Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch political party “Forum for Democracy” writes about the inexorable attrition of democracy, as predicted 75 years ago.
James Burnham, 1941 foresaw so much in “The Managerial Revolution. It’s a book that George Orwell used for inspiration.
According to Burnham, the civil democracies of the second half of the 20th century would – more or less gradually – be overgrown with backroom bureaucratic networks that make the actual decisions, all far away from the electorate and public debate.
He predicted that separate nation states would still exist, but as their sovereignty was gradually absorbed into a superstate, the nation states would become just administrative subdivisions.
Elections will also remain in place; they will provide managers valuable insights into the preferences of the consumer-citizen, while at the same time functioning as an exhaust valve to possible opposition forces. Burnham predicted a form of political theatre in the guise of sham elections between candidates who happen to be like-minded on every fundamental subject, who are paid to debate in front of clueless spectators in mock parliaments, while the results were known in advance – after all, the actual decisions have already been made.
Like a rachet, power gets centralized gradually, step by step:
These Eurocrats label their strategy as “functionalism“, behind which the idea is that due to the so-called “spillover effect“, inevitably, ever more power ends up being centralised. One ‘function’ automatically forces another ‘function’. So: you sell open borders as a nice convenience, and after a while, you act surprised when they force you to adopt a centralised immigration policy. You present a monetary union as a facilitator of trade without having to hand over national sovereignty; and when the (inevitable) credit crisis presents itself, your push through a centralised budgetary system.
Give the people the choice…
All over Europe, we see the call for a plebiscite, for direct participation in public affairs. The people are signing petitions by the masses. It’s become impossible for politicians to ignore, so they reluctantly promise their electorates a direct say. Despite the EU still claiming to be a force of democracy by and for the people, referenda are the management system’s Achilles heel. A public uprising can be put down; a new political movement can be incorporated, but referenda are beyond the grasp of bureaucratic rulers.
One referendum, of course, doesn’t win the war. In 2005, the French and the Dutch both overwhelmingly rejected a European constitution. A few years later, that same constitution was still pushed through, albeit under a different name; the treaty of Lissabon (sic). What followed was a ten-year silence until in 2015 the Greeks had a referendum in which they rejected proposed new austerity measures. The EU decided to dethrone prime minister Papandreou and replace him with the unelected former vice-president of the ECB, Papademos.
How much longer do Eurocrats hope to maintain this state of affairs?
There is a lot more at the site… keep reading.
h/t Scott of the pacific
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that politics is the realm of the Devil. They may be onto something.
161
Even a broken clock (which is no where near as harmful as a religious cult like JWs) is right twice a day.
70
It’s called “Specialisation”.
It works at first, as Specialists have more highly developed skills.
After just one generation, you find that many specialists protect their own patch by never disturbing another specialist’s patch.
After just two generations you find that nobody knows how the patches fit together.
And that is how the system always fails.
240
You’re talking about what happened at the CSIRO.
131
That what started the Milperra Massacre.
60
More technology >> More complexity >> More Fragility >> Collapse
30
alfred wrote:
It’s always a possibility but human civilisation has historically marched to a different drumbeat.
There is a 1500 year +/- 500 years climate cycle [Dansgaard and Oeschger] and so there is a civilisation cycle of about 1350 years, according to archeologists. It’s a rythmn running through the Holocene history of human societies. We are not immune to it.
Napolean is famously attributed as saying “ an army marches on its stomach.” He may have been quoting Frederick The Great but so what? It’s true.
It’s all about food.
What applies to armies applies to all human enterprises. Empires, civilisations and nations thrive and prosper when there is plentiful food. They fail and fall rapidly and completely when it becomes scarce. The climate is neither slow nor gentle when it changes. It was a shortage of wheat which led to a shortage of bread which led to rioting in Paris and Marie Antoinette famous, and apparently unsympathetic, utterance when she said “ let them eat cake” of the rioting hungry. The French Revolution took care of the King, his Queen and the rest of the \French Aristocracy with their own Final Solution.
Colder temperatures -> more clouds -> shorter and poorer growing season -> smaller harvests -> less food->hungry people.
Hungry people riot.
We saw that a few years ago when the Arab world suffered a shortage of grain, first across North Africa, then into Yemen and Syria because the price rose higher than they could afford to pay. The last two are still fighting over it. Egypt came close. Saudi Arabia promised Egypt financial aid to buy grain if Egypt disposed of the Moslem Brotherhood. The Egyptian Army staged a coup and disposed of the Brotherhood. The money arrived, the grain was purchased and Egypt was “saved.”
Western countries built welfare states after suffering food riots during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Starving people move—to where they perceive there is food. That’s why Europe is being inundated.
Conflict quickly follows, at both ends of the trail. Those who stay inevitably revolt. Syria and Yemen are still `discussing’ their leadership issues. Those better off countries invaded will war against their invaders. Inevitably.
Those nations who consider human welfare a Socialist or Lefty Evil will learn these painful lessons all over again.
There will, most likely, be war enveloping the Mediterranean and Eurape within, maybe, eight years. The odds on it spreading and becoming nuclear are pretty good. That will happen after the food shortages escalate. (They’re already rationing some vegetables in London, the present European-Mediterranean and North African winter weather has been so bad. It takes little imagination to take the next What If step; What If this becomes a new normal?)
Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.
40
Jo,
You have written “A few years later, that same constitution was still pushed through, albeit under a different name; the treaty of Lissabon. ” surely that should be
Treaty of Lisbon
80
From Wikipedia link —
71
Good morning Jo,
The E.U. (‘en globo’) & the Euro (combined currency) .. one may survive the end of the decade or not; the other probably not!!??!!
(Make sure you have at least 1/3 of your super in cash assets if/when this happens by the way!)
N.A.F.T.A. – North American Free Trade Agreement – though similar in size (number of people & G.D.P.) has the distinct advantage of seeing how many ill economies are the ‘walking dead’ inside the E.U. (Greece, Portugal and Italy all have limited chances of staying within the E.U. by years’ end.)
The E.U. (& U.N.) are two of the worst examples of non-representative democracy the world has ever seen.
I could be wrong, and I’m sure someone will tell me quite soon if I am, but I think it was Mark Twain who said … “You can fool some of the people all of the time, or all the people some of the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time!!”
