H G Wells Sums things up

HG Wells 1906 visit The English novelist H G Wells visited The United States of America in 1906 and wrote several books from the experience…. ‘The Future in America’ 1906 and ‘The War in the Air’ 1908 the second being a very exciting book describing an air attack on New York and the city burning. But what fascinates me is a couple of observations Wells makes which fit into the context of my study of Myth America in connection with the paramount for the whole world- Oil Industry and Banking Industry. The comments are; ‘The typical American has no sense of state. I do not mean that he is not passionately and vigorously patriotic. But I mean that he has no perception that his business activities, his private employments are constituents in a larger collective process; that they will affect other people and the world forever; And cannot as he imagines begin and end with him’ And ‘America’s greatest problem was the pervasiveness of private ownership. ‘Until he land, he public services and the whole of the great economic processes could be rescued from the irresponsible control of private owners, injustice was institutionalized’ p298 Abroad in American Smithsonian 1976. These two comments are ends of the same staff. The destructive disconnect of miss named ‘Free Enterprise’ doing damage to USA and now consequently to the whole world. Climate Change coming from environmental destruction and the 20th Century Boom beginning now to go in the devastating –Bust Phase of the 21st Century. And the greatest tension in the reviewed elsewhere on another blog 2009 book Too Big to Fail comes when the CEO of Wells Fargo in the melting down of the US Banking and world financial system refuses a 25 Billion dollar bail out as part of a government buy out of the Nine biggest banks because he is fired up with the idea of individualism allowing business to be involved in everything including murder as long as America is: ‘Free Enterprise’. While accepting sixty years earlier in 1953 Iran Oil Crisis- (the largest eight world oil companies- five of them America based, and three Rockefeller) The Eight largest oil companies had come to this early critical acceptance that ‘Anti Trust’ ‘Anti Competitive Behavior’ while other industries could have those ideas and maybe restrictions- Oil Could Not because of the more important Need for Empire- Great Britain loosing empire because of it’s failure in Iran and handing over with a CIA stage coup- America taking the world stage with an oil back foremost world empire. All that happened then in 1953. So do I agree with an essentially Stalinist approach to the State owning the land and resources being advocated by H G Wells? Well yes do read in the Bible Genesis 41-47 and by the end of it- We have the world’s Strongest Ever State and Joseph sets it up! So I do agree this is wonderfully biblical! But while the Seven Oil Companies (‘The Seven Sisters’ A Sampson Hodders 1975 ) did arrive under the leadership of John D very early on at the need for the companies themselves to distribute the oil slow enough to keep high stable profits- and despite by my 1946-47-48 (Britannica year books informing me of the critical debate at that time) The price of oil was not held, not oil dribbled out at the restricted levels of 1944 and 1945 and thus by 1974/5 USA had peaked her production and went into decline and by the end of the 20th century the same place was being arrived at for the whole world. Yes the consequences are….. Well let me conclude this Myth America by saying the ‘Free Enterprise’ myth has lead to inevitable Civilizational Collapse.

The Post American Novel?

The Post American Novel? Joseph O’Neill author of the novel ‘Netherland’ 2008 speaking in an interview with Travis Elborough on a question about The Great Gatsby and the American Novel said….. “Netherland is clearly having some sort of conversation with The Great Gatsby saying goodbye to it perhaps and some of the notions associated with that wonderful book. This is be way of explanation of the fact that I actually see the book as a Post American Novel. It is told from the perspective of a man who has left America. Hans is over America even though he is still fascinated by it. Nick Carraway by contrast has moved back to the Midwest. I increasingly think that the integrity of the United States, the idea of the US as this special sealed off zone of opportunity and freedom is anachronistic. Globalization has undermined the exclusiveness of the American experience. It remains an extraordinary and exceptional place but our attitudes to it have changed. The veneration certainly isn’t what it used to be. I believe some of that has been precipitated by the behavior of the United States internationally in recent times.” The phrase that leaped off the page are the words: ‘The idea of the US as this special sealed off zone of opportunity and freedom is anachronistic’ There are two interwoven myths here. The special chosen myth and the isolation myth. That there could or would be this place called ‘The New World’ where people could safely ignore history-civilizational experience and proceed to success and freedom on the basis of The Declaration of Independence and live in isolation of the rest of the world. Well in answer to that O’Neill a self confessed rootless world citizen has given us a book on the unlikely topic of: Cricket- the people attempting against the odds to play that game in the city of New York. While the New York Times said of the book ‘The wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell. I devoured it in three thirsty gulps that satisfied a craving I didn’t know I had’ And for those who wonder if I got paid to write this- Nah –It just helps me to enjoy the book more!

