Getty Images
Getty Images
Home » Posts tagged 'mayan'
Tag Archives: mayan
The One True Thing
wikimedia
The One True Thing
Until you understand it, it will rule your life.
Until you see clearly how the rules of society work, you will be trapped within a system of control.
What you mistake for reality is instead a fabricated simulation, designed to keep you trapped right where the system wants you.
Your social conditioning, education, and family structures program you with a set of beliefs, values and norms — often unexamined — that “properly” align you in such a way that you focus your life and labor on keeping the existing social hierarchy in place and that you never deeply question this arrangement.
Put visually, your culture is in the shape of a pyramid. And what keeps you pinned to your particular layer is your belief system.
Every civilization has its own defining narratives that, while beautifully diverse, all generate exactly the same structure: a pyramid consisting of many more people at the bottom than at the top.
Every civilization throughout history had One True Thing that determined each person’s position on that pyramid.
In some past eras, it was royal bloodline. In ancient Egyptian culture, it stemmed from being a direct descendent of the Sun god Ra. And today, it’s a function of how much money you have.
No matter the marker, the pecking order is held in place because everyone accepts the rules. They’re fully understood by the citizenry, and are only rarely questioned (usually at great personal risk).
But even though accepted as “100% true” by the participants of one culture, social markers often don’t translate when applied to another.
For instance, if you traveled back in time to the height of the Aztec empire with $1 billion in cash, your paper bills wouldn’t have any accepted value. You’d probably have trouble acquiring even a single tortilla with them.
Your modern currency just wouldn’t be money to that ancient culture.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Opinion: How this debt-addicted world could go the way of the Mayans
Opinion: How this debt-addicted world could go the way of the Mayans
Paying a high price for too many elites and their ‘frivolous cravings’
Getty Images
Nowadays many countries’ social and political structure relies on debt-driven consumption and increasing levels of entitlements.
Blame the policy makers. To drive economic growth, boost living standards, and manage growing inequality, policy makers have used debt and monetary tools to create economic activity. This has resulted in excessive borrowing and imbalances in global trade and capital.
Governments played a part, too, allowing the buildup of social entitlements to win or maintain office. Private companies also encouraged the growth of employee benefits to avoid immediate pressure on wages as well as boost current earnings and share prices.
But such expensive commitments were rarely fully funded.
Rather than deal with the fundamental issues, policy makers substituted public spending, financed by government debt or central banks, to boost demand. Strong growth and higher inflation, they hoped or believed, would correct the problems.
Barron’s Buzz: Who’s optimistic now?
This week’s Barron’s features the result of a survey of money managers and a look at Amazon’s cloud services. Barron’s Jack Hough discusses. Photo: Getty Images
The current state of affairs echoes Archaeologist Arthur Demarest’s observation about the Mayan civilization: “Society had evolved too many elites, all demanding exotic baubles…all needed quetzal feathers, jade, obsidian, fine chert, and animal furs. Nobility is expensive, non-productive and parasitic, siphoning away too much of society’s energy to satisfy its frivolous cravings.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
