THE UPCOMING ITALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM
As I've been urging for a few months, there's two countries in Europe to watch right now: France, and Italy. I've already addressed some of my reasons for saying to watch the former country in blogs earlier this week, so now it;s time to turn to Italy, and this this article from Zero Hedge shared by Mr. V.T.:
Beppe Grillo: "The Amateurs Are Conquering The World Because The 'Experts' Destroyed It"
If you've been following the career of Italian opposition leader, Signor Beppe Grillo, it may seem at first glance that he is reflecting similar pro-sovereignty, pro-national culture sentiments that have been seen at work in the BREXIT referendum, the recent American political election/referendum, or the similar movements in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, or Hungary. But Grillo is thinking along much broader, and deeper lines, and it's worth taking a look at what he sees at stake not only in and for Italy, but for the world. Consider these statements:
Perhaps the most notable point brouth up by Grillo is his answer whether he would govern Italy if given the opportunity, after the failure of Renzi. This is what he said:
We want to govern, but we don’t want to simply change the power by replacing it with our own. We want a change within civilisation, a change of world vision. We’re talking about dematerialised industry, an end to working for money, the start of working for other payment, a universal citizens revenue. If our society is founded on work, what will happen if work disappears? What will we do with millions of people in flux? We have to organise and manage all that.From our side, we want to give the tools to the citizens. We have an operating system called Rousseau, to which every Italian citizen can subscribe for free. There they can vote in regional and local elections and check what their local MPs are proposing. Absolutely any citizen can even suggest laws in their own name. This is something never before directly seen in democracy and neither Tsipras nor Podemos have done it.
If that is Grillo's checklist of conditions he needs to take charge, he may find more appropriate career choices elsewhere, unless of course he merely wants to be constantly "in the running", without actually ever winning.
Whatever the reason, we agree with the next point he makes, namely the overthrow of "experts" by amateurs.
euronews: “Do you think appealing to people’s emotions is enough to get elected? Is that a political project?”Beppe Grillo: "This information never ceases to make the rounds: you don’t have a political project, you’re not capable, you’re imbeciles, amateurs… And yet, the amateurs are the ones conquering the world and I’m rejoicing in it because the professionals are the ones who have reduced the world to this state. Hillary Clinton, Obama and all the rest have destroyed democracy and their international policies. If that’s the case, it signifies that the experts, economists and intellectuals have completely misunderstood everything, especially if the situation is the way it is. If the EU is what we have today, it means the European dream has evaporated. Brexit and Trump are signs of a huge change. If we manage to understand that, we’ll also get to face it.”
(Bold emphasis in the original, italicized emphasis added)
What grabbed my attention here is something I've advocated from time to time, and which we saw reflected to a certain degree in the recent Trump campaign and its heavy reliance on social media to reach out directly to supporters, in conjunction with massive campaign rally personal appearances, namely, the use of the internet to bring back a measure of direct and immediate individual participation and monitoring of representative institutions, legislatures, and representatives themselves. Grillo is in effect advocating even that citizens can even propose laws. Notably, he is not proposing the abolition of representative legislatures, but rather a process working in tandem with them.
There's something else that Grillo said, however, and this really grabbed my attention, and I hope it does yours as well, for Grillo gets that we need to start thinking, and start thinking now and in a deep way, about the nature of the relationship between finance, our current financial "work-for-pay" system, and politics, for as we all know, technology is now progressing to the point that the normal "create jobs" solution to economic woes simply has to start thinking outside the box. Here's what Grillo said:
Beppe Grillo
“We want to govern, but we don’t want to simply change the power by replacing it with our own. We want a change within civilisation, a change of world vision.“We’re talking about dematerialised industry, an end to working for money, the start of working for other payment, a universal citizens revenue. If our society is founded on work, what will happen if work disappears? What will we do with millions of people in flux? We have to organise and manage all that.” (Italicized, and italicized-boldface emphases added)
One might be tempted to view his remarks are being all too capable of being perverted into the typical "centralized and organized management" sorts of socialist solutions, and in Italian politics, there's always that very real danger. What catches the eye, however, is the phrase "the start of working for other payment," which implies a redefinition both of payment and media of exchange, as well as the nature of work itself; if autos are being made, assembled, and perhaps even transported by driverless trucks and lorries that are effedtively nothing but transportation robots, then what happens to human work and creativity. Grillo seems to be implying that far from creating a "leisure" class out of all of humanity, that humanity is freed to pursue other types of creative work.