Both these organisations will have to under-go huge reforms and budget cuts in the next couple of years if they have any hope of surviving another decade or more!
With warmest of regards, reformed warmist of Logan.
P.S. I will have some very concrete reforms to suggest in the coming weeks (watch this space!)
140
Reformed, as you said “The E.U. (& U.N.) are two of the worst examples of non-representative democracy the world has ever seen.”
This is becoming more apparent every day. But just how the EU and UN grow or crumble is yet to be seen.
60
Or the Treaty of Lese Bonne?
80
The Germans and Dutch call it Lissabon. There you go.
70
Merci Monsieur Glen Michel 🙂
40
It’s called buying security by giving up Liberty. Soon you have will neither. Each step seems so reasonable.
The process is so slow, the loss of Liberty is not noticed until it is gone. So many generations have passed the value and practice of Liberty is no longer remembered. The language has been so changed, there are no words that can be used to express the concept.
If you don’t have the words, it is all but impossible to think. Even then, few would understand your words if you tried to communicate your thoughts.
281
Frog and boiling water comes to mind!
90
Except currently the poor hapless amphibians are defrosting very slowly in Europe’s ‘cold snap’.
80
That’s one of the main reasons the British people voted FOR Brexit.
They fought two major wars last century to preserve their democracy, as they see it.
Losing it was unacceptable.
100
“A world of unseen dictatorship is conceivable, still using the forms of democratic government.” Kenneth J. Boulding
100
James Burnham is an interesting character initially a proponent of Marxism he later went to the political conservatism, a true sceptic perhaps? 😉
130
This is exactly what is happening in Canada right now. The public is simply to dumb to see it or care. Just take a look at the Prime Minister we have!!! Arrggghhh. We are doomed!
180
Like a rachet, power gets centralized gradually, step by step:
Not working. China, India, Russia and many smaller countries are not co-operating to any extent.
World population growth is not being addressed. Starvation is already effecting countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Europe is also indicating food shortages. Expect more problems if Spring is delayed or weak.
112
“Not working. China, India, Russia and many smaller countries are not co-operating to any extent”
at the last count China, India and Russia were not members of the EU (yet!). mind you there are plenty of Chinese, Indians and Russians resident in London (I know a lot).
“Starvation is already effecting countries in Africa and the Middle East.”
Africa has less starvation than my entire lifetime – northward of 70 years.
“Europe is also indicating food shortages. Expect more problems if Spring is delayed or weak”
We have a shortage of Courgettes, OMG no Ratatouille this week.
At least our lights haven’t gone out (yet).
150
Many african nations could feed themselves, until communism or socialism arrived….
80
Communism has arrived in the Horn of Africa.
“It is indeed a historic moment, a pride for our nations and peoples,” said Hailemariam Desalegn, the prime minister of Ethiopia, shortly before the train — the first electric transnational railway in Africa — headed toward Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. “This line will change the social and economic landscape of our two countries.”
‘But perhaps the biggest star of the day was China, which designed the system, supplied the trains and imported hundreds of engineers for the six years it took to plan and build the 466-mile line. And the $4 billion cost? Chinese banks provided nearly all the financing.’
Mew York Times
60
Here is an honest appraisal of the Marxists in Ethiopia, its a test of their resolve.
https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-political-ripple-a-big-test-for-infrastructure-led-chinese-approach-70659
40
Richard don’t be concerned about food shortages, there is plenty out there it just needs to be better directed.
I don’t see any food riots in Europe because they don’t have greens and the bacon shortage in the US should easily be overcome.
World population growth is not a problem.
80
El Gordo wrote;
The bountiful harvests won’t stay. The Sun is predicted to reach a new activity minimum from about 2030 to 2040, approaching if not equalling the activity levels of the Maunder Minimum of 1675 to 1715. Some say the extremely bad weather and cold of that minimum will be repeated. Others don’t.
We’ll have to wait and see. Brian Fagan’s book “The Little Ice Age” details the problems experienced across Europe then. Harvests failed because of constant rain, cold, cloud cover, more cloud cover and, believe it or not, cloud cover. And rain. Lack of sunshine made it cold. The wetness made it colder. Why should it be any different this time?
Sure, it will be a matter of degree because of our mechanisation, when it comes to our agriculture. The horses won’t die off as they did then. But the plants still need sun, sun and sun, along with adequate water, not a super-abundance, in order to thrive. Like us, they drown in a superfluity of fluid. That ideal mix we have been having over the last century. Nobody can be sure how it’s going to work this time because that is the hall-mark of the Little Ice Age: the sheer unpredictability of the weather in the short, medium and long term.
Look back at the Arab Spring in 2012 and the rioting across North Africa and into the Middle East. That was not because of a poor global harvest but a price rise pushing grain for bread almost out of reach. Small change, big effect.
40
Sophocles:
The Maunder Minimum came after 350 years of variable climate, mostly miserable. The downturn seems to have started in England in 1280 with a famine which killed 10% of the population. The early 1300’s were miserable followed by the Black Plague. There were periods of warm weather, or at least warmer than people had got used to, followed by colder conditions. Anecdotally the shift in early Jacobean times to padded breeches seems to indicated a cooling 1600-1650 and there were very few sunspots reported. Pepys noted the warm summer of 1660 “as such that no man living could recall” and the summers of 1665 and 1666 seemed to have been hot and dry, up until the great fire of London. The 1670’s were generally very cold and the 1690’s even more so.
The winter in Europe 1709/10 was known as the Great Frost for many years, yet in the 1970’s H.H. Lamb had 7 out of 10 warmest summers in Enland as occuring in the 1730’s followed by a severe winter in 1740. Things seemed to have warmed a bit up until 1675 and then cooled esp. after the Laki eruption in Iceland in 1783.
The point being (at last) that a quieter sun is associated with a general cooling but preceding cooler weather makes it worse. We are more likely IMHO to face a Dalton Minimum. Modern agriculture is more likely to cope with the climate variations, but those regions that import food, e.g. The Middle East will be in trouble.
50
The problem for us is that by this process the EU has so entangled themselves within every part of our daily functioning that the separation is going to be a “vale of tears”. A very small sample of the problems ahead.
