VHeadline commentarist Oscar Heck writes: “I’ve been reading Roy Carson’s recent editorial, entitled, “EDITORIAL: The Venezuelan government’s ‘Best Kept Secret’ … but the whistles are already blowing…”
There is something about the article that intrigues me … and it isn’t the only written material that intrigues me … in fact, most written material emanating from the “western” world or from its imitators intrigue me.
I first came to question everything that I read or heard or saw when I was about eleven years old. During these early years of my life I’d spend much time away from home (and away from school, with the school director’s permission) … and I would find myself hopping freight trains across provinces, walking the streets of downtown Montreal, visiting art galleries and art museums and, of course, spending substantial amounts of time at McGill university’s main library, probably the biggest and most equipped, multi-floored, English-language library in Montreal at the time. Within a couple of years, I was also spending nights at Montreal’s (then) most famous “all-Black” club, Rockhead’s Paradise, where I was lucky enough to see performances by several well-known artists of the time. I also began to spend a lot of time with the Mohawk community at Kahnawake (called, “Caughnawaga” in those days). I even had a Mohawk girlfriend.
When I left home for good, at seventeen, I went to Venezuela to work and live in Caracas’ shantytowns and in the (then) jungles (tropical rain forests) of the interior of Barlovento, east of Caracas.
Well, from the start of my consciously curios life, I doubted much of what was taught to us in school. The reason was that what they were teaching us, and expecting us to take for granted, did not match my experiences on the streets or in forests or on Indian reserves (and later in the shantytowns, the jungles and the war). What my parents and the church were expecting me to learn (rather, copycat) and hold as true, was also out of whack with reality as I had thus experienced it … and this is why I left home at a young age. Sure, I had passed high school with some of the highest grades, with honors, and found myself surrounded by packs of driveling adults expecting me to become a “great” engineer or architect or inventor (I had invented some stuff by the age of fifteen).
My foot!
I left those people behind … and their dreams for me vanished. They would not have the opportunity to brag that they knew and “guided” the “great” Oscar Heck!
This is a true story … but should not be taken seriously. Being smart doesn’t make one smart! That’s what I say. Lol!
Anyways, I decided to go out into the world and see for myself, what it is composed of, speak with people, live with them, and share philosophies and speculations and activities. I’ve been very lucky to have decided at a young age (15) to drop all material wealth or search for material wealth … thus liberating me to be free to travel anywhere at any time without restrictions. This approach led me to visit 34 countries and work in 12 of these. I have seen and lived a lot.
Now, back to the intrigue.
Since the age of eleven, when I began to study inaccuracies in (all) texts, comparing sources and relevant writings, I began to discover that we have been and are still being lied to in such ways that, if one knew (and accepted) this truth, overwhelms the spirit, simply due to the magnitude and the sources of the lies. Knowing this had often led me to suicidal thoughts, but that’s another story.
So … what intrigues me is the realization that these lies (such as, Columbus was a great discoverer) are fabricated and perpetuated by we humans for reasons of pride and crime. To hide certain crimes committed by ourselves and to shower ourselves with pride to cover up the truth about our weaknesses and unintentional failings. So it is when we are growing up. In the first years of our lives most of us admire our parents and put them on pedestals. Later, as teenagers, we question our parents because they just don’t make any sense (and they don’t), then when we finally leave home and “grow up,” we realize that they do indeed have weaknesses but were too proud to admit it and that they have indeed committed crimes, which they have hidden from us all these years. And this continues from generation to generation.
So, what next? My mind veered to society as a whole, and then politics and business … and I realized something else. The “western world” and its imitators is replete with misconceptions, prejudices and misplaced superiority, most of which is expressed through almost every thread of “western” society.
For example:
Time is of essence.
Time is money.
Charity.
Volunteering.
Terrorist
The Economy.
Interest rates.
Winning.
Government.
Jobs.
Power.
Individualism.
Ownership.
Unemployment.
The Enemy.
President.
Vice President.
Male.
Female.
Sin.
Laborer.
Racism.
Women’s rights.
Maid.
Theft.
Rape.
Murder.
Church.
Forgiveness.
Poverty.
Corruption.