There's yet another surprise here, and that is the distinction between "common" currency and "single" currency:
euronews
“One hot topic at the Commission at the moment is the problem of the conflicts of interest concerning certain politicians.
“President Juncker suggested modifying the code of ethics and lengthening the period of abstinence from any private work for former Commission members to three years. Is that enough?”
Beppe Grillo
“I have serious doubts about a potential change in the code of ethics being made by a former minister of a tax haven.”
euronews
“You don’t think the Commission is legitimate?”Beppe Grillo
“Absolutely not. Particularly because it’s a Commission that no one has actually elected. That’s what brought us closer to Nigel Farage: a democracy coming from the people.”euronews
“You don’t regret being allied with Farage?”Beppe Grillo
"It was an alliance of convenience, made to give us enough support to enter parliament. We’ve always maintained this idea of total autonomy in decision-making, but we united over the common idea of a different Europe, a mosaic of autonomies and sovereignties.“I’m not against Europe, but I am against the single currency. Conversely, I am for the idea of a common currency. The words are important: ‘common’ and ‘single’ are two different concepts.
(Italicized emphasis added)
This is a very crucial point, and seems to define what Mr. Grillo has in mind when he speaks of starting to work for other forms of payment. With the ever-growing expansion of the internet and various blockchain systems of payment, why should a custom furniture builder in Italy have to receive payment only in Euros, especially if he is selling furniture to, say, Canada or Brazil? Why should he have to go through an intermediate currency, and be unable to accept Canadian dollars. In effect, what Mr. Grillo seems to be proposing is an almost completely decentralized system of international clearing, leaving it up to the business owner to determine what currency he or she wishes to accept, and what not to accept.
So what does all this possibly add up to? Well, as I've said, "watch Italy," for a people that gave us out-of-the box thinkers like Eco and Vico, and now Grillo, not to mention Della Mirandolla, Bruno, Campanella and the the Renaissance itself, might be thinking in terms of changing whole paradigms yet again.
See you on the flip side...
27 Comments
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The question of what are we going to do with the tens of millions that will be displaced by robotization is the issue of our times. Because of accelerating technology and sophisticated robots Trump’s promise to bring back millions of jobs is a non-starter. It ain’t gonna happen. And if he does bring back jobs it will be too little too late. It’s a shame that Trump is clueless on this impending crisis. Hell even China’s low wage workers will be out of work by robots. If slave labor Chinese will be replaced by robots what chance do we higher paid workers have here in the US. Jobs that you think could never be automated like medical workers, hamburger flippers, truck drivers, paralegal clerks and so forth are now being done just that. We desperately need to come up with solutions. If more and more people are no longer needed for production then who is going to buy the cars, blenders, baseballs, gum, foot warmers, etc. that robots will make. Robots?
Watch the video Humans Need Not Apply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Another great source of out of the box solutions is the website Of Two Minds whose proprietor is Charles Hugh Smith. He’s really great and I’m a follower of his blog.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html. His book describes exactly what Grillo was talking about.
Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology & Creating Jobs for All
Regarding currencies I’m a huge fan of Bitcoin. No government can control it and it shares properties with gold and silver. Eventually there may be several blockchain currencies that will be accepted. Warning. Beware of closed blockchain solutions being brought out by central banks and governments. These are meant to enslave you.
Gary I’m thinking same that you.
but I want remember you that Mr Gheddafi (a great statesman for Libyan people) is dead only beacuse him wanted to creata a new african currency (warranted from Libya gold, what american, english and francais presidents aren’t in condition to doing. So they decided to kill him, this is the true real history of Libyan war)(with this reason there was also sionist interests, to take control of middle east and go to kill syrian president, and after kill the last thread and become the middle east masters). these gentlemen (usa, uk, france, sionists, and their dogs) have almost reached their goals but unfortunately they found on their way something else. FORTUNATELY
Economy is a bad word, in these historic moments. There are great powers in the field, which to attain certain objectives you would not want to stop at nothing. indeed even before a war, even before the mother of all the wars, the final one! everything’s going to be several tens of years now (but also a lot longer, if we includes the two previous world wars), can not give rise to misunderstandings, we are ahead of the new Middle Ages, and what mister Grillo says (as you tell us) would make us think of a new Renaissance, indeed, it makes us think that we will need a new Renaissance. But to have a new Renaissance, one only man, or one only group (a small group) will never be enough!
