of any country cannot be looked in isolation.  Whoever controls the political power (State) of any country, also controls the food production and distribution. Using subsidies, licenses and minimum support prices, not only they indirectly control which crop is grown from which seed, which chemical is sprayed to kill the weeds but where the farmers sell their produce and at what price. State also controls the research cum educational institutions like Agricultural Universities thus controlling what is taught to the next generation of scientists and what is recommend to the present generation of farmers.

The whole exercise of Green Revolution was like copying the idiots in the 'advanced economies'. Farming community was locked up in the cage of industrialised civilisation. They were like prisoners who were free to choose between doom and extinction. Agricultural scientists, in conjunction with the government department of Agriculture and with the help of foreign 'aid', taught them in such a way that they unlearned their traditional knowledge accumulated over hundreds of generation and started to behave like conquerors of the nature. We were not just another species on this planet but master of all others who are only there to serve our material needs. We did not believe anymore that Sun, air, rain and forests are there for all the inhabitants, not just for the sake of Homo sapiens.

We forgot to notice that billions of plant seeds were somehow germinating and reproducing for millions of years even before the first tractor was rolled into a field. It didn't occur to us that if you do not harden the soil running heavy farm machinery on it, you don't need to plough it to soften it up.

By developing some chemical poisons that can kill the insects and plants who compete with humans food production goals, these scientists start to believe that humans are not just one of the millions of other species but are somewhat different and special with super natural powers.

It seems that no one can misunderstand the crisis of scientific agriculture more than the highly trained agricultural scientist himself. One can imagine the condition of a mature man who was adopted by a fanatic religious group in his early childhood. What are the odds that he can break away from his masters and join another religion? An advanced degree of modern agricultural science is no different. These scientists are far too committed in their beliefs and far too dependent on the financial rewards for sticking to their guns that it doesn't make sense for them to change the course.

The grip of modern educational institutions is so tight that only a few can escape without severe constraints in their ability to think independently once they are fed through this mass production shaft. First of all a new scientist cannot graduate/post-graduate from a university unless he submits a thesis in line with the prevalent line of thinking of that institution. His score, scholarship, degree and finally job prospects depends on it.

Those who excel in such studies and do further research enhancing these scientific intervention techniques, secure high decision making executive positions in various government agencies and departments. At the top level a nexus is thus build between those officials, their political masters and multi national corporations that eventually benefit from the sale of their seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and farm machinery. Even if an agricultural engineer or a farm scientist reaches to the conclusion that his interference into eternal laws of nature is unwarranted and destructive, he cannot advocate the uselessness of his profession without losing his livelihood.

The followers of the sect of scientific agriculture are certainly capable of making the natural balance undone for a while but Mother Nature is not mother Teresa. Sooner or later Nature will use its veto power and force the equilibrium. We cannot sustain for long whilst exceeding the carrying capacity of our local environment, first and foremost its land and water. 

May be its not the fault of farmers or scientists after all. It was not long ago we all were hunter-gatherers and in the face of daily needs and threats our genes are still programmed to worry about the short-term survival in the immediate environment and not think beyond that.

It’s painful for the farmers to admit that their governments and universities, all of who promoted mechanised, energy intensive and chemical based farming practices, has fooled them. This 'Green Revolutionary' model of farming not only ruined their land and water but also forced them to go in a deep hole of debt, making it virtually impossible to get out without committing suicide.

Current political turmoil in Africa, Middle East is in fact an expression of a food crisis. Any modern scientific model of farming, whether operating under a Socialist or Capitalist economic system is in danger of collapse without unlimited supply of limited cheap fossil fuels.

Efficiency of modern scientific techniques such as tractors, pesticide power sprayers and tube-wells all help us to make our journey to the finish line faster, more efficient. 


It is not easy for an inmate to plot the prison break, not first without realising that he has been imprisoned. Only then he can think of the possible escape routes. Scientific farming is like fighting a War against Nature, no chance of winning. Sooner we admit our defeat and return to age-old traditional natural farming, better are the chances of averting more suicides in the farming families.


daradhillon@hotmail.com

The State; an Evil and Unnecessary Institution

The State and its Taxes; an Evil and Unnecessary Institution of Economic and Political Slavery

“One can’t avoid Taxes and Death”, that’s what we are taught, by the State of course. Let us agree with Death part of the statement and examine the Taxes whilst we are still alive. Death was here long before some one was taxed for the first time. Taxes only came to existence few thousand years ago, primarily in the form of human slavery. Its journey from slavery to modern income tax encompasses few hundred types such as property tax, goods and service tax, salt tax, health tax etc. They all are curse on us and they take away part of our life under the threat of coercion. That’s why the State as its driving force is a predominately an anti-social institution.

The common man, under the influence of mass education and mass media cannot imagine living without taxes and governments but when a man of integrity receives a tax bill, or a law is passed restricting use of his native language or his religious beliefs, a part of him is murdered. He doesn’t want to say yes and he can’t say no. When someone, a group or class rules over others, including him, he feels it like a condition of slavery.

