Comments for The Greanville Post —Vol. VII- 2013

Comment on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby versus Prince Harry and his polo-playing American friends by Ruth Eisenbud

Ruth Eisenbud — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:04:45 +0000

Just as the state in nations labeled democracies creates and illusion of freedom, the situation is paralleled by religious institutions impose the most tyrannical of edicts as the chant the mantra of compassion.

It is not coincidental that the Queen of England is also the head of the Church of England. Chruches have a long and well deserved reputation for hobknobbing with the powers that be to remain in a position of power and wealth:

http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/QueenandChurch/QueenandtheChurchofEngland.aspx

‘The Sovereign holds the title ‘Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England’.

There are many examples of the relationship between the established Church and the State.

Archbishops and bishops are appointed by The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister, who considers the names selected by a Church Commission. They take an oath of allegiance to The Queen on appointment and may not resign without Royal authority.

The connection between Church and State is also symbolised by the fact that the ‘Lords Spiritual’ (consisting of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and 24 diocesan bishops) sit in the House of Lords. Parish priests also take an oath of allegiance to The Queen.

The General Synod (including the bishops, elected representatives from the clergy and the laity) is the supreme authority of the Church of England. The Queen opens the Synod after the elections in the dioceses every five years.

Since 1919, the Synod (formerly called the Church Assembly) has had the power to pass Measures on any matter concerning the Church of England.

Following acceptance of the Measures by both Houses of Parliament (which cannot amend them), they are submitted for Royal Assent and become law.

In addition to legislating for the Church by Measure, the General Synod has the power to legislate by Canon in its own domestic affairs such as worship and doctrine, but The Queen’s assent is required for the promulgation of such Canons. Such assent is given on the Home Secretary’s advice.

In his or her coronation oath, the Sovereign promises to maintain the Church.

The Sovereign must be in communion with the Church of England, that is, a full, confirmed member.”

Religious institutions are right up there with the 1%… imposing their hierarchical view of man and animals alike.

Comment on Disconnect: Soaring Markets/Troubled Economies by Mary Pishney

Mary Pishney — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:40:29 +0000

What a pithy distillation of the debacle that looms ever closer upon a beguiled public who get their knowledge from the very sources who plot their demise. I’ve read this author’s fabulous book, and it gave me a clammy chill as it confirmed my collective, worst fears. Facts are more than pesky things, they are the salvation to people and countries who heed their prescient predictions and take appropriate action to survive. We, given to believe almost anything, are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, ignorant of the fight that perilously soon, we’ll all be engaged in for any scrap of wood that will keep us from a watery grave as the world’s economy descends into oblivion. Being a humble school teacher, I embarked on my own designed stock market foray in the mid 90′s. “Humble” is an understatement of my portfolio, but it did serve a more meaningful unintended, but vital purpose. It forced me to read bloodless microcosmic overlays that dwindle down to economic warnings to the cities and suburbs of America. I once read where Buffet was quietly disposing of stocks as much as he dared to, and not awaken a run on Wall Street. Damn sure got my attention and I bailed in a very, unsophisticated way. I tried to inform my fellow teachers of the near term tsunami
of ’08, and the gold surge that was to parallel the bubbles implosions. Many of my peers, with looks of
amusement, told me that I worried too much, all will be well. Now I tell those same sadder, but wiser
friends that their pensions are in the cross hairs of corporate America. I get the same looks of pity on my paranoia. I hope they are right. I also had the profound impression that the ’08, economic bubble burst would, when the dollars cleared, reveal a world economically re-arranged. Proved an obvious truth with the bottom line just another massive theft of the elites upon the starving goose that laid their golden eggs of the past. This predicted debacle may just well lead to what gave us the horrors of Hitler, as so sadly seems to follow in the wake of such formed fiascoes. The plan has been in the works for longer than I feel we would believe. Pay day for the international bankers and corporations seems to be frightfully on the horizon. With all this in mind, my burning question is: What could the average person do to economically survive? Cypress was an ominous harbinger of banking account raids that robbed the average person there, with no hope of redemption. Congress has quietly, recently passed legislation that will make such a Orwellian outrage easier to be accomplish in our country. All good things DO come to an end, and the wise use their time to safeguard their survival. Hoping on old FTIC promises may lead many over the cliff to merciless shovels below.