Not if at least all the media are in the hands (dirty hands) of these strong, very strong powers. criminal powers! we are speaking of the worst evil of the world, same powers which create 7/12/1941, Kennedy murder, 11/9, and several wars in the last 20 years……….
Humanity really has only two ‘elephant in the room’ problems (outside of general loss of spirituality): We are creative, and we are prolific.
Our creativity has let us produce enough for everyone with, say, a third of the population. We have made ‘filler’ jobs to keep people from starving in the current system, but they are more a treatment of the symptoms of our current system than a cure-all for that elephant. We can acknowledge our creativity and how it has changed the need for a survival-originated system (work or die), or face ever-more unemployment and ever-more dissatisfaction with ‘filler’ jobs.
Our prolificy feeds-back onto the welcome creativity. Once, a family had ten children because two or three might make it into middle-age to take care of the declining parents. That is deeply-rooted into our ‘presumed’ culture. Our creativity has meant that probably eight or nine children will now survive. And reproduce. Something has to shift to acknowledge this achievement…
I see Signor Beppe Grillo as a ‘canary’ trilling-out that something is amiss in the mine. (Messed-up metaphor, but accurate.) We have to acknowledge the two elephants and work-out a new system to accommodate them. To me, Grillo is sounding the way to a more “Star Trek”-style society. We don’t have the food synthesizers and transporters yet, but the human race is well on the way to possibly ‘invent’ such a society…
(The other option is basically the Harkonnen homeworld. With more and more capital in fewer and fewer hands, Earth will evolve into a feudal society. The old patronage system will return. Good if you’re on top, not so much if you’re the 99%…)
Absolutely! Paradigm shift
from corporate/private to public/commons
from relating to Earth as if it is a dead rock for sale to,
we are living beings born of a living Earth of a living universe.
From a centralized corrupted private payment system
to a decentralized encrypted currencies[like bitcoin].
From an elaborate, intricately and prohibitively expensive façade of fascism masquerading as democracies, to real democracies that teach civics from cradle to grave[with block chain technologies to assure democratic participation by all with real transparency for all to see & verify. In others words, a living hell for the puppet masters; who would suffer the elitist pain of becoming an equal, on a equal playing field/uncorrupted & without fraud or remorse.
I am highly suspcious to every political organisations, if they are of the old establishment or the new ones that are coming out of nowhere.
Example one. In Norway, an old bourgoise party (mostly a teachers party), Venstre, was totally against that Norway should join the EU. Now, the top escelons of the party are pro EU.
Example two. The Labour Party was a strong supporter of ANC, which is a communist party and our Labour Party (has been half communist part since 1921) has been a strong supporter of the Castro, bolschevic, jesuitt regime in Cube. About the Nelson Mandela Nobel Peace Price; that he was convicted in a South African Court as a terrorist, was completely ignored by our press. It did not fit in.
Example three. The fat fingers are more or less deep into the established party structure. But, when the sentiment of people change, you can be sure that they are putting their fingers into socalled new grass root movements. Look where the money are coming from to the Black Live Matters, Human Right Watch and so on.
The fat fingers are monitoring the sentiments of people and exploit for every dime they are putting into it.
The feelings of the people in USA and Europe and other countries, the globalization issue are overdue. It is destroying the working class, the middle class and the farmers.
But, the direct vote, what was happening in US, and now in Austria, can give us some hope that real change, without the fat fingers expectations, can do some good. Some resisted in the past, and people felt that they gave them some hope, like JFK and Joerg Haider, but they, they had to pay the price.
No, I am not optimistic in the short term, but in the long term people will wake up, I think.
Dag
They can talk the walk;
but can they walk the talk?
Grillo may be a comedian, but he’s sees the real problems in the EU, and that is that it is run by clowns, I mean just look at the people running the EU, Hollande and his ilk have taken Europe to the brink. Just like the US, it’s time for the people of Europe to take to the streets and vote these imposters OUT. 2017 is going to be a very interesting year politically, changes are needed and these changes have to be what the people want. So pull down all those EU buildings, suspend the EU and go back to what Europe was famous for, culture, art, and the rights of people being governed by their own government, and make it quick.
