Seymour & the Atlas network

[Lilith7]

Have you never heard of Z.A.P., Lilith7 they were based on Christchurch, Zenith Applied Philosophy.

They used to brain wash people using sophisticated techniques and then put people into work in businesses around town, paying low wages, one of them was a business cooking fried chicken, like KFC.  I think it was at the bottom of Papanui Road by Bealy Avenue by the Carlton Hotel.

One of the ways to brain wash people is to destroy someones cherished heart felt beliefs once you find out what they are, since lots of beliefs are just that and not factual, core beliefs are central to maintaining ones essential personality.  Hence the name ZAP, get it?  Whilst they are in a breakdown state after being zapped they can be bent to someone else's will.

I remember hearing about that lot back in the day; (word got around fairly quickly despite no internet then) that they were bad news & best avoided. There was another lot also best avoided, around the same time, The Divine Light Mission I think it was called but they were religious.

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I listened to a certain senior NZF politician scoff at a quote from their leader as being political hyperbole rather than deliberately divisive and intentionally cruel. We often see dishonesty  waved off in a similar way.

Chloe is right, we have the power, politicians work for us. About time we ceased to accept this kind of rubbish from our employees.

Excellent point; perhaps they need a reminder far more often than each election - if indeed they do then - that that IS what they are, our employees, there to do the best for all voters rather than just the one section of them.

I think perhaps we need to establish basic things like education, health etc.etc. to as high a level as we can, accessible to ALL of us (having  removed private health first) & then put a ring of steel around them to avoid any possible future 'improvements' from meddling greedy politicians. Set in concrete, legally close off any possible future greed idiocy so that EVERY person can access them.
The thing is that, because our generation is older, we know that it wasn't always this way & we won't shut the hell up about that. We tend to make sure we tell as many people as possible, because we know that change is needed - & the sooner, the better. I suspect Neoliberals don't much like us. I can live with that...

Bryan Bruce had a bit to say on the greedy Neoliberal sytem today.

https://www.facebook.com/www.redsky.tv

"We don’t live in a fair and just society. It is much harder for today’s young people from our poorer homes to get the kind of start in life that I got, born as I was into a working-class immigrant family, or former Prime Minister John Key got as the son of a single mother growing up in a State house.

We both received the gift of a virtually free tertiary education from a Welfare State that was determined to give us the rights to good food, shelter and education our country had signed up for under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

That isn't the case today.

So.. what happened? How come today’s young people don’t get the same break in life that John Key and I got?

The answer is complex but one of the challenges of democracy is to balance the rights of the individual with the rights of the many and in the early 1980’s there was a swing away from electiing governments that promoted the Common Good to governments which promoted Individualism.

Neoliberal economics, championed by US President Ronald Regan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Roger Douglas in New Zealand ,delivered a message of selfishness that fell on eager ears – that there should be less government in our lives and you should keep more of your tax money.

The result ?

A huge gap has developed between the rich and the poor in our country with diminished educational opportunities for kids who live in our poorer homes.

Why?

Because, for one thing, Treasury advised the Government in 1986 that free tertiary Education was not something that benefitted the nation but something that primarily benefitted the individual so the individual should pay for it.

So instead of getting the debt free start in adult life that John Key and I got, today’s generations are burdened by huge student loans that holds them back ,for eample, from getting into a home of their own.

Returning to a more Just Society isn’t going to be easy, but Step 1 is to make the moral decision that a fairer society is something we want.

I do. I want to live in a country where EVERY child is given the opportunity to be the best that they can be and so, as time permits I will be sharing, in upcoming posts , some thoughts about how we might achieve it."