Comment on Can America Come to Terms with Boston Bombing Suspect’s Stated Motives? by Mary Pishney

Mary Pishney — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:58:42 +0000

I’m shocked that Charlie Rose has a conscience, OR that he would err (doubtlessly, non-tended, just a Freudian question that surfaced above his usual, lackey status with Richard Haas and weasels), and
asked an obvious question about motives. The incredible, laughable mantra that is supposed to end all intelligent thoughts on this subject, could only have come out of the “W’s” vapid mind; “They hate us for our freedom.” Even more disgusting is that lame brain excuse was never given the derision it so obviously deserved. The sheep like public just nodded in our group, manipulated psyches that, yes indeedy, those camel jockeys really are in a killing rage about our Bill of Rights (that “W” was quietly shredding as he played his daily video games…)! Strange, it didn’t even enter their
blood thirsty rage for hundreds of years, but suddenly it was a crusade (like “W’s” first intonation of the term) every red-blooded Muslim was obviously or secretly engaged in. How stupid, how insulting and how dangerous that a nation could endorse such drivel! The boat message I’m sure was not welcomed
in Washington, a city where the dark side prevails, and masquerades under the flimsiest of rationales.
Guess it’s a result of knowing the indifference the public holds in oil driven wars, or possible nuke infested nations that might, in the next century, blast us all into infinity. I can hear Cheney cackling in approval. The knee jerk, signed, sealed and believed reason for the Boston massacre was given almost sooner than the smoke cleared the streets. Reflections of the JFK assassination where Oswald’s history from high school up, was blazed across the nation as the sole nut job, that strangely was so well known, yet never followed up on. It seemed a bit strange to me back on that black day that the villain was discovered, judged and executed in terms of hours not months or years. Even a high school student could smell a rat and a patsy in such a rush, not to justice, but rather his villainy to be seared into the mind of the public, trumping even a murmur of suspicion. No wonder the hidden state feels no qualms about perpetrating the most Orwellian outrages. Good old American ignorance is the best insurance that no conjured catastrophe will ever be exposed and now it seems, every brave person who dares to enlighten his fellow citizens of such treachery will ever be heard except by the new invasive spying, that will ferret out any messenger of truth before they ever are able to share their knowledge of
the dark intentions of the NWO. To the more cynical, it might well seem to be “Set, match.”

Comment on A new film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby by Mary Pishney

Mary Pishney — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:48:46 +0000

This insightful critique pegs many of the reasons that I haven’t and won’t see this film. The basic reason is the narcissistic, worshiping at the feet of the super rich which our society seems never to tire of; Trump, Romney, are the present day Gatsby clones, which are repugnant on many, observable levels. The airwaves are full of empty, toady worship to this thin layer of society that dances in front of their very victims and makes them yearn to be part of their pretentious excesses. As the line from “Fiddler on the Roof” so aptly opines, “When you’re rich, they think you REALLY know…” Never more
poignantly, and destructively displayed than in the person of Bill Gates who has single-highhandedly poured countless millions into the campaign to destroy public education and backs other, innocent sounding, but deadly ventures. All, in the service of international corporations and bankers to enslave the world and make the common man, mired in the mud, never to rise above his serfdom. Makes the dark ages seem strangely prescient to where we find the eroding of the middle class and the rejection of societal obligations to the less fortunate, a Randian wish fulfilled. I enjoy watching films from the past, and it has always struck me that the depression era cinema seemed to present the upper, butler occupied mansions in the most enviable depictions. The dreadful life of the vast majority of viewers to this phantom life style seems cruel. Much like a diabetic, forced to watch his friend rapaciously gulping chocolates. I would bet that the vast majority of movie goers today would find nothing objectionable in
Gatsby’s self-indulged life or ethic, but will watch the film in a vapid, non-critical mindset, only transfixed by the jaded display of wealth and wishing it were theirs. Morality lessons, even if presented more accurately to the novelist message, fly above the heads of a society that lives on their Lazy Boy recliners, munching their chips, obvious to the world and events swirling around them.
Better for the public to revisit, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” or “Grapes of Wrath,” which depict values lost to this generation. Values of a social conscious so movingly portrayed in the former, and the sad plight of the destroyed in the latter. But we live in a era where no villains are held accountable, no scourge of the
public’s security safeguards are defended, but instead, we exist in a stupor of acceptance to the overlords myriad, money mad quests that, in the end, make fodder of us all.