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=86375
Booker and North have campaigned tirelessly for Brexit for decades. Their take on it is sound. From Baudet;
“But now for the astonishing part: even the greatest europhile would admit to all this. In an exceptionally cynical manifestation of Orwellian newspeak – again – this is called the “democratic deficit“. They look very serious and serene and repeat: ‘yes, you’re right, there’s a democratic deficit‘.
Brilliant! As if it’s some sort of temporary flaw that can easily be overcome. A cash flow problem that just needs a small credit injection. A lack of vitamins. A mild form of sleep deprivation. Something, that in any case, will soon recover. A disbalance that will soon balance itself out.
But as Burnham’s analysis of the managerial revolution illustrates: the EU’s abolishment of democracy is neither temporary nor overcomeable. The EU is not so much undemocratic as it is anti-democratic. A democratic EU is impossible.”
I saw this way back in 1975 when I voted against and lost. The irony is that, in the run up to the 2016 Referendum, the BBC, in their arrogance published this;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36367246
Ah! Enoch Powell & Tony Benn, half insane mavericks and I loved them both for it. No compromise – no surrender, political Ned Kelly’s the both, those were the days.
“Enoch Powell was asked to explain why the British people had ignored his warnings about giving up the power to determine laws, as it became clear that his side had lost.
“It is a thing so incredible to them that I am not inclined to blame them overmuch,” he told the BBC.
The real reason; note the 24% pa inflation! The voted for the EU to save them from socialism!
Even at the time I recalled a scene from “Paint Your Wagon”.
A Mormon with two wives rides into the mining camp that has no women and decides to auction of his younger wife (Jean Seberg) to the highest bidder.
She agrees and the older wife remonstrates;
“But Elizabeth you don’t know what you’ll get”
The reply;
“But I know what I’ve had”
In 1979 we had our moment and the UK, and arguably The World,
changed.
100
The EU is nothing more than a hand around the throat of democracy… the politicians who sold it to the public would have known this clearly.
The best the UK can do is stay way from the European Soviet ( EU ).
90
Enoch Powell. There is a name from the past.
I can remember Powell saying that we in the UK would lose our sovereignty if we joined the Common Market. That was before I knew what the word “sovereignty” meant. How right he proved to be.
90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Powell
Old school politician and not stupid!
Often nasty, forthright and belligerent, sometimes foolish but never stupid.
70
History keeps repeating itself. Anyone who studies history knows that to be a fact. So yes democracy will end temporarily one day and the cycle repeats yet again. One doesn’t need to belong to a cult to understand that. The only unknown is the exact timing.
140
You’re right. And “those who don’t know their history know nothing” said a wiser man than I.
40
One thing dismissed in the European experiment and at the U.N. and increasingly in national political debate is the idea of incentive.
What incentive does the average worker / taxpayer have to strive, to earn a living and to pay taxes?
Over the last 40 years I have the impression that politicians have become increasingly carefree about how taxes are spent and no longer care much about about being vigilant in applying hard won tax dollars for the betterment of the whole nation.
There was a feeling when I was younger that all of your hard work would eventually show a benefit somehow, even if it was only that your children or grandchildren had a better life.
That’s no longer the case.
In so many ways our taxes have been taken and applied to very many dubious “causes” in which accountability is non existent.
The transfers in recent times of large sums to Special U.N. Projects by people from both sides of politics shows that accountability is non existent and seemingly not an issue.
There is nothing wrong with immigration when the immigrants are nett contributors after a short period of adjustment, but what has happened in Europe recently has been very cynical in its lack of appreciation of the contribution and expectations of those footing the bill.
Reports of serious social issues from Europe are frightening and represent the final nail in the coffin of that Incentive to strive, to work, to earn and pay the taxes.
KK
130
The UN is a cancer on humanity, mark my words…it will be the seat of true evil in this world.
80
UNEXIT
130
And when the incentive goes the economy stagnates and then slowly declines. Look at Communist Europe and its passing. Better look at China once the incentive was returned.
60
I’m currently reading a book called Medieval People. It describes how new classes form (like specialist artists or manufacturers), then they close ranks to prevent anyone else getting in. They form guilds to oversee themselves, like you can’t be shoemaker unless you’re a member of the shoemakers guild.
Nobility is a particular kind of class, which it turns out anyone could attain given luck and hard work. But they were very protective of their class. They would only marry within equal ranks to keep their power and wealth to themselves. The English Lords would be a holdover from these old nobility ranks.
50
They were, but now the peasants have fought back and UK Labour has banned Lords from sitting in the House of Lords and have appointed new “Lords”, many are migrants.
30
Like plumbers and electricians in OZ?
20
Very much like plumbers and builders. Electricians have a skill and knowledge that I’ll give them credit for. Mucking about with electricity will get you killed, whereas mucking about in muck (plumbing) will only make a mess.
My mention of the noble class only touches on the total subject of power and politics. Because back in the 1300’s and onward, only the noble class could be involved in politics. The working class were excluded. So power, money, and control were appointed to the noble class, and they held on to that power jealously.
Today is a mirror of yesterday (yesterday being 1300 to 1800 which I’ve so far read about). And I’ve no reason to believe it wasn’t just like that between the Roman peak to 1300 as well.
40
‘Today is a mirror of yesterday ….’
You are a little ahead of yourself, we are somewhere between 1200 and 1250 AD.
30
Greg by the 1600s we see the buildup to the English Revolution, a truly unique happening, not to be repeated until 1917 in Russia.
30
Scientists sad and frustrated:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/climate-change-blamed-for-australia-extreme-weather-events/8268692
40
Dennis:
even worse! Graham Richardson in The Australian slams Labor over renewables and PRAISES Pauline Hanson.
Unfortunately pay-walled but http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/graham-richardson/labors-ignorance-on-electricity-affordability-is-paving-the-way-for-electoral-massacre/news-story/0bde7bf335227a033a2d8fb9f27fbb39
40
This point is the esssence of it all- keepingthe punters placated thinking they have democracy.
Orwell was a NWO insider, the NWO is the outorking of those who have been labelled “The Unseen Hand” and if you consider a lot of history is directed ( including all 3 world wars, 2 past, one yet to come ) then as I have said numerous times, there is no difference betyween labor and liberal, all are globalists.