Just after writing my post I went over to Zero Hedge and low and behold, Frankie Hollande just announced he is not running in the next election. How that idiot sleeps at night astounds me, well good riddens to another wombat politician who never should have been there in the first place. Perhaps Mr Putin has a wry smile today.
Holland was never supposed to be president, it was supposed to be DSK who took power, but he got honeytrapped by a room cleaner in his hotel.. probably put in place by Sarkozy with his american stoogies… but it cant be proven.. unless someone comes forward and admits to it.
Here, Here!
Here, Here!
[I meant to place my comment here; not below.
Ironic, isn’t it?]
hasn’t anyone not yet noticed how many “natural catastrophies” (HAARP?) Italy has experienced in the last months?- obviously all a coincidence- nothing to look at here- just go back to what you’ve been doing…
Larry in Germany
There was a large oil refinery explosion just south of Milan today.
TPTB got a 2 for 1: Threaten Italy over a referendum and more news that will boost the price of oil for their market manipulation.
Yes Larry, I am from centre of Italy and for 20 days, several time a day we “dancing”, and you don’t imagine what is feel the earthquake 3 – 4 – 5 times a day for 20 consecutive days . . . . . You feel the death that takes you every time, and then, every time takes you back to life. It’s the same as you are in war and every time you so into combat field and do not know if you arrive late in the day. We italians in many places know earthquakes, and (I’m 53 years old) NEVER!!! I see same thing. Earthquakes arrives fast, do a few shakes, sometimes warns you before, sometimes not, Earthquakes kill you fast and without any form of feelings! But it NEVER happened that every day you hear so many shocks and you feel the same for 20 days in a row!!!!. This is the confirmation that there is a form of weapon that is capable of generating earthquakes or natural upheavals and to do so every time you decide to do it. It’s a confirmation! It’s a clear proof! There can’t be other reasons.
I can understand your standpoint completely on a political level but also on a geophysical level; I once experienced an earthquake here in Germany (was only a puny miniscule 3.0 on Richter scala) yrs. ago; I thought the world was ending (the whole thing lasted about 10 seconds but it was very un-nerving)- obviously absolutely NOTHING compared to what you (very brave) Italians have been experiencing!
please continue to be well and safe- ciao for now-
Larry in Germany
The contradictory stances within the 5-star movement reflect the changing times we live in. It can be said that their MPs and others have expressed truly alternative views on the economy and society, shunning (and being shunned by) the fake news factories of the MSM. And discussing things like geo-engineering.
On the other hand, the idea of “web democracy” they have been promoting in recent years blithely ignores the issue of who monitors the people who control the on-line platforms. The inexperience, real or asserted, of their activists, has had negative consequences having to do with the Byzantine bureaucratic rules regarding the electoral process – a drawback duly emphasised by the MSM.
They have largely eschewed the practices of the traditional political parties, with an organisational hierarchy going from the neighbourhood or municipal level and up to the national level, with local, provincial, regional and national party congresses which in theory decide on policy by a majority vote – the frequent manipulations of such a system are supposed to be eliminate by “web democracy”.
Be that as it may, the more the movement gives voice to counter the current globalist offensive in Italy and Europe, the more consensus they will have.
The fact that so much of the political establishment in Italy – supported by such unpopular foreign figures as Merkel, Juncker and even Obama – have been promoting the “Yes” vote in Sunday’s referendum on a range of measures including strengthening the EU’s hand in national affairs and making the Senate an appointee rather than an elected body – is producing a severe backlash.
It seems to me that the core issue, here as everywhere, entails the nature of economics as a system. The common perception is that there are really only two (viable?) choices: a fiat monetary system –or some form of gold standard. Others might want to start clamoring about “Bitcoin” as a distinctly third possibility, but this is really just a potential variant of either of the first two: value must be represented by either a physical commodity or as a purely arbitrary abstraction, like fiat monies, with only an indirect reference to the real world.
