Aphorisms

The following aphorisms are the result of my 64 years on this planet.

Ninety percent of human problems are artificially created.

To find a traitor, look for a flag-waver.

Few are more naive than the self-styled pragmatist or realist.

If it is something we want, they take forever. Something they want and it's rammed through in hours. Something we want and there is not enough money, something they want and the purse is wide open.

Capitalism is the state socialism of the rich.

If you think everything in government, the media and the economy is a racket, you will be correct in most cases.

To find the source of a problem, ignore the excuses and follow the buck.

Two little words will make many an Anglo Canadian don a bed sheet - “Indian” and Quebec.

If a desire for vengeance is the chief negative trait of Americans, hypocrisy is the chief Canadian trait.

The worst Satanists are those who think they are Christians.

Few people consciously lie, most live in a state of denial.

Kill someone and they call you a murderer. Kill ten people and they call you a monster. Kill a million people and they call you Mr. President.

“Democracy” is the right to chose which of two similar parties will bully and exploit you.

Our rulers will kill as many people as they find necessary in order to maintain their wealth and power.

Free enterprize has nothing to do with freedom.

Free trade is the freedom of corporations to control the global economy.

Few freedoms are universal. One person's freedom may be another's slavery. One person's slavery may be another's freedom.

The poor and the powerless are always deemed responsible for their acts. The wealthy and powerful are rarely so.

Contempt of court? Few institutions are more worthy of contempt.

People are enslaved through ignorance of their own history, which is why it is not taught in schools.

A true skeptic has an open mind. A pseudo-skeptic is a believer, but of the negative kind.

If you want to do something, do it. Don't let anyone tell you to do otherwise. Many lives have been ruined by people not following their true will.

People are motivated by hope for a better life, which is why the system and its toadies spare no energy in seeking to kill hope.

State socialism is an oxymoron, just like capitalist democracy.

Nothing exists in isolation. Thus, everything you do ultimately effects everyone and everything else. Live your life accordingly and suffering will be minimized.

The fragmented, disconnected world-view is the viewpoint of the stupid. Wisdom consists in seeing the underlying unity.

Nothing is free, everything comes at a price, that which is human effort.

The spiritual consists of metaphors. The foolish take those metaphors literally, and are thus guilty of idolatry.

All creative acts are acts of rebellion.

Everyone has heard of Beethoven. Who has heard of his critics?

No god punishes us. We punish ourselves.

To the eye of eternity, even the worst human being is but a fleck of foam on a vast ocean.

Considering yourself “saved” is the worst example of the sin of pride.

If competitiveness and a desire to dominate were the major aspects of human nature, early humans would not have survived a week.

True leadership is by example. Coercing people into doing your bidding is not leadership, but the attribute of a school yard bully.

Capitalism regulates what should be left unregulated and leaves unregulated what should be regulated.

Humanity will be liberated when it realizes the dominator minority is criminally insane and treats it accordingly.

If we simply must have rulers, let them be worthy of us.

If people understood the logic of argument, most politicians would be laughed off the podium. This is why logic is not taught in our schools.

Socialism is the simplest thing in the world - those who do the work own and control their places of work. The complication arises from all the false definitions that have been foisted upon the word.

The commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill.” It does not say “Thou shalt not kill except when some sleazy politician or greedy corporation boss says its OK to kill.

Outside the human, evil does not exist in the world. Attributing evil to the non-human world is a form of psychological projection.

Given the right conditions all people will act in a brutal manner. Given the right conditions all people are capable of altruism.

The ultimate reason for the proliferation of conspiracy theories is systematic lying on the part of governments, corporations and the mass media. To eliminate conspiracy theories, eliminate lying.

Human reality is one of shadings of gray, of contradictoriness and complexity, and only the stupid reduce everything to black and white.

Every person who trumpets how rational they are, displays some gaping irrationality, obvious to everyone but themselves.

One cannot deny the importance of reason, yet a person completely devoid of the non-rational would be merely a machine of flesh and blood.

Genocide of the First Nations should surprise no one, given the attitudes of the era. One would be more surprised had genocide not occurred.

Private property is absolutely sacred... unless it is the property of First Nations, people of colour or the poor. Then it is free for expropriation.

Let's not be too hard on the Germans. The Nazis only took the racist, social Darwinist and eugenicist ideologies dominant in Europe and North America to their logical extreme.

All cults require as a condition of membership, the acceptance of some irrational belief. If you affirm this belief now, you are more likely to swallow any lie, no matter how outrageous, later on.

Given the nature of life a century ago, given the time that is needed for the generations to work through such insanity, is it any wonder we have serious problems today?

An explanation is not the same as an apology, though bigots like to pretend this is so.

That every situation has a cause or reason for its existence other than innate virtue or innate evil, ought to be a trite observation, but the statement needs constant repetition in the Fox News era.

Socialists are as envious of the wealthy as a man with intestinal parasites is envious of his tape worms.

The economy exists to serve the people, the people do not exist to serve the economy. This should be elementary, but it is not.

That you "consented" to being an employee is a sick joke. The choice is narrow - either voluntary slavery or starvation. Of course, if the only choice available is being beaten with a broomstick or beaten with a 2 by 4, people will always favor the broomstick, but it doesn't mean they necessarily enjoy getting beaten.

Envy and fear are the chief motivations of the poor person with right-wing views.

The word economics is a synonym for ideology.

Where science agrees with popular prejudices, everyone is for science. Where science disagrees with popular prejudice, people reject and condemn it.

The central problem of the left - you win all the arguments but then still convince no one, for most people's beliefs have an irrational basis.

Not pursuit of wealth, but a desire to dominate is the chief motivation of the rulers. Wealth is only the means to that end.

People with Dark Age ideas about biology, geology or physics are happy to have their lives saved by the practical results of that same biology, geology and physics.

The problem with the economist's claim that humans are motivated by self interest is that self-interest is taken in its narrowest and most limited sense – immediate material gratification. But self-interest also includes clean air, community, security and culture, aspects which require a long-term view, not found among those corporate apologists.

What exactly do conservatives wish to conserve? The true conservers are found on the left. They seek to protect community, culture, the small farm and the environment from the predatory conservatives.

Climate change deniers will be the first people to yell for help when they are subject to the disastrous effects of the climate change they deny.

Conventional politics – the stupid led by the psychopathic.

All states, no matter how seemingly benevolent, ultimately rest upon a foundation of violence.

Peasants or hunter-gatherers never freely give up their land. Their property is expropriated by outsiders through violence or the threat of violence.