A Broken Economic System In One Picture

A truly bipartisan effort.

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.

h/t Neil Irwin, You Can't Feed a Family GDP

Such a Parcel of Rogues In a Nation - Alba Gu Bràth

"For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom, for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

Robert the Bruce, Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320

Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame,

Fareweel our ancient glory;

Fareweel even to the Scottish name,

So famed in martial story!

Now Sark rins over Solway sands,

And Tweed rins to the ocean,

To mark where England's province stands—

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

What force or guile could not subdue

Thro' many warlike ages,

Is wrought now by a coward few,

For hireling traitor's wages.

The English steel we could disdain,

Secure in valour's station;

But English gold has been our bane—

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

O, would or I had seen the day

That treason thus could sell us,

My auld grey head had lien in clay

Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace!

But pith and power, till my last hour,

I'll mak this declaration:

We're bought and sold for English gold—

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

Robert Burns, A Parcel of Rogues In a Nation, 1791

 

 

Is there for honest poverty

That hings his head, an' a' that?

The coward slave, we pass him by --

We dare be poor for a' that!

For a' that, an' a' that,

Our toils obscure, an' a' that,

The rank is but the guinea's stamp,

The man's the gowd for a' that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,

Wear hoddin grey, an' a' that?

Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine --

A man's a man for a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

Their tinsel show, an' a' that,

The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,

Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie ca'd 'a lord,'

Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that?

Tho' hundreds worship at his word,

He's but a cuif for a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

His ribband, star, an' a' that,

The man o' independent mind,

He looks an' laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,

A marquis, duke, an' a' that!

But an honest man's aboon his might --

Guid faith, he mauna fa' that!

For a' that, an' a' that,

Their dignities, an' a' that,

The pith o' sense an' pride o' worth

Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,

As come it will for a' that,

That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,

Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's coming yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that.

Robert Burns, For a' That, 1795

Social Darwinism

"Power will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse."

R. J. Rummel


"A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, and fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.”

Chris Hedges


"In this way people are thrown aside as if they were trash."

Francis I

The Aktion T4 Programme provided the expertise, the administrative practices, and the bureaucratic rationales required to build the mass extermination facilities and the camps.

The beginning of social Darwinism is financial Darwinism, the unjust and willful allocation of means and opportunity.  This enriches the favored, and permits the oppressed to be more easily labeled as inferior, useless eaters, life unworthy of life. 

You may try to help them, but they are sub-human, and stubbornly beyond redemption.   It is a difficult task, but someone must do it.  As the superior few, we must do those hard things for the good of all. It is our destiny.  Thinning their ranks at a distance becomes easy to rationalize, and after a time a purely practical routine, like cutting the grass.

The root of it all is in the will to power, the desire of a select few to determine the value of all life, and to define both good and evil, with themselves as the ultimate good.  And their handiwork is not life, but a profound emptiness, the abomination of desolation.

They never have enough. Not enough money, not enough power, not enough killing. They cannot give life, so they will bring death.  They fear weakness and death, so they attempt to be its master. They would be as gods.  And in their pride they make themselves, and all those around them, not masters but monsters.