NTGNTP (6th Draft): POWER AND NEGATION Part 6.2.1

2. On Cognition and Economics:

Cognition concerns the perception of the internal and external world. Accordingly, depression is regarded largely a matter of (falsely) negative perception. Hence, overcoming its effects are accomplished by replacing negative with positive perceptions and notions. Illogical inconsistencies wither in the light of reason. Obstacles are challenges, rather than overwhelming impossibilities. This view can be helpful. However, cognition has been exploited by others than clinical psychologists, namely propagandists and economists. By comparison, propaganda actions are almost esoteric compared with economic applications. The reality concerning money cannot be ignored. Worldwide class struggle has been over the base premise of haves v. have nots, where currency defines the situation. The United States, despite the racial masquerade, is no exception. Economics are always the heart of these conflicts. Cheap labor has always been desired by ruling capital. Albeit guided, the lower echelons fight over the pecking order for the scraps tossed from above. Once brute measures, including slavery and indentured servitude, were deemed socially unacceptable throughout the industrialized world, wages became the means for controlling labor. Early trade unions were formed to deal with capital on behalf of the workers, which essentially legitimized the wage system. In the United States, the struggle eased somewhat with the outbreak of World War II. Available jobs exceeded supply. Unions agreed to forego strikes. The result has been a steady decline in the power of unions after the war, and continues to the present. This could only be accomplished by high levels of economic prosperity. The price was debt. War can prove an economic bounty, but a cold war leaves a hugh surplus in weapons. These products were built never to be used, and cannot be sold. Once their justification ceased, the weapons industry was forced to downsize. The effects are far reaching. The lower-paid service economy will not absorb the difference. Hence, more debt is required to maintain stability. Credit has become the rule, rather than the exception, which only prolongs the situation. Meanwhile, the wealthy continue to grow richer, while the rest stagnate. This short-sighted policy could eventually prove disastrous. Consumerist culture is regarded eternal, but the bill will someday come due. Considering interest, the final price will be high, and may collapse the status quo. An economic highwire act will be necessary to prolong timing, but eventually entropy will reign. Static solutions will ensure a slow downward spiral into the murk of defunct bastard-capitalism. Once the specter of nuclear war was most menacing. Now economic chaos and environmental degradation have taken its place. The quick death has been replaced by the slow. The solutions required must move beyond the cogitative.