I think it is safe enough to state that it is a fact that for the vast majority of the people who are born and/or brought up under the influence of the “western” world (the Euro-descendents), the above words are easily understood and accepted without question … and the vast majority will interpret them basically the same way. This fact reflects a certain (dangerous) complacency toward the understanding and meanings of these words and their ramifications, and is, as far as I can see, a typically Euro-descendent trait. (In many cultures the meanings of the words being used, and within which context, are openly and regularly debated and decided upon through current discussion.) But in Euro-descendent society, we are basically and dishonestly taught to stick to “conventions” if we want to “get anywhere in life.” Hey! If the papers and the television and radio stations and the preachers and the Vatican and the teachers all state/say/repeat that Saddam Hussein is an enemy, then let it be so and never question it! (They never taught us that many Popes had wives and/or mistresses!) Otherwise you are labeled crazy, idiot, stupid, irreverent, blasphemous, unrealistic, idealistic, communist, traitor, etc.
I found these interesting paragraphs on a Wikipedia article about culture:
“Tomasello further argues that cultural learning is essential for language-acquisition. Most children in any society, and all children in some, do not learn all words through the direct efforts of adults. “In general, for the vast majority of words in their language, children must find a way to learn in the ongoing flow of social interaction, sometimes from speech not even addressed to them.” This finding has been confirmed by a variety of experiments in which children learned words even when the referent was not present, multiple referents were possible, and the adult was not directly trying to teach the word to the child. Tomasello concludes that “a linguistic symbol is nothing other than a marker for an inter-subjectively shared understanding of a situation … Another crucial element is that human language is symbolic: the sound of words (or their shape, when written) bear no relation to what they represent. In other words, their meaning is arbitrary. That words have meaning is a matter of convention. Since the meaning of words are arbitrary, any word may have several meanings, and any object may be referred to using a variety of words; the actual word used to describe a particular object depends on the context, the intention of the speaker, and the ability of the listener to judge these appropriately. As Tomasello notes …”
Regarding Roy’s recent article. It does, as far as I can understand, contain some typically Euro-descendent traits … but since the point of this article isn’t to analyse Roy’s analysis regarding the Venezuelan situation, I will only mention one example:
“The malfeasance, crass ineptitude and blatant corruption of the current administration is already the Venezuelan government’s ‘Best Kept Secret’ but the whistles are already blowing…”
The intriguing word in the above paragraph is, “corruption.” When I was growing up, I was taught that most Latin American countries were run by “corrupt” people. There was no mention of corruption at the hands of Canadian politicians, the church or business. They never taught us in school that the famous “philanthropic” Bronfman Family of Montreal became filthy rich by operating and/or participating directly in the “criminal” running and distribution of alcohol (booze) to the USA during prohibition:
“In 1903, the family bought a hotel business, and Samuel, noting that much of the profit was in alcoholic beverages, set up shop as a distributor, founding the Distillers Corporation in Montreal in 1924, specializing in cheap whiskey, and concurrently taking advantage of the U.S. prohibition on alcoholic beverages. The Bronfmans found great success bootlegging to the northern cities of the U.S. such as Boston and Chicago during the Prohibition era, while operating from the perimeters of Montreal, Quebec where alcohol production was still legal.”
Huh … I guess that Canadian politicians, the Canadian church and Canadian businessmen weren’t aware of the smuggling? Yeah, sure! My eye! But … thank the winds … I now live most of the time in Venezuela!
So, who’s corrupt? The reason I mention “corruption” (in context with Roy’s article) is because Roy fails to bring up what I consider a very important point regarding “corruption” in Venezuela. The following is one way to explain it:
Son: Mom, I got a job today as a security guard at the home of that wealthy family on the hill.
Mom: Congratulations! Do you have to carry a gun?
Son: Yes. These people need protection.
Mom: From what?
Son: They are rich. Very rich. And they became rich by cheating and lying and stealing and sometimes by killing.
Mom: But wasn’t the man of that mansion a former corrupt general under the last President?
Son: Yes, and a friend of the President, according to the security guard I met today.
Mom: And how much are they paying you?
Son: Same as usual, minimum wage.
Mom: Can’t he pay you more, especially since you are protecting his life and that of the family? Isn’t he very wealthy?
Son: Well, you know Mom, these people are all like that.
Mom: Well, you better not let them be smarter than you and exploit you like they do. You have to be smart. Don’t be stupid. You have a gun, right? And you have access to the property, right?
Son: Yes, Mom, don’t worry. I’ve already set up some stuff with the other security guard, the chauffeur and the head maid. We’re going to get our due pay, little by little. Within a short time, Mom, I’ll be able to buy you that little house and you’ll never have to live in this mud hut again!
Mom: My son, I love you. I knew you would grow up to be smart!
I wish that this is all I had to say, but unfortunately, it isn’t. However, I can shorten this article by highly suggesting that readers read and study these two books:
1) The Discoverers, by Daniel Boorstin published in 1983.
