Re: BIG RISE FORECAST IN MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG ELDERLY

[Johnny Holiday/John A. Taube]

Hi John,

I found your email interesting and would greatly appreciate your thoughts on my
letter to Jim Lehrer.


Good cheer,


John

JOHN A TAUBE, TECHNOCRATIC SOCIOLOGIST
55 Chumasero Dr., 7E, San Francisco, CA 94132
Fax/phone 415-334-3733   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.technocracysf.org   www.technocracy.org


May 30, 1997

Mr. Jim Lehrer
NEWSPRINT, LEHRER PRODUCTIONS
2700 S. Quincy Street, #250
Arlington, VA 22206

Dear Mr. Lehrer:

That you have the one great news hour in all television is no accident. Your
excellent reputation  is well deserved. Permit me to share some thoughts on your
April 30, 1997 program. I am a member of Technocracy Inc., a scientific,
educational-research organization. Additionally, I am a Technocratic
Sociologist, a student of society especially interested in the effects on it by
science and applied technology. My thoughts will reflect this background

You had reporters from various  newspapers commenting on Attorney General Janet
Reno's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, April 30.
Although all had interesting observations, every single one of them failed to
comment on Reno's �  as far as a technocratic sociologist is concerned �
profound response to a Senator Orrin Hatch statement.

 �Hatch: �The time has come for Attorney General Reno to consider the public's
skepticism regarding her decision.� �

�Reno: �I'm not going to do things based on polls. I'm going to do them based on
evidence.� �

In Hatch's remark to Reno, he suggested that she follow constitutional
procedure: in our
"democracy" prima facie conclusions of the majority form the basis upon which
our laws  are
established. Because this is established procedure, it opens up the question as
to whether our
democracy is actually a mobocracy.

Reno's reply was significant--It can be interpreted as a refutation of current
governmental
procedure of democracy in action. If she meant her decisions would be based on
scientific
evidence, it would be a clear and decided departure from today's accepted
procedure. If she was
speaking of scientific evidence, indeed, she would be speaking the language that
a member of
Technocracy, and also a technocratic sociologist, would understand and
appreciate.

Instructor Paul Hewitt, City College of  San Francisco, in his course Conceptual
Physics, stated
that  scientific decisions are not made by democratic (mobocractic) procedures;
they are based on
experiments using the scientific method.

We must realize that our nation has progressed out of the  past crude primitive
agrarian age and
into our modern, scientific technological age. This age is unique to humankind,
it has never
occurred before in all the history of humankind. Apparently Technocracy Inc. is
the only
organization that realizes the complications of our scientific age. Many years
ago the
organization stated that complexities of modern times are such that to leave the
control of this
age in the hands of the political/business hegemony -- making laws and
regulations by way of
our current democratic (mobocratic) method -- is nothing short of inviting
disaster.

Alvin Tofler is a profound writer (thinker?) and along with his wife, Heide,
wrote the book
"Creating a New Civilization."  The book touches on the complexities of our
scientific
technological age and while it falls short of agreeing with Technocracy's
statement noted above,
his thoughts come close to acquiescing to it. He points out that politicians --
in this case,
Congress members � pass laws they don't understand. They must rely on the staff
to feed them
information. It is utterly impossible for them to know -- or, for that matter,
even to have a basic
understanding -- of all the complicated scientific, technological subjects upon
which they vote.

The depth of information needed to keep abreast of our age is overwhelming and a
good example
is the proposals for a balance budget. The May 12, 1997 San Francisco Chronicle
article titled "Gingrich on GOP Post-Budget Plans," quotes Gingrich: "People are
going to be under the boards hitting pretty hard trying to make sure that they
get their particular paragraph in those 2,500 pages," referring to the pages of
the proposed budget. Who has time to read all of this "stuff?" But this stuff is
going to be the information that makes up the laws of the land. Stuff like this
justifies Technocracy's statement on how we are out of sync with modern times.

Out of sync with modern times? We are spoon-fed the concept that our "democracy"
is pure
gold. In modern times, it ain't. It's an abomination. Let's look at this from
one person's
perspective: Lloyd Cutler. Cutler's biography can be found in the 1975 edition
of  "Who's Who
in America." Amongst his other enterprises (undertakings) is that he was a
consultant and adviser
to both Presidents Carter and Reagan. In Hedrick Smith's 1996 television program
"The People
and the Power Game," Cutler was a guest. He spoke about checks and balances
which are
regarded as one of the highlights bequeathed to us from the founders of our
country. His thought
was that today they are an abomination. He stated that because of checks and
balances  the
government is incapable of working satisfactorily and we are in a mess.
According to Cutler,
checks and balances do only one thing: puts the government in gridlock.
Furthermore, they work
in such a manner that no one is in charge, or put a better way, everyone is in
charge. Such being
the case, either no one or everyone is at fault for any legislator's endeavor.