” Burnham predicted a form of political theatre in the guise of sham elections between candidates who happen to be like-minded on every fundamental subject, who are paid to debate in front of clueless spectators in mock parliaments, while the results were known in advance – after all, the actual decisions have already been made.”
TV shows that really sum our current societal state of play like “Modern Family” actually mock the current state of huamnity, in effect it the NWO crowing over the clueless bulk of humanity who are being herded like rats into a barrel.
“Modern Family” is a harsh take on the supidity of modern values IMHO ( and I pull no punches on the rank stupidity of post modernism either ) – the joke of “inclusiveness” and general lack of a clue about most things is very “now”, as its an attack on absolute right and wrong. As I’ve said in the past, the current modern society is a battering ram used against our Christian/Judeo values that underpin civil society as its this robustness and fairness that stand in the way of the horrific occult based NWO “utopia” that has more in common with turning the world into a living hell than our current way of life, such is the depravity of the NWO occultists ( amny of whom are very powerful indiviuals who have sold out to evil ).
Without Christianity we wouldnt have the hospitals and universities we have ( ignoring the recent leftist takeover ) and we could have any form of Democracy either, as freedom of religion is the most powerful expression of true liberty.
People can reject Christian/Judeo values, but way of comparison, you could always have an alternative govt from other parts of the world to replace it with, anbd I’d think long and hard about that as an alternative….
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Oh noes….”extreme” weather ( not climate, notice… ) makes climate scientists sad….oh diddums…..hanky?
We should rally around and chip in for a truck load of kleenex for them…..or may be the useless UN can help out with “Dodgy-Science-Aid”?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/climate-change-blamed-for-australia-extreme-weather-events/8268692
“Call it fatigue, call it frustration, but some of the best brains in the country are fed up.
Australia’s leading climate scientists joined their New Zealand counterparts in Canberra for a four-day conference last week, but dark clouds lingered over their discussions.
The theme of the conference was “Australasian weather, climate and oceans: past, present and future”.
And global warming was never far from the guests’ lips.
“There is definitely what you would call ‘climate fatigue’ on the part of scientists,” said Dr Andrew Glikson, from the Australian National University’s School of Archaeology and Anthropology.
“There were hundreds of scientists there, and my impression is while we continue to do the science as best we can, there is a fatigue when it comes to arguing in public.
“It’s definitely a concern. There are people who don’t think in scientific terms and don’t want to accept the basic laws of nature, or have some vested interest.”
……….
Dr Glikson was not the only person to leave Canberra with a heavy heart.
Professor Will Steffen, a climate scientist from the ANU, gave the last talk of the conference, and spoke of the Anthropocene — the concept of a new geological era dominated by the influence of humans.
…………
Dr Ben Henley, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, was in the audience.
“I remember him putting up a slide of planet Earth, and he just said ‘yes, we are in the Anthropocene’,” he said.
“We are moving into this era when humans are the major force on the planet. “
50
“There are people who don’t think in scientific terms”… mostly AGW believers.
“and don’t want to accept the basic laws of nature”…. ditto
“or have some vested interest”…. You mean like continued GRANTS and FUNDING !!
There is no “Anthopocene”…. “–cenes” are decided by geologists, not climate modellers.
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Note those who their ABC decided to interview.
Glikson? The one who tried to debate our JoNova a few years ago?
Where was old Tim Flannelpants? Surely he came along to see his Willie Steffan.
Was there anyone there besides the so-called “climate council” and a few dozen left-wing zealots and journalists?
What are the odds this is make believe news, just like the story about the “death threats” on Andrew, Tim and his Willie?
61
I am puzzled. Where did all that heat come from in the last week or so, and where did it go to to bring the temps down from the dizzy heights of 40+deg to a comfortable 20 deg or so in a matter of days?
The sun is still emitting the same output as before, and the CO2 levels have not changed, unless they self immolated by some mystic miracle, so where did all that heat go to?
I suspect that the heat came from hot air in Central Oz, which normally does not reach the coast, by a change in air pressure/currents, which would also explain the mysterious disappearance of same, in reverse.
Given that, in spite of the Henny Pennies running around like decapitated chooks yelling, “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”, we have seen it all before, and certainly in my lifetime, so what is all the fuss about, other than a lamentable ignorance of history plus fashionable fake science?
Just goes to show how even the so-called intelligent can fool themselves when they set out to turn scientific enquiry on its head and try to prove a preconceived thought bubble as true, rather than enquire and see where a disinterested investigation leads.
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G’day Allen,
I reckon your estimation is a pretty good explanation by itself. Add the fact that a southerly airflow brings cold air from the Southern Ocean and you get the cool change. A reasonable guide to what might happen in the next 4 days is given by the BoM (I don’t think homgenisation occurs with this) is:
http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/4day_col.shtml
It gives two pressure maps for each day, and the wind goes clockwise round the Lows (we’re in the southern hemisphere).
I was having enough difficulty keeping cool west of the divide to closely follow causes of the coastal build up, but in still conditions western parts of Sydney and Newcastle can get hot just from the sun.
Cheers,
Dave B
00
Sounds like a great book
Im a follower of Oswald Spengler mtself
“The Decline of the West” – Volume one was published in 1918.
30
Political scientist J.A. Corry (principal of Queen’s University, Kingston, ON 1961-68) in the book “Democratic Government and Politics”, published in 1946 wrote that political parties “like all organizations” – perpetuate themselves simply for the sake of their own self-interest. (This concept first came to my attention via a column written by the late Neil Reynolds in the Globe and Mail.)
All organisations are susceptible to this transition whether they are businesses, corporations, voluntary agencies or religious groups: They all risk being primarily engaged in sustaining the organisation rather than doing what they originally set out to do.
Unfortunately.