I propose that a third option does in fact exist. The real world represents a pure energy system, in which not a single physical transaction or event takes place without a transfer of energy. I therefore propose that a given unit of monetary “value” be assigned a direct relationship to a given unit of energy. This makes the production of energy somewhat equivalent to owning a gold mine. Adopting this standard thereby initiates a dynamic in which increasingly greater amounts of “money” enters the collective, but without a corresponding decrease in its value –as is, of course, what happens in the case of all fiat currencies– nor without any intrinsic limit to the amount of money (whose “value” never declines) available for circulation within civilization as a whole.
The object here is to set up a system in which an economic decline cannot occur during the normal course of affairs, and permanently eliminates the current teeter-totter relationship of economic decline between unemployment and inflation that haunts all fiat currencies from the very day of their inception.
Now think through what must happen when a given civilization then achieves technologies of ‘zero point’ energy production… That is, when a superabundance of energy equates to a superabundance of undiluted monetary “value.”
After all, in the most literal sense, physics, so called, IS an economic system….
Great close!
Sign me up!
The irony is that Beppe Grillo is a entertainer a comedian an speaks more sense than then the economic experts. He thinks out of box translation he just plain thinks things out. While the professionals quack doublespeak not a thought emerges from their mouths. Money is only a means of exchange worthless in it self skills begin with the ability to reason-thinking the rest is doing the job assign.
It is definitely time to think out of the box. This western plan to subdue the populace with meds, marijuana, vacuous entertainment, all you can eat Chinese buffets and eventually virtual reality is unsustainable in the long run as it will never do away with the innate human desire to reach a higher potential that reflects the truth and beauty of the creative force in the Universe. The divine spark inside the homo sapien can only be smothered temporarily but never extinguished. Oh, they worked mightily in their laboratories to undo the divine nature in homo sapiens, splicing here and nipping there, but to no avail. The genie was out of the bottle and the crown of creation was begot. Even later when the homo sapien was bred to pigs, monkeys and even insects, we maintained this divine spark despite their herculean efforts to eradicate it. All their genetic tinkering and husbandry only managed to make us more thickheaded, gluttonous, lascivious, slothful and herd-minded, but never without this divine spark. To their continued dismay we never became the golem that they could lord over and use to do all their dirty work. Even now as they hammer us with their gmos and chemtrails and nanobots and vaccines, and televised mental slop, the divine spark continues to burn as evidenced by the man-made beauty that still abounds around us in art and music and literature. Moreover, our quest for seeking deeper truths remains firm as ever as evidenced by this very website.
Will they finally throw in the towel and rid the world of their errant creation, the homo sapien, perhaps replacing us with robots? Possibly, but it is equally likely that homo sapiens may soon finally reach their true potential as god men and rid the world of them first. And once that is completely, the homo sapien will be free to venture out into the galaxy and beyond. This strange hybrid, the product of natural selection and laboratory tinkering, the divine spark encased in a brain that is both mammal and reptile, free to bring its schizophrenia to outer space. And when the alien neighbor greets us, little will he know that inside our confused homo sapien brains spins jumbled thoughts of not just cooperating with the alien, but also fornicating with him and then eating him as well.
Get ready galaxy, the homo sapien cometh.
VO, that was one of the best comments I have ever read! Inspiring! And, all kinds of non-acknowledged ‘realities’ in there. I could see a version of that – in Manifesto form – being nailed up on some cosmic church…
Thanks Goshawks. I didn’t quite know where I was going with that comment but I thought it came together quite well in the end.
I doff my cap VB.
I cut two quotes from two comments, because I’m so very sleep-deprived I can’t think with any elegance. But it involves two symbiotic themes, and was surprised to read these words in comments, which eerily snakes back in to my idea…
“…the issue of who monitors the people who control the on-line platforms.” -D. Thomas
“Moreover, our quest for seeking deeper truths remains firm as ever as evidenced by this very website.” -V. Blanco
As if they’re gleaning more info. on VB’s glorious spark, by reading our responses. My husband mentioned it the other day. WHO let’s JPF post what he posts? And why? And how much is ghost-written?
Who, other than us curious sparks are reading and using what we’re thinking to further their agenda?
It is starting to feel a bit Ouroboros here…
With 61 governments since the end of world war II, I’m not holding my breath for Italy to contribute much in the construction of a new paradigm for the EU.
Go back to the Sumerian Civilisation.. thousands of clay tablets showing the the local workforce received BEER as wages.
I’ll work for Beer..
(as long as I can also pay my taxes in beer as well…)