Washington calls New York to Empire

Washington calls New York to Empire. Nine years later- 1885- the grateful New Yorkers were pleased to give George Washington the freedom of the city , and in accepting the honor said…. ‘And that your state- at present the seat of the Empire…’ p34 Imperial City 1988 As a contributor to the New York Times pointed out that, ‘there are two things America is supposed not to have: an empire and a ruling class’. The United States gladly accepts its role as a super power and would not be anything else, but it is loath to acknowledge that a super power is merely a deodorized imperialist …The ruling class in this polity, like most others in history anywhere is that small segment of society which controls the bulk of the wealth and thus manipulates power and while there is wealth spread the length and breadth of the republic, most of the control is exercised in New York…. Roosevelt administration into the Federal Writers Project noted that because the money and the power had long been here, because national polices were created by that money and power, New York had for years been virtually the capital of the United States. In one of the most crushing comments that can ever be made about the anointed capital of any nation or about the politicians he dismissed Washington as ‘merely the loud speaker through which New York announced itself’….. As the FWP writer also remarked there had been moments when New York had turned humbly and gratefully to Washington for whatever succor the White House and Congress might afford (he mentioned 1932) By and large year in and year out New York is where the pace is set and where the memorable tunes are played when the imperial grandeur is most consciously on show where the citizens can be most patronizing and where the rest of the world makes for first to pay homage and to be impressed….. have been stung by New York’s high opinion of itself… a large painting entitled Capital City of the World or through the wisecrack of Gracho Marx- When it is 9:30 in New York it’s 1937 in Los Angeles. Modesty isn’t one of the virtues New York has ever seent he point in cultivating and when someone tries it in public the result can sound excruciatingly false. P336 Imperial City. New Zealand has since the beginning of her colonial period well understood Empire and so mid 1941 before USA said it would join the World War our top people were in Washington negotiating to become part of the American Empire- Essential as after Pearl Harbor and before the American lifeline was restored- We had no oil to run our vehicles !!! Thus we have been and continue to be faithful members of the American Empire although Chief Trade Negotiator – T. Grooser came on the TV yesterday after thousands had been in the streets protesting an attempt by USA to have US laws used to prosecute our business people as part of the TPPA – And said ‘our negotiators are stupid!’ Empire!

Why we fight-The Prelude

Why we Fight-Prelude to war series Made in 1942 narrated by Hollywood star Frank Capra working in co-operation with the US War Dept a series of vital must see movies were made and seen by those brave American men who fought in those WW2 conflicts. Unfortunately omitting the pictures here is the script of part of this first movie. ‘There is a fight between a Free World and a Slave World’ Vice President H Wallace May 8th 1942. And what are these two worlds of which Mr Wallace spoke? The Free and Slave? Let’s take the free world first –our world. How did it become free? Only by a long and unceasing struggle inspired by men of vision; Moses; Muhammed; Confusis; Christ; All believe that in the sight of God all men were created equal. And from that developed a spirit among men and nations which is best expressed in our declaration of freedom (Picture of handwritten Document highlighting) We hold these truths to be self evident –All men are created equal- The cornerstone upon which our nation was built and the ideal of all the great liberators. Washington, Jefferson, Garibaldi, Lafayette,…. Lincoln; Lighthouses lighting up a dark and foggy world . the government of the people, the government by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Fighting Living Dying for what? For freedom that which men have fought since time began- To be free! Is life so dear or peace so sweat as to be purchase at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God I know not what course others may take but as for me ‘Give me Liberty: Or give me Death’ Well unusual for me I am at a loss for words!- What could be said about this remarkable and critical for men who watched and heard this –then went out to die or surviving suffering in what happened for Americans involved in truly global conflicts… It would be almost obscene as these men agreed with what we have just read to begin to rip it apart. But as Theologian and Bible Scholar I must be honest and say that Christ never stood for the cornerstone of Equal Rights-never!. Confusis taught a system which ensures that people are not and never will be equal. Muhammed most definitely never could have considered such Not Middle Eastern ideas! And as to Moses; Never as I remember it mentioned equal rights – But the best I can say, Moses prophesying about USA are his words; ‘I will use a so called nation to make them (Israel) angry I will make them jealous with a nation of fools’. That is the prophetic opinion of Moses of USA! Then speaking on behalf of people who since First President Peter Minuit built the fort to fight against them-In Lower Manhattan- These very nearly 400 years USA has had a sizable population who are suffering abuse and have not experienced this ‘Freedom’. Then finally this impossible to square with reality statement ends with the ultimate terminal curse; tens of thousands of men who watched that movie and heard it, Agreed- and died cursed!