2) The Story of Mankind (1999 – ISBN 9780871401755).
Both books are written from the overall perspective of Europeans and Euro-descendents (and Euro-descendent societies), that is, easily understood by most Euro-descendents or by people who have been brainwashed and contaminated by Euro-descendent education, technology, science, business, politics and religion and television. (My wife says that the “western” world’s god is television.) However, both books, in their own ways, subliminally depict and describe with marked accuracy, the overall tendency of the Europeans and their descendents to partake in ongoing and mass criminal activity and corruption, something which had never generally been seen or experienced in the rest of the (non-European) world until the European invasions of the last 500 years or so.
You see, corruption would be greatly reduced if exploitation did not exist. But even so, there would probably exist some corruption, perhaps mostly at the hands of people with Euro-descendent values such as: individualism, ownership, wealth, power.
I have spent quite a bit of time with Indigenous tribes in several parts of the world. In most cases, ownership, for example, is a non-word. It simply does not exist because the concept of ownership does not exist in their world. So, why would anyone want to cheat or steal or deceive someone (corruption?) in order to own more than the others when no one owns anything? In some (perhaps most) tribes, the words male or female do not exist. People are simply called people. Thus, the “Exploitation of Women,” as has been occurring under the European concepts of life to this day, would not exist. And since women would not be exploited as they are, then “Women’s Rights” would not exist. And so on and so on.
There are some exceptions to the general outlook which I take on these issues, however, after almost 45 years of studying the material, the exceptions are in the minority.
Enjoy! Discover who our recent ancestors really were (the stuff they never told you about): mostly thieves, rapists, criminals, exploiters and murderers. And then wonder about words such as “corruption, charity, time, money, rights, evil, terrorist, etc.”
Oscar Heck
Oscar Heck // This is a true story … but should not be taken seriously…
VHeadline commentarist Oscar Heck writes: “I’ve been reading Roy Carson’s recent editorial, entitled, “EDITORIAL: The Venezuelan government’s ‘Best Kept Secret’ … but the whistles are already blowing…”
I first came to question everything that I read or heard or saw when I was about eleven years old. During these early years of my life I’d spend much time away from home (and away from school, with the school director’s permission) … and I would find myself hopping freight trains across provinces, walking the streets of downtown Montreal, visiting art galleries and art museums and, of course, spending substantial amounts of time at McGill university’s main library, probably the biggest and most equipped, multi-floored, English-language library in Montreal at the time. Within a couple of years, I was also spending nights at Montreal’s (then) most famous “all-Black” club, Rockhead’s Paradise, where I was lucky enough to see performances by several well-known artists of the time. I also began to spend a lot of time with the Mohawk community at Kahnawake (called, “Caughnawaga” in those days). I even had a Mohawk girlfriend.
When I left home for good, at seventeen, I went to Venezuela to work and live in Caracas’ shantytowns and in the (then) jungles (tropical rain forests) of the interior of Barlovento, east of Caracas.
Well, from the start of my consciously curios life, I doubted much of what was taught to us in school. The reason was that what they were teaching us, and expecting us to take for granted, did not match my experiences on the streets or in forests or on Indian reserves (and later in the shantytowns, the jungles and the war). What my parents and the church were expecting me to learn (rather, copycat) and hold as true, was also out of whack with reality as I had thus experienced it … and this is why I left home at a young age. Sure, I had passed high school with some of the highest grades, with honors, and found myself surrounded by packs of driveling adults expecting me to become a “great” engineer or architect or inventor (I had invented some stuff by the age of fifteen).
My foot!
I left those people behind … and their dreams for me vanished. They would not have the opportunity to brag that they knew and “guided” the “great” Oscar Heck!
This is a true story … but should not be taken seriously. Being smart doesn’t make one smart! That’s what I say. Lol!
Anyways, I decided to go out into the world and see for myself, what it is composed of, speak with people, live with them, and share philosophies and speculations and activities. I’ve been very lucky to have decided at a young age (15) to drop all material wealth or search for material wealth … thus liberating me to be free to travel anywhere at any time without restrictions. This approach led me to visit 34 countries and work in 12 of these. I have seen and lived a lot.
Now, back to the intrigue.
Since the age of eleven, when I began to study inaccuracies in (all) texts, comparing sources and relevant writings, I began to discover that we have been and are still being lied to in such ways that, if one knew (and accepted) this truth, overwhelms the spirit, simply due to the magnitude and the sources of the lies. Knowing this had often led me to suicidal thoughts, but that’s another story.