Comment on Guatemala’s Mayan Community Wins One For a Change by Nick Polimeni

Nick Polimeni — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:36:18 +0000

I would have loved to see a video or movie or documentary on this and similar situations… Americans can’t seem to believe or recognize and are so blind that they dare not see the cruelty perpetrated day after day in their name, and for ‘their protection’…

Comment on Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby versus Prince Harry and his polo-playing American friends by Peter Pavimentov

Peter Pavimentov — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:21:29 +0000

Please allow me to extend my comments: as for the game of Polo, indicative of a premier elite sport (golf has since long become déclassé), it is an exciting sight and as long as the horses are not harmed, is as neutral as any human physical activity. It is only when it is abused as a rigid class divider that it becomes noxious. Humans often mistake the sign for the symbol it stands for. Make-up for example is an entirely innocent substance, lipstick may even prevent the chapping of lips in winter. But when it is applied as a class divider, i.e. women from men, then it symbolizes the neutralizing of the female face into a series of infinitely reproducible and marketable traits, a political de-humanization of half of the human race.

Like Moslem women who are considered to be nude if not veiled, Western women feel incomplete without a painted mask. Make-up should be occasional fun, not be a defense. Such pure symbolisms exist primarily in capitalist societies where status is determined by material goods (Madonna plays the material Gatsby girl!). It is why contemporary taste goes for the exclamatory (kitsch) and the innocuous (decorative) while leaving intricacy and purpose to technology and its products.

That this is a direct political demand is clearly proven by a deliberate impoverishment of contemporary art even where so-called radical slogans are being used. Art is meant for decoration only and should not dare to speak its name. No grandiose depictions of elite power by Rubens, no perfect Madonnas by Raphael to show women how to be feminine, no wild and bloody battles by Baron Gros to depict national pride. Instead we have volley balls floating in aquariums (Koons) and diamond encrusted human skulls (Hirst). Nor is there any patience for such romantic dreamers like Malraux, who thought that art might be a transcendental promise of happiness (‘une promesse de bonheur’). The banality is pervasive and proof of late capitalist art’s only function of deliberate superficiality.

What capitalism has taught us is the price of everything and the value of nothing. That is why the propaganda for material gain is so successful, because humans are left without a sense of how inner values can make us human, not the property we may command. The female face is standardized for exchange value (one cannot distinguish one Real House Wife from the other on television), what goes for art is that which is pushed by propaganda into the market place (cf. Warhol, who in fact had an inkling of the vaporous value system by his mirror reflections of contemporary society).

Thus modern barbarity consist exactly of the validation of false concepts, from an abject adulation of material toys (those of the rich like the Greenwich and Palm Beach crowd who can afford them) to a neglect of what cannot be sold or bought. That is the full triumph of our capitalist social engineering whereby the masses are deeply preoccupied with the emotionally barren value system of acquisition.
It makes them in consequence disinterested in and mostly immature politically to the very dire realities caused by plutocratic rule. The present Gatsby movie glorifies fake glamour, tries to justify upper-class
extravanges and plays exactly into our barbaric materialist dysfunction.