Myth Making

Myth making ‘The social picture was changing fast, with the rising commercialism and city life; Chicago had 350 inhabitants in 1833 and 300,000 in 1870. And the westward push warned of even more changes to come. The nation was ‘growing too fast for its virtue and its peace’-Emerson. It needed interpreters of its life more penetrating than the genre of painters –a national literature which read the meaning of the new American realities to the American common man. But this order as yet could not be filled. Even before the Civil War the changes were too rapid and close and the aim of the nation to divided. The Americans tried to build their house in the middle of a landslide and the governing classes of the Eastern Seaboard naturally clung to stability in literature no less than in politics. Their American ness was only a minor addition to their British culture….These writers timidity in handling national characteristics was demonstrated by Washington Irving….But all these writers moved with the same peaceful and somewhat tepid atmosphere, and this was in particular the case with the Boston professors and poets who set the standards of American literary life to the end of the (19th) century …. P92/93 Time Life –The United States Writing in chapter five of The United States the born again American formerly from Norway- Sigmund Skard struggles to say anything meaningful on the topic of American literature. Now he doesn’t as I would have done mention the outstanding journalism found in- until Rupert Murdock killed it- The TV Guide or books by Grace Metalous but as we see the unwillingness of Americans to critically define and interact with the reality of what they were doing and had been doing for two hundred years by this critical 1830 decade- Is Taylor Made for Myth Making- Comic books instead of serious and complex 1200 page dramas. And that as he says is because Boston professors are setting the standards therefore dictating what will be published and what will not be published. which reminds me of the healthy Unreality found in the New England photo essay p17-19 showing the Neptune Fireman’s band leading the American legion color guard Memorial Day parade 1963 in the town of Ipswich Mass and the still waters of Cape Porpoise and just around the corner from the Bush family hideaway holiday home -‘delightfully peaceful Kennebunkport’ and ‘Spring’s blossoms bring an unexpected gay.. to the spare, orderly townscape of Yarmouth Me’. But finally when some real literature got published in 1956- ‘Peyton Place’ then set about demolishing that New England Myth and despite being slandered as trash the book deservedly sold over 12 million copies and is still profitably read by those seeking to study literature and reality for USA. When I grew up it was in the study of The National Geographic but by my early teens I knew that the similar magazines I avidly read telling of life in USSR and ‘China Reconstructs magazine’ were considered to be propaganda – Which then raised the question as to why Nat Geo wasn’t! So from that time onwards I began to store in my brain vast files of material by reading as widely as possible so that I could compare and cross reference and thus begin to go around the back of the myths and see the backroom reality behind; generating all the images. This is not to say we cannot find in the American 1830s many fine sources of literature to study. Thanks to the hard work undertaken to micro film the historic contents of Mormon Church Archive we have a real insight into what was really happening at that time. And so the finest piece of American Literature produced at that time would have to be The Book of Mormon. As a work of fiction I have seldom seen better! And do some people think man made myths are real? Well yes! In 2012 the people of USA narrowly avoided having a rich white man who actually believes the Book of Mormon is genuinely God’s Word- Deluded candidate for Myth Making President! Oh well back to my studies- paul.

America's Richest man Take Two

America’s Richest Man Take Two In his novel Martin Chuzzlewit Dickens took his vengeance on America’s fast talking, profit orientated society. Martin becomes an unwitting partner in the Eden Land Corporation, a shady group which has enticed him with a giant plan depicting the flourishing city of Eden, replete with banks, churches, markets, theaters and a daily journal The Eden Stinger. The real Eden (modeled on Cairo Illinois) turns out to be a miserable slough: ‘There were not above a score of cabins in the whole, half of these appeared untenanted; all were rotten and decayed’ For one of them, Martin’s companion ‘brought forth a great placard…bearing the inscription Chuzzlewit & Co, Architects and Surveyors which he displayed in the most conspicuous part of the premises. With such gravity as if the thriving city of Eden had a real existence. – In the history of USA coming at the start of the 1840s to New York and then travelling on into the interior Charles Dickens has come at low point in the migration. Soon the Irish Potato famine is going to like a scythe and then changes in Germany- both events bring a deluge of new migrants and easy money for those earlier land owners who have picked the right locations where to put the unfortunate souls who desperately need a new place in the new land. But even in spectacular growth which again characterized the last half of the never to ever be repeated just past 20th Century some places are cursed and will never produce easy quick profit; Some places lack the infrastructure to make life there viable: And some miss out when another developer gets in ahead; And sometimes society swings in some new direction making predicting where will growth will develop next impossible…. About this period in respect of the previously mentioned in a blog in this series- America’s Richest Man Virginia Cowles tells us in ‘The Astors’ – ‘Yet in the panic of 1837 many people believed that the market would never recover and regarded the old man as quite mad to go on plunging his capital into a bottomless pit’ p57 The Astors Now I like to see the piece of land where I live in exactly these sorts of terms. In terms of a curse the local natives were so convinced the land was cursed that the got the missionary Fairburn to stand on the local hill over looking where Hoturoa dragged across the from Cook Islands –Tainui Canoe and to raise his holy hands and pray for the land. While convinced that cannibalism had blighted this harbor crossing region I was not the least bit surprised to find human bones in among the fire pit material in my backyard… And yes elsewhere around here heads turn up without the bodies….Moving on- The first well advertised development for this land which had been swapped for opposite Onehunga – brought in just a couple of buyers, then a decade or so later there were a dozen or so houses and properties purchased. Next Communism in China and the failure of Mao’s Great Leap Forward brought Chinese market gardening and gambling dens. And on and on it goes. Each new breathless profit making opportunity consistently sending every developer away losing money or reputation –Cursed. So was John Jacob Astor despite making the greatest amount of money from Manhattan ownership and development on that land- cursed? Well when it comes to ‘Aristocracy’ the quick way to check that is to look at the family tree over six or more generations and see where 200 years later people have got to…. Jesus puts it this way when he tells a land development story- ‘there was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops – he thought to himself I haven’t got room to store it all what to do? I know! I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones ….Eat drink and be merry but God said to him ‘You fool this very night I will require your life then who will get all the things you have kept for yourself?’ Luke 12:16-20 and ‘what if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?’ Luke 9:25