So … what intrigues me is the realization that these lies (such as, Columbus was a great discoverer) are fabricated and perpetuated by we humans for reasons of pride and crime. To hide certain crimes committed by ourselves and to shower ourselves with pride to cover up the truth about our weaknesses and unintentional failings. So it is when we are growing up. In the first years of our lives most of us admire our parents and put them on pedestals. Later, as teenagers, we question our parents because they just don’t make any sense (and they don’t), then when we finally leave home and “grow up,” we realize that they do indeed have weaknesses but were too proud to admit it and that they have indeed committed crimes, which they have hidden from us all these years. And this continues from generation to generation.
So, what next? My mind veered to society as a whole, and then politics and business … and I realized something else. The “western world” and its imitators is replete with misconceptions, prejudices and misplaced superiority, most of which is expressed through almost every thread of “western” society.
For example:
I think it is safe enough to state that it is a fact that for the vast majority of the people who are born and/or brought up under the influence of the “western” world (the Euro-descendents), the above words are easily understood and accepted without question … and the vast majority will interpret them basically the same way. This fact reflects a certain (dangerous) complacency toward the understanding and meanings of these words and their ramifications, and is, as far as I can see, a typically Euro-descendent trait. (In many cultures the meanings of the words being used, and within which context, are openly and regularly debated and decided upon through current discussion.) But in Euro-descendent society, we are basically and dishonestly taught to stick to “conventions” if we want to “get anywhere in life.” Hey! If the papers and the television and radio stations and the preachers and the Vatican and the teachers all state/say/repeat that Saddam Hussein is an enemy, then let it be so and never question it! (They never taught us that many Popes had wives and/or mistresses!) Otherwise you are labeled crazy, idiot, stupid, irreverent, blasphemous, unrealistic, idealistic, communist, traitor, etc.
I found these interesting paragraphs on a Wikipedia article about culture:
Regarding Roy’s recent article. It does, as far as I can understand, contain some typically Euro-descendent traits … but since the point of this article isn’t to analyse Roy’s analysis regarding the Venezuelan situation, I will only mention one example:
The intriguing word in the above paragraph is, “corruption.” When I was growing up, I was taught that most Latin American countries were run by “corrupt” people. There was no mention of corruption at the hands of Canadian politicians, the church or business. They never taught us in school that the famous “philanthropic” Bronfman Family of Montreal became filthy rich by operating and/or participating directly in the “criminal” running and distribution of alcohol (booze) to the USA during prohibition:
Huh … I guess that Canadian politicians, the Canadian church and Canadian businessmen weren’t aware of the smuggling? Yeah, sure! My eye! But … thank the winds … I now live most of the time in Venezuela!
So, who’s corrupt? The reason I mention “corruption” (in context with Roy’s article) is because Roy fails to bring up what I consider a very important point regarding “corruption” in Venezuela. The following is one way to explain it:
I wish that this is all I had to say, but unfortunately, it isn’t. However, I can shorten this article by highly suggesting that readers read and study these two books:
Both books are written from the overall perspective of Europeans and Euro-descendents (and Euro-descendent societies), that is, easily understood by most Euro-descendents or by people who have been brainwashed and contaminated by Euro-descendent education, technology, science, business, politics and religion and television. (My wife says that the “western” world’s god is television.) However, both books, in their own ways, subliminally depict and describe with marked accuracy, the overall tendency of the Europeans and their descendents to partake in ongoing and mass criminal activity and corruption, something which had never generally been seen or experienced in the rest of the (non-European) world until the European invasions of the last 500 years or so.
You see, corruption would be greatly reduced if exploitation did not exist. But even so, there would probably exist some corruption, perhaps mostly at the hands of people with Euro-descendent values such as: individualism, ownership, wealth, power.
I have spent quite a bit of time with Indigenous tribes in several parts of the world. In most cases, ownership, for example, is a non-word. It simply does not exist because the concept of ownership does not exist in their world. So, why would anyone want to cheat or steal or deceive someone (corruption?) in order to own more than the others when no one owns anything? In some (perhaps most) tribes, the words male or female do not exist. People are simply called people. Thus, the “Exploitation of Women,” as has been occurring under the European concepts of life to this day, would not exist. And since women would not be exploited as they are, then “Women’s Rights” would not exist. And so on and so on.
There are some exceptions to the general outlook which I take on these issues, however, after almost 45 years of studying the material, the exceptions are in the minority.
Enjoy! Discover who our recent ancestors really were (the stuff they never told you about): mostly thieves, rapists, criminals, exploiters and murderers. And then wonder about words such as “corruption, charity, time, money, rights, evil, terrorist, etc.”
Oscar Heck