100
See also “Parkinson’s Law” (1957), by C. Northcote Parkinson. This law places the learned speculations of political scientists like Corry on a (ahem!) firm scientific basis, to wit:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
From this concise–and precise–axiom flows all that has or can conceivably ever be learned about organizational dynamics…
For example, Parkinson established the strict mathematical form of his law as:
“In any public administrative department not actually at war, the staff increase may be expected to follow this formula–
x = [ 2(k to the m power) + L ] / n
“k is the number of staff seeking promotion through the appointment of subordinates; L represents the difference between the ages of appointment and retirement; m is the number of man-hours devoted to answering minutes within the department; and n is the number of effective units being administered. x will be the number of new staff required each year. Mathematicians will realize, of course, that to find the percentage increase they must multiply by 100 and divide by the total of the previous year…. This figure will invariably prove to be between 5.17 per cent and 6.56 per cent, irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done.
“The discovery of this formula and of course of the general principles upon which it is based has, of course, no political value. No attempt has been made to inquire whether departments OUGHT to grow in size…. Nor can it be sufficiently emphasized that Parkinson’s Law is a purely scientific discovery, inapplicable except in theory to the politics of the day [n.b.: much like “greenhouse effect” theory today–HDH]. It is not the business of the botanist to eradicate the weeds. Enough for him if he can tell us just how fast they grow.”
From this and much other noteworthy findings by Parkinson, we may begin to understand just how hardy a breed is the political scientist (a.k.a. hack).
40
The publisher of “Parkinson’s Law” put on the back cover a descriptive summary that included the following, eerily prophetic words:
“The truth of Parkinson’s statements on business growth, optimum committee size, the relation between a firm’s architectural renovation and its financial health, as well as many other matters, is self-evident and unquestioned. The only pity is that, mankind being what it is, ‘Parkinson’s Law’ is as fresh and true today as it was when it was first published.”
…And still is, 60 years later. To a climate skeptic, this is dark humor indeed.
40
Has Parkinson been reprinted?
What about The Law and the Profits – when he explains government expenditure?
Page 1 alone should be compulsory reading for our politicians as he skewers the difference between personal and government expenditure. The ordinary person has to restrain his expenditure to match his income and can only dream of spending more. The public service decides how much it would like to spend and leaves it up to the Treasurer to raise the money through increased taxes.
The trouble is that they decided they hadn’t taken enough so added increasing charges for electricity, water etc. so the ordinary person is getting fed up.
50
A little history of the EU. The European project began as
the European Coal and Steel community in 1951 with six
founding members, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands
and Luxembourg. In 1957, by the Treaty of Rome, the ECSC
became the European community with the aim of fostering
Regional peace and cooperation. The Treaty of Brussels in
1965 established Europe’s centralized governing body.
Britain entered the EEC in 1973, assured that this would
have no implications for UK national sovereignty.In 1992,
with the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union was created
and ever closer union of its nation states and the fantasy
that the nation state was not only dangerous but archaic.
‘Trust but verify’ becomes difficult with government at a
distance by faceless unelected bureaucrats. Ref my ‘Trust
but Verify’ Serf Under_ground post.
https://beththeserf.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/43rd-edition-serf-under_ground-journal/
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Thank you, Joanne, for posting information on the real issue hidden inside UN’s “AGW Trojan horse” – totalitarian control of all humanity, destroying democracy.
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A secret Trump-Putin alliance may become the greatest threat to democracy if Trump’s election ends the old alliance of the US Democratic Party with the UN and the UNAS, e.g., the Nobel Prize winning promotion of AGW by the former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN’s IPCC.
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How very true..
For the last 20 years I have been telling people that the true battle we face in the 21st Century is to restore democracy – to once again put the people back in control, to stop the insidious growth of the self-serving political elite operating hand-in-glove with the multinationals and global elite who have been turning us into a modern-day serfdom pacified with the illusion of democracy.
The EU has been the trial-run for an unelected, unaccountable global government. That is the one that the UN has tried to bring about through the climate change scam
I hope and pray that battle has well and truly been engaged, first with Brexit and second with Trump’s election and more hopefully that it will be continued and be reflected in forthcoming European elections this year.
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Of course this is the objective. It has nothing to do with the environment, no connection with the weather, and least of all any semblance of “science”.
But Senator Roberts, from Queensland, is accused of having a tinfoil hat when he mentions this.
Did anyone hear Senator Roberts speaking in the senate this morning. He followed Louise the Pratt, that prattled on about her partners in crime, the CFMEU, and Kim Jong-Carr.
Malcolm was splendid. ON would do well to make him leader, only because his speech is so much more fluent and logical than Pauline. However, the red-head is doing a fantastic job as it is.
PS There was a news report this morning that Kim Jong-Il’s half brother met his end at the hand of female assassins in Kuala Lumpur this morning. Not Kim Jong-Carr?
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try this: https://im42na.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/lynn-de-rothschild-at-inauguration-2017/
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‘…the true battle we face in the 21st Century is to restore democracy …’
Trump has revitalised democracy, he hit the refresh button, which should have a domino effect on all western democracies.
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And the only way”WE”will win,is when”WE”take on the”Elites”Trump cannot do it on his own and”HE”is the only one hard enough to do it.
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Oh Joanne,
While your readers will find the recent article on The Managerial Revolution of interest, I would like to point out there were two Australians who, many years ago, warned about the Managerial Revolution in this country.
But first, 2017 is the 100th anniversary of the completion of the East-West railway here in Australia and there is is quite a Story of the Commonwealth Bank in that for Australian readers. But back to the Managerial Revolution.
I wrote an article in 2007 in which I explained to the readers WITHOUT A STUDY OF MAMMON (MONEY) – HISTORY IS BUNK and James Burnham should not be ‘let off the hook’.
WITHOUT A STUDY OF MAMMON (MONEY) – HISTORY IS BUNK
by Betty Luks:
It would appear behind the scenes Coalition members of parliament are in disarray and frantically grabbing at straws that might offer them lifelines for their political salvation. A more traitorous bunch against their fellow Australians it would be hard to find – except in the Labor camp.
My accusation of treachery may appear harsh to some but there are historical threads, which, when earnestly traced to their origins, lend support to this accusation. One or two of these threads came to light in David Flint’s “History re-invented” Opinion Column, 13/9/07, but I feel sure Professor Flint would be amazed to hear that it is so.