Human material needs can only be met by two distinct ways. One is through economic means like a farmer growing a crop or a factory worker producing some goods. Secondly through political (parasitic) means, taxing the producers by using the state power to do so. The political one is by far an easy and more desirable option for many of us.

When we study the origin of any state, we find the evidence of conquest from the defeated owners of the former State and seizure from current economic producers under the pretext of taxes. Every country has a limited quantity of human social power. Any power and wealth that we see in the hands of the State was basically taken away from its citizens sometime in the past. One can trace down every single penny in the State’s coffers to a working human being.

Winner’s reward can have many forms. In the times of Genghis Khan it could be women, cattle or horses; In the times of Alexander the Great it was gold and silver coins but these days, in the times of Bush and Obama, it is mainly energy resources such as Oil and Gas. Sometime it is simply a contract of future sales under the terms and condition of the winning side. A State cannot exist without economic exploitation of some sort. Anyone who controls a state, even for a short while, can and does uses it for the benefit of himself, his family, his supporting group or the class it represents and Nothing Else.

Total power in the hands of any society and its Sate is pretty much constant. What one has the other side is deprived of it. The other characteristic of a State is that it has to keep increasing its power all the time to remain in power. In that process, it accumulates disproportionally high power and not enough social power to hold its weight. At that point, it also becomes extremely complex in its composition, and then it has to collapse.

Institution of State was never designed for the benefit of all It is simply there to protect the winner from the loser group or class. Abolish or curtail any future threat to its authority from internal and external powers. Minister of Interior, Home Minister, Foreign Minister and Secretary of State are not just fancy designations. They have a specific role to play. They are slaves of the State too. Most of the job is already cut out for them when they take charge. That’s why millions of people feel disheartened when they don’t find any substantial change in a country’s foreign and internal policies with the change of governments within the same State. That’s why commander-in-chief Obama could not even order the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison, let alone shutting down over one hundred army bases around the globe. Not until the Empire State seizes to be an Empire State.

All States, like all businesses collapse one day when cost of maintaining them exceeds the return on their investment. Never think that a State can defend you from any foreign aggression, it can merely force its citizens to defend it. A State uses its full force of guns and boots to keep its monopolistic control over its market territory, its participants and keep away other competing foreign state monopolies. It can only exist as a monopoly and no other way. That’s why when a territory of any state wants its independence to break away, it is classified as a separatist movement and crushed with full State force.

One can bring a government to justice but State is always above law, until it is gone. So you have to either capture it for your class benefit or dismantle it for the benefit of all. Think twice when you pay your next tax bill or vote for electing someone to rule over you. Each tax dollar and each vote transfer a part of your power to the State. At the same time discard this suggestion as rubbish if you happen to be in the ruling elite political group of your State.

http://daradhillon.blogspot.com

daradhillon@hotmail.com

Dictatorship, Democracy; What next?

Lately it seems that the whole world wants to vote for someone, especially if they have not voted before. The Democracy is the most popular form of governance, in the opinion of human population living at present.

Like all other natural phenomenon, laws of natural selection and evolution are very much applicable to the State and various forms of its Governments. These states and governments were only born when the conditions were favourable for their birth. With the same token, they will all die when time is ripe for their departure. It seems that the time for monarchy, dictatorship, military and authoritarian regimes is reaching their logical end point. The populace of these virtually obsolete states have evolved at a faster pace then the controlling state itself so these states must switch to some other form or vanish. The democratic governments around the world have passed the test so far and will be eligible to go to next round.

Kingdoms lasted for few centuries, dictators for few decades but how long these democracies will survive the test of the time?  Who knows? Survivors are entitled to rejoice but they should prepare for their own turn, like all others that have been their predecessors.

The Democratic regimes, although holding the top ranking at the moment, were not always the preferred mode of government. It is probably the most suited for the current level of evolution of the majority of people. With mass education and relatively free access to world media, the citizens are becoming well informed and Democracy has evolved as an appropriate response to that. It is the most advanced and stealth way of robbing a considerable share of its citizens’ labour with the least amount of resistance and pain. Very much like operating under general anaesthesia, controlled and well regulated.

These smart states can hire soldiers, scientists, police, judiciary, media and even artists to work towards their politico-economic goals. An agricultural scientist thinks she can improve the standard of living of millions of farmers, whilst an army colonel wonders what will happen to his fatherland without his battalion. By getting the ‘privilege’ to vote and elect their rulers every few years, electorate develop the illusion of being part of the state machine. At the same time ruling elite of the society is happy to have their slice of the pie.

If one believes in Democracy and still protests against the government elected by the majority, there must be a flaw in the equation. Either he voted for the wrong party by mistake or he doesn’t believe in the rule of majority government?

It is quite easy to depose a dictator or a king. The target is obvious and there are clear demarcation between the protestor and the target. Who do you topple when it is your own people’s elected government on the other side; you know the one which is of the people, by the people, for the people?

daradhillon@hotmail.com