Yes, gridlock. Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary defines gridlock as
any situation
in which nothing can move or proceed in any direction. When our constitution
became the law of
the land, the country was a primitive agrarian society, composed mainly of small
farming
communities; we were a pastoral culture. In such a society, when gridlock
occurred, lawmakers
could idle away their time with polemics and sophistry and no harm resulted.
Yikes, how times
have changed.

If today's lawmakers had to explain why they gave a yea or nay, one could
readily see that they
are confused. Indeed, by sophistry and polemics, at which they are proficient,
they could explain
anything away and it would sound convincing. But by questioning them on
particulars, one could
see that they are really lost.  Our nation is at the mercy of a system that is
totally unsound. That
we acquiesce to this deleterious system puts our intelligence in question.

To further complicate matters, we have been conditioned to fear "Big Brother."
Yet ever single
day of our lives, to an ever-increasing degree, Big Brother is involved in our
lives.

What is not recognized is that we are controlled mainly by regulations, not by
laws. The result of
the regulators' actions  can be interrupted as  "Big Brotherism."  People who
control us through
these regulations are never elected to office. While there are untold examples,
let's look at one
regulating body--those that write the building codes which govern how structures
are built and
altered. In essence, these regulations are the laws of the land and if one is in
violation, that person could end up serving time in jail.

So where is our problem? These regulators usually come from a scientific
background and, to a
greater or lesser degree, do qualify for their work. However, they are
subservient to and must
acquiesce  to the  politicians who gave them their jobs. But politicians are
subservient to and
must acquiesce to the business interests that put them in office.

Of course, Congress members, beside not understanding what they are voting on,
more times
then we would like to think are influenced -- and even controlled -- by
lobbyists. (As a side
issue, these lobbyists are information peddlers who are themselves controlled by
special interests,
but that another story for another time and place.)

We are long overdue to replace our outmoded, obsolete socioeconomic structure,
our "Price
System," with a structure that is laid out to be in sync with our scientific,
technological age. A
design that is laid out in this manner is Technocracy's Technological Social
Design. Check it out.

Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,



John A. Taube


john courtneidge wrote:

> (Dear Friends - do forward this if you feel so called - thanks, j )
>
> ***************************************
>
> Dear Johnny and friends, all,
>
> We must, all, be saddened to see this (inevitable) consequence of an
> economic system (Ha!) that is drowning in the insecurity of capitalism:
>
>      (I do recommend 'The Age of Insecurity' by 'Guardian' journalists Larry
> Elliott and Dan Atkinson, Verso. London - published in paperback September
> 1999.)
>
> The paragraph, snipped below, rightly high-lights the mental anguish caused
> by market place economics (the 'price' system.)
>
> Central to this system is the non-sense of compound interest.
>
> As a transformative step in replacing this crazy 'economic' system with an
> all-inclusive, fair and sustainable economics of love and friendship (let
> us, the people, reagain for our-selves these wonderful words), The Campaign
> for Interest-Free Money calls for the repeal of permission to charge
> interest on lent money (the usury that creates market economics) and to
> create a Public Service Banking and Financial System designed to be the
> peoples' and the planets' servant, not its master.
>
> Hugs
>
> john courtneidge
>
> Networking:
>
>             The Campaign for Interest-Free Money
>
> Within, The Fair World Coalition
>
> ****************************************************
> ----------
> >From: "Johnny Holiday/John A. Taube" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, FOUND ON JAY HANSON
> EMAIL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Frank de Winter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, From Juno
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "From Juno, Greg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "From
> Juno, Krissy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, futurework
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "GAVE BLAYNEY'S NEW
> ADDRESS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Gene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, george2 wright
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Grosch, Tom" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Subject: BIG RISE FORECAST IN MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG ELDERLY
> >Date: Wed, Sep 22, 1999, 7:55 pm
> >
>
> >
> >Technocracy calls attention that there is one huge stumbling block in
> >our ever getting to this manageable level. We live in a
> >scientific-technological age and run it with tools of antiquity. Our
> >socioeconomic structure, our �Price System,� is built on principles that
> >originated in ancient civilizations. It worked reasonably well in past,
> >primitive agrarian-age times. It is a disaster in modern times and to
> >continue with it puts us on the suicidal course we are on.