The good professor took former PM Paul Keating to task for referring to Stanley Melbourne Bruce, as “that dreadful old fop who used to wear spats”. In 1929, Bruce became the only Australian Prime Minister to lose his seat. Professor Flint thought that when Keating read Alan Woods’ defence of Stanley Bruce in The Australian, 12/9/07, he would through embarrassment withdraw such comment.
To be fair, Bruce fought at Gallipoli, was twice wounded, invalided out of the services and awarded the Military Cross and the Croix de Geurre avec Palme by the French.
But what took my particular attention was Woods’ reference to Bruce as a “figure of substance both in Australia and on the international stage, not the figure of fun of Labor mythology,” but as “a man of his time and class: the prosperous merchant class”.
These words sent me scurrying to re-read portions of Eric Butler’s “The Enemy Within the Empire,” and Jack Lang’s “The Great Bust: The Depression of the Thirties”.
Many Australians also see Bruce as one of Australia’s ‘noblest sons’, but I cannot. This former PM set in motion many policies that have born much bitter fruit for my fellow Australians. Measured against the untold misery and tribulations his policies unleashed upon the people of this nation, Mr. Bruce’s good deeds fade into insignificance.
The Managerial Revolution
Jack Lang wrote of the ruling elite of the time in “The Great Bust: The Depression of the Thirties”. Under the heading of “Decay of Democracy” he wrote:
“The Bruce-Page government introduced into this country the idea that the best form of government for a Conservative party was one in which the machinery was handed over to a multitude of Boards. These suited the philosophy and outlook of Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce … he had the idea that the right people to run the government of the country were business leaders and experts.”
“Bruce,” wrote Lang, “could see no point in the Gettysburg Address, in which Lincoln had defined Democracy. He didn’t really believe that the people were fit to govern themselves. (These) were his kind of people. Bankers, men of commerce, lawyers, accountants – they were the ideal managers. Bruce was one of the first exponents of the Managerial State.”
Eric Butler also recorded historical events of that time in “Enemy Within the Empire”:
“Since 1924, the Commonwealth Bank has been under the direct domination of overseas interests. Prior to that time it was used to some extent on behalf of the Australian people. Until 1923 it was controlled by a Governor, Sir Denison Miller. The bank’s outstanding act was to refuse to sacrifice the Australian people in 1920 at the instigation of Montagu Norman and his international banking friends… The private bankers in this country started to restrict the nation’s credit supplies and depression threatened… Sir Denison Miller foiled this move by using the Commonwealth Bank to issue £23,000,000 between June and December of 1920. This was a threat to the private banks, who then curtailed their deflation policy…”
“In 1924 the Bruce-Page administration took the first step in making the Commonwealth Bank a Central Bank, controlled by the Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements. This was in line with Mr. Norman’s policy of a chain of central banks throughout the world.”
As to former PM Stanley Melbourne Bruce, Eric wrote:
“Soon after the emasculation of the Commonwealth Bank, Mr. Bruce left for London, where he wined and dined with his financial friends. I have no hesitation in saying that no man has betrayed his own nation more to International Financial interests than “Australia’s Noblest Son”; his record on behalf of the financiers since 1924 should be familiar to every loyal Australian… To make the Money Power supreme, Mr. Bruce got the Financial Agreement incorporated as part of the Constitution. This Agreement paved the way for the formation of the Loan Council to control all government borrowings.”
Jack Lang noted: “Few Australians who entered their local polling booth on 17th November 1928 to record their verdicts on the record of the Bruce-Page Government realised that they were also closing the chapter of real self-government for their State Parliaments. They didn’t realise that when they placed a simple cross against the word YES on the separate ballot paper to insert Clause 105A into the Constitution, they were sacrificing the sovereign powers of the States…”
Keating and the Commonwealth Bank:
While Mr. Bruce betrayed his people to the parasitical rapacious system of Mammon in the 1920-30s, let us not forget former PM Paul Keating’s role in the sell off of the now gutted people’s bank, the Commonwealth Bank, to private banking interests, and the betrayal of whatever remains of financial sovereignty left to the nation, to the hungry wolves of International Finance.
Let’s not forget, the original Commonwealth Bank was a creature of the Fisher Labor government! Mr. Paul Keating proved himself to be a different type of Labor politician to such patriots as Jack Lang, former Premier of NSW who fought for (but lost) the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales, and King O’Malley MHR who fought the battle for the instituting of the Commonwealth Bank. Both men took on very powerful shadowy forces in the dark world of finance.
It is many a year since ANY politician – no matter which camp – fought for the sovereignty of the people of the Commonwealth of Australia – former senator Paul McLean (“Bankers and Bastards”) being the exception.
Essential books for ALL Australians:
“The Enemy Within the Empire” by Eric D. Butler;
“The Story of the Commonwealth Bank,” by D.J. Amos.
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Have to agree with you Betty.
The vast majority cannot understand that the power to print money overrides all other powers. Nothing, no system, no hierarchy, nothing whatsoever can withstand the this dark force, and all wars, all political decisions, all life on this planet is under its control.
The idea that democracy or any other form of governance can exist in the shadow of such an all pervasive force is pure impossibility.
It is utter fantasy (And a waste of time) to talk about any kind of governance without first and foremost taking into account that the power to print money overrides ALL and everything.
That force which controls the purse, and the ability to now digitally/electronically manufacture what goes in it, is master of all.
People cling to what they know and i doubt things will change Betty.
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Seems like something I can agree with ES.
The power to print money that has not been “earned” is possibly the root of all evil because in a world like that other things are devalued.
Work becomes devalued.
Saving becomes devalued.
Money becomes devalued.
All incentive to work and save is gone and “governments” can distribute wealth and favour to friends and supporters to entrench their power, i.e. Buy more votes.
Examples of this would be the construction of Desalination plants and the Victorian roads construction of a few years back.
Money printing is bad and the solution to any problem running in parallel with the current mindset of “just borrow a little bit more”.
Bad news economy.
KK
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Thanks Betty,
Sorry to have to admit that I have just skimmed through your comment but it does look very enticing.
A part of our history that needs to be understood.
KK
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Betty,
after another skim through your comment the subject matter is essential reading but for me and no doubt many others in my age group a bit painful and therefore hard to engage with.
The “crashes” focussed on 1987 and 2008 were the source of gigantic ripoffs by someone.