Charles Dickens Prophecy

Charles Dickens Prophecy OK here us the deal with this particular blog post. You read what Charles Dickens has to say- hey you might learn things –I did. And then when you get to the very end of it- he has a prophecy for us- But promise- no racing to the end- Read all he has to say first just to get a feel for what he is saying and how he is saying it. No Cheating! Promise me- Oh well you win. So I will just now start writing some American Charles Dickens stuff compiled by Smithsonian for their 1976 …. The American Press between Dickens and which a mutual loathing have developed played a predominant role in his relationship with America. There is much in the novel about news- papers filthy black mail and use of forged letters. Independence- ‘we do what we like’ is the excuse for libel and tyranny. Party feelings, erupting violence and political immorality, corruption and trickery are vividly presented. In commercial and public life tooo swindling is tolerated in the national worship of ‘smartness’- ‘We are a smart people her and can appreciate smartness’ …Private and domestic manners and customs are similarly presented in Martin Chuzzlewit, in their ludicrous aspects. Tobacco spitting and chewing and spitting –that constant theme in American Notes and other travel books by Englishmen…so do picking one’s teeth in public…and everyone bolting their food in a hideous race of Voracity. The bad manners and lack of amenity and indifference of the arts and graces of life are automatically defended by the slogan; ‘We are a busy people, sir and have not time for that’. Americans have queer customs- gotten by using and stressing the wrong words, yea and using expressions unfamiliar to Englishmen unfamiliar with hearing that such and such a person is a ‘mother fucker’ or a ‘pain in the arse’ (And yes my Editor is correct in that I am adding to text!) giving every man a military or other title. Pseudo –distinction is so widespread that in a single chapter, Martin three times hears that he is meeting ‘one of the most remarkable men in our country’: but this is an example of American excitability and overstatement- America is always ‘depressed’ always is stagnated, and always is in an alarming crisis-…the people are strangely devoid of individual traits of character- Well except for a sizable minority who are the most remarkable people in the country- this partly because of the national spiritual emptiness (A fascinating example of that is the Mormon Church and the very sincere belief in things which are utterly absurd-Ed) partly because of the pressure of public opinion. All these points are made in the first American chapter …. ‘I am a Lover of Freedom-disappointed –That’s all’ Dickens wrote in 1842. This is not the republic I came to see. This is not the Republic of my imagination’ and elsewhere: ‘I tremble for a radical coming here, unless he is a radical on principle, by reason and reflection, and from a sense of right. I fear that if he were anything else, he would return home a Tory (English Conservative-Ed) I do fear the heaviest blow ever dealt at liberty, will be dealt by this country, in the failure of its example to the earth’ In 2008 after President George W Bush had brought the world ‘The War of Terror’ based on a building collapsing in a pile of dust in New York city and an explosion outside the Pentagon in Washington. And then people were held in Guantanamo- So in 2008 a new Black African President swept into the White House with the intention of freeing those people …. 2014 In Todays Newspaper that they are still being held there! And worse when this is published within seconds a computer based in USA snaps it up- why… Well the USA-NSA feel duty bound to intercept and process everything happening in New Zealand –God knows why. Dickens said it. ‘The largest blow to freedom in human history would be dealt by USA claiming to have built their empire on ‘Freedom’ And I will give the last word to the chief judge of history; USA the way that you have judged and dealt with others is the way that you will be judged and dealt with-Matthew 7:2 Be Afraid!