They were different, the first had me a slave to rapidly growing interest rates and the second a wholesale loss of savings through my savings being sent through the fake sharemarket/currency manipulation churn.
No apparent government interest or protection from the depredations of the big banking system.
Many of my contemporaries are still at work trying to dig themselves out.
There is a strong parallel between banksterism and the Man Made Global Warming reallocation of wealth.
KK
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KK,
I am sorry to read that you were ‘taken to the cleaners’ by the ‘fake sharemarket/currency manipulation churn. The following may help you to partly understand how it was done. I am no ‘financial expert’ but I read up on the issues a number of years ago. Betty Luks
3 October 2008
“In the old days, this futures or risk business served only as a kind of insurance for the real economy. Exporters, for example, could use it to protect themselves against fluctuations in the value of their trading partners’ currency.
But since the capacity of computers became virtually unlimited, the derivatives trade has made itself completely autonomous and an ‘age of financial revolution’ (as the former BIS [Bank of International Settlement] president Alexandre Lamfalussy euphorically described it) has dawned. All the big financial centres have long had their own exchange just for the futures trade.
Between 1989 and 1995, the nominal value of contracts doubled every two years and reached the unimaginable sum of 41,000 billion dollars worldwide. This figure alone signals the dramatic change in the nature of financial transactions, only 2 to 3 per cent of which now directly serve to protect trade and industry. All other contracts are bets organised among themselves by those who conjure with the market.
Their formula is: ‘I bet that in a year’s time the Dow Jones will be 250 points higher than now. Otherwise I’ll pay…’”
– – “The Global Trap: Globalization and the Assault on Prosperity and Democracy” by Hans-Peter Martin and Harald Schumann, 1998.
“The four biggest investment banks on Wall Street, which included Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, shelled out $US30 billion in bonuses last year. Lehman just went under and Bear Stearns was bailed out earlier in the year.
While pushing through his emergency deal, Paulson says he wants to defer the debate on salaries. Someone should take him aside and tell him, “Pal, it’s over”.
The moral and philosophical underpinning for $US50 million salaries is gone, let alone $US10 million salaries care of government.
These remuneration structures were struck on the basis of a compact with the market, that is that pay is “at risk” and should reflect performance. That compact is finished. What is the risk if the losses are nationalised?”
– – From “The mother of all rip-offs: Could there be a finer reward for failure?” by Michael West in The Age, 24/9/08.
HIP-POCKET-NERVE PAIN MIGHT GRAB THEIR ATTENTION
First there was the collapse of the sub-prime market and now with the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, hundreds of Australian charities, churches, local councils and even credit unions are looking at losses calculated at AUS$2 billion (Michael West in The Age 16/8/08).
Before the declaration of bankruptcy by the US bank, local councils and other organisations throughout Australia had only just come to the realisation that the US sub-prime collapse had destroyed the value of the investments they had acquired through Lehman Brothers. Their securities were turning into worthless bits of paper.
One of the councils, Wingecarribie Shire in the NSW Southern Highlands had already filed proceedings in the Federal Court against the Australian arm of Lehman Brothers. But the situation changed with the US Lehman Brothers bank going into receivership. The Australian arm of the bank is now at risk of being roped into the US bankruptcy proceedings.
Once that happens, the ratepayers of Wingecarribie Shire Council could find that if they want to continue the legal battle to recoup their funds, they might have to write off all the expenses already outlaid on the Federal Court proceedings, and start again – this time in the US. And they will have to wait in line along with all the other hundreds, maybe even thousands, of groups who have lost their funds.
Treating the symptoms but never the causes
Notice how the issues are ‘compartmentalised’? What is at issue here is the further centralisation of the nation’s financial system in the hands of the private banking system…
GOVERNMENTS SAVING CORRUPT BANKS – TO HELL WITH THE PEOPLE!
“I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.”
– Sir Isaac Newton, after losing a fortune in the South Sea Bubble
“It’s the Derivatives Stupid! Why FANNIE, FREDDIE and AIG all had to be bailed out,”
by American lawyer Ellen Brown, September 18, 2008:
Something extraordinary is going on with these government bailouts. In March 2008, the Federal Reserve extended a $55 billion loan to JP Morgan to “rescue” investment bank Bear Stearns from bankruptcy, a highly controversial move that tested the limits of the Federal Reserve Act. On September 7, 2008, the U.S. government seized private mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and imposed a conservatorship, a form of bankruptcy; but rather than let the bankruptcy court sort out the assets among the claimants, the Treasury extended an unlimited credit line to the insolvent corporations and said it would exercise its authority to buy their stock, effectively nationalizing them. Now the Federal Reserve has announced that it is giving an $85 billion loan to American International Group (AIG), the world’s largest insurance company, in exchange for a nearly 80% stake in the insurer . . . .
Read further: https://alor.org/Volume44/Vol44No38.htm
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Betty, I have studied the mess and fully understand it.
One interesting contrast between us and the USA was that our real estate held while theirs fell badly and it was the reverse for the share market.
Our local council had been stupid in buying US$7 million of mortgage derivatives for which no one could identify the properties under mortgage. Totally fraudulent. Then for our sharemarket the fiddling with currency values and shorting. Absolute theft approved of by the government of the day so that the money stolen could be shipped to the big boys in wall street.
And politicians expect to be taken seriously after that?
Disgusting.
KK
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I posted on the culture side of a conglomeration of nations that make up the EU some time ago here on Jo’s blog
From my reading of history and more so my own knowledge of my ancestors here in Australia, German Lutheran settlers who arrived in 1850, and the time and three generations it took [ My father , a third generation Australian born didn’t really speak english until he went to school. ] plus close to a three quarters of a century to close to a century before our family and all those descendants that I knew from those 1850’s arrivals were finally fully integrated into the Australian nation. And this even though they called themselves Australians and fought for the British on the Western Front in WW1.
Mobility and adaption of masses of peoples are much faster today but the old hold of the ethnic groupings continue to exist today .
It is just a normal function of human kind, to find their own culture in amongst those with a similar cultural outlook where they are more comfortable and feel more secure with those people who hold to that same culture.
The EU was a forced assimilation of dozens of cultures from the 28 nations that made up the EU.
The EU dictacrats in Brussels constantly forced the pace of assimilating those numerous and diverse cultures across those EU member nations without ever understanding in the slightest or in their arrogance and ignorance and hubris taking into account that it needs perhaps near to three full generations before a mix of diverse cultures, cultures that are common to very large groups, level out and combine to create a new national culture which in this case would have become the real and nationally identified by ALL of its citizens as the European Nation with themselves identifying personally as Europeans.
But it got worse as the EU in a fit of total stupidity allowed and even encouraged initially an influx of over a million refugees from the Middle East and much worse, including and allowing economic opportunists from North Africa who had even less intention of adapting and fitting into the European cultural memes to arrive en mass over a period of a year just to take advantage of the european political stability, wealth and generosity, all of which was created over the centuries past by the white skinned european people creating and imposing and adopting their own cultural memes in their own nations and amongst their own peoples.
The cultures of the ME refugees and North African economic opportunists are about as radically different in attitudes and approaches to the basic European cultural memes and as it is possible to get on this planet.
Those very recent European newcomers will be the outsiders cultural wise for more than three or four generations, something which we see today in France where the French allowed hundreds of thousands of Algerians who already had some inklings of French culture to migrate to France in the Algerian decolonisation war of 1956 to 1962.
Sixty years later there are now Islamic controlled and islamic dominated cultural areas in France where the French police can’t go and French bureaucracy and a lot of French laws are ignored in favour of an islamic cultural approach to many facets of life.
Likewise in Germany where Turkish immigrants have been encouraged as cheap low quality labor for some 3 or 4 decades past. There are reports of third generation german born Turkish descent individuals who still cannot speak German.
The EU was a concept that one day might just have evolved and came about if the the European politicians and European business oligarchs had just had the patience to ride along for perhaps another half a century with what was originally the Common Market where business as well as industry and even politics and treaties and etc slowly evolved by mutual agreement into what could have been a combining and an amalgamating of all those diverse European cultures into something resembling a more or less agreed cohesive one European cultural outlook.
And that of course would also have meant a resistance towards the influx of other highly disruptive and culturally very different groups on a mass scale, something the EU and Merkel of Germany in particular seemed to have a completely blind spot to what such a mass influx of a totally different set of cultures would do to the great EU experiment and thus refused to place any limitations on that mass influx when it did occur .
The end result being an enormous and now on going upheaval in the long established albeit diverse European cultures that will take another two or three generations and possibly oceans of blood before again reaching a new set of european cultural norms and values.
And thats only IF the clash of cultures in and around europe and in fact nearly anywhere and everywhere today, can be held at bay for another century, a very doubtful proposition considering today’s world and its current troubles.
But then I guess that those last few words of mine , “a very doubtful proposition in today’s world and its current troubles “, has been the ongoing and regularly repeated meme during all of the 78 plus years I have been on this planet.
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Lot of sense in that comment ROM.
The core values of work, saving, honesty are not encouraged by the behaviour of modern politicians who obviously don’t care about anyone but themselves.
My response to ES above was made before I read your post here.
Australia has been mostly fortunate that immigration has been linked to a strong desire on the part of the immigrants to work. More recent immigration has not been as successful because politicians have “done a Merkel” on us and allowed entry to many whose prime objective is to reach the holy grail of our wonderful social security “safety” net.
That doesn’t work because it leads to division and suspicion and no true community can grow in that environment.
KK
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Thanks KK;
I was in moderation for a long time due to the possible section 18C problems for our hostess.
But my thanks to Jo and the mods for clearing my post above even though its import has now been lost as the caravan has moved on as it always will.
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Form a giant cartel, its Byzantine structure comprehended (sort of) by a few who can stand the boredom of comprehending Byzantine structures. Then get yourself a super-currency and start printing (electronic now preferred to paper). Any unfortunate economic collapses can be shifted away from lenders to the population of the cartel because, hey, it’s Byzantium rules.
And if you’re not shown sufficient appreciation by the general population…just replace ’em with a different population!
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🙂
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Since the US election I have started following some US news. I fear that democracy is on the way out in America, as well. The loonies there responded to the election result just like the UK loonies did to the Brexit vote.
Trump is not part of the political establishment and is running out of control from their point of view.
It used to be that students were always anti-establishment but they seem to be for the establishment in the US. So do the main stream media. I suspect all the anti-Trump protests and the anti-Trump court cases are all being co-ordinated and funded by the real establishment.
It may all end in tears.
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EU a real threat to Democracy and the importance of registering your “cow”
Jo a great article thanks for posting 😀
If anyone wanted examples of just how corrupt and dangerous the EU is to our democracy , one can look no further than the speech given by Jacob Rees-Moog at the Oxford debate.
https://youtu.be/vUKjTPPcOdQ
At some point debating with the Federalists becomes useless and the only answer is to leave the room entirely.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg is well worth listening to on that video.
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And more financial shenanigans to drag down the European masses by conning them out of their savings.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/12/22/new-class-of-high-risk-bank-bonds-to-prop-up-french-tbtf-banks/
http://wolfstreet.com/2017/02/14/biggest-eu-banks-embark-on-the-mother-of-all-debt-binges/
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Truly frightening, the corrupt interactions between banks and governments.
All part of the NGSS which has been on the build for the last few decades.
NGSS: new global slavery system.
Probably known in French as the: SPSI
Systeme Pour Slaverie Internationale.
KK
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One should not forget to toss the judges into the bureaucratic “back room” of the oligarch class.
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Yes, it’s good to be reminded that there are many ways of destroying a democracy.
To remove faith in the justice system is one of the essentials.
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If centralized systems were that strong, soviet union will be still around.
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Perhaps it would be timely to review TISA, WTO & the UN and how much sovereignty & self determination we actually enjoy here in Aus.
Donald may well not be one of the “elites”,but with that many Goldman Sachs advisors, the rule of the CFR is not far away.
Turnbull’s reign may be looking tenuous, but the War on Cash is accelerating – look for the withdrawal of the A$100 [ & then the “fake $50s].
The advertisements for the ANZ smartphone app is an example of the “convenience” we will be offered to seduce us into accepting a loss of individual economic sovereignty.
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