Poor, Sick, Stupid and Ignorant

By A. Sunot

Why this book? This book arises from the pressing need to expose the current state of affairs. The outrage at witnessing the direction our society has taken has compelled me to write this book, hoping to shed some light, perhaps awaken someone, and instill hope. The perfect citizen is a poor, sick, stupid, and ignorant citizen. All of that is unacceptable, and we need to change things. Change begins within each of us, with the individual, who is crucial to the process of global change. There cannot be genuine global change if it doesn't start with oneself. Change begins with the small things in everyday life. Politics happen in our community, in the building where we live, every time we go to the supermarket, every time we make a decision, no matter how insignificant it may seem, like turning on the television or not.

I invite you to join me with a critical spirit on this small journey into the heart of our society!

• Language: English
• Publisher: A. Sunot
• Release date: Dec 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223328858

Book preview

Table of Contents

Poor, Sick, Stupid and Ignorant

CHAPTER 1 | LET’S TAKE A LOOK AROUND

CHAPTER 2 | POOR

CHAPTER 3 | SICK

CHAPTER 4 | STUPID

CHAPTER 5 | IGNORANT

CHAPTER 6 | HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

CHAPTER 7 | HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST THE DISEASE?

CHAPTER 8 | HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST STUPIDITY?

CHAPTER 9 | HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST IGNORANCE?

CONCLUSIONS

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Also By A. Sunot

Poor, Sick, Stupid and Ignorant

A. Sunot

Published by A. Sunot, 2023.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this

book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions,

or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained

herein.

POOR, SICK, STUPID AND IGNORANT

First edition. December 12, 2023.

Copyright c 2023 A. Sunot.

Written by A. Sunot.

AKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank my family for the way they raised me. If there is anything positive in me today, it is thanks to the love they instilled in me from a young age.

I thank my wife for always being by my side with so much patience and love.

I thank my daughters for everything they teach me every day.

I thank my wife again for the cover illustrations.

Fond memories go to my grandmother Rosi, who is always in our hearts, and to Grandfather Ezio, who is left without Grandma, and with this book, I hope to entertain him a bit and maybe even bring a smile to his face.

INDEX

CHAPTER 1: LET’S TAKE A LOOK AROUND 

CHAPTER 2: POOR       

The origin of seigniorage, ● Impossible to pay public debt, ● The Bank of Italy is a private bank, ● Tally sticks, ● Own currency and greenback, ● The Rotschild dynasty, ● U.S. presidents sent to the other world, ● The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, ● Mary Elizabeth Lease, 38 ● The robber barons, 39 ● The crisis of ‘29, ● The Germany of Hitler emerges from the crisis, ● Da Bretton Woods a Nixon, ● Two tough guys and an interesting trial, ● Income tax, 46 ● The odious debt, 49 ● Iceland goes its own way,

CHAPTER 3: SICK     55

Are we sick?, 55 ● Why are we sick?, 58 ● The importance of the homeostasis, ● Homeopathy, 65 ● Cholesterol, 67 ● Disease mongering, ● Vaccines, ● The amalgam, 74 ● When doctors strike, mortality decreases, 77 ● An experience with the lingual frenulum, 78 ● Aging and pregnancy are not illnesses, ● Folic acid during pregnancy, ● If the doctor prescribes it, it’s surely good for you and safe, 85 ● Pharmaceutical marketing does not benefit patients, 89 ● Another criticism, ● Exams for everyone, ● Take control of your health, 94 ● Fine and settlements as a common practice?, 95 ● Off-label use of drugs, 98 ● Drug dealers of legalized substances, 99 ● Impact factor, ● Bioresonance, ● Music and iatrogenesis, ● Grandfather and his medicine, ●

CHAPTER 4: STUPID 

The basic laws of human stupidity by prof. Carlo Cipolla, ● Let’s take care of our brain, ● Consequences of the mass stupidity, ● Television? Perfect brainwashing!, ● The poverty of television language, ● The problem of journalists, ● Stupidy and fake news, ● Advertising, ● Pseudo-experts from the shack, ● Idiotization through television sports, ● Stupidization through betting, ● The disappearance of childhood, ● Conspiracy theory, ● We cannot judge the history of the past with today’s parameters, ● More and more stupid, ● Practical examples of stupidity, ● Reflections on stupidiy, ● Stupidity and prejudice,

CHAPTER 5: IGNORANT  

The Overton Window, ● Federal Reserve: the birth of a monster, ● The Titanic, ● Béchamp and Pasteur, ● The school follows the business model, ● Populism and demagogy, ● The strategies of media manipulation,

CHAPTER 6: HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY?    

The importance of the monetary decisions, 196 ● Bank of North Dakota, 197 ●  Ithaca hours, 197 ● La Nesara law, 198 ● The Glass Steagall Act, 198 ● Too big to fail or too criminal to exist?, 200 ● An example for history, ● Keep an eye on the BRICS, 206 ● A warning from the past?, ●

CHAPTER 7: How to fight against the disease? 

Clean hospitals, ● Final thoughts,

CHAPTER 8: HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST STUPIDITY?  

CHAPTER 9: HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST IGNORANCE?

Extraordinary teachers, ● Self-study, ● The experience of life, ● Travels,

CONCLUSIONS        238   

RECOMMENDED READINGS

PREFACE

There are two things we should        give our children: one is roots and         the other is wings.

William Hodding Carter II

Why this book?

This book is born out of the pressing need to expose the current state of affairs. The outrage at the course our society has taken has led me to write this book in the hope of shedding some light, perhaps helping someone to wake up and instilling hope. However, it is not a passive hope of the kind that says, Everything will be fine without the need to do anything, but rather an active hope. It’s a hope where each person takes initiative and does their best to make things better. Many believe that an individual cannot make a difference. I strongly disagree with this view. I am absolutely convinced that change begins within each of us, with the individual, and this is of fundamental importance for the process of global change. There cannot be a global and genuine change unless it starts with the individual. Change begins with the small things of daily life; politics happens in our communities, in the building where we live, every time we go to the supermarket, every time we make a decision, no matter how insignificant it may seem, such as turning on the television or not.

This is a book, beloved daughters Aleyda, Aylen and Nayra that dad wrote thinking of you, hoping to transmit something that can help you in your lives to become complete, whole, and happy individuals.

CHAPTER 1

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AROUND

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Mala tempora currunt[1]

Poor, sick, stupid and ignorant.

This is what we are overall, that is, what they want from us.

Poor, sick, stupid, and ignorant? But who are we talking about? Does anyone feel mentioned?

To clarify any doubts, let’s see the meaning of these terms. According to Treccani, the adjective povero means referring to a person who does not have enough of what is essential to live, to sustain oneself, who has limited economic means, who lacks the necessary money and everything that money can provide. Sick is someone affected by illness, while stupid denotes someone with very little intelligence, slowness, and difficulty in learning, mental dullness. Ignorant, according to Treccani, is someone who lacks knowledge in a certain subject, is partly or completely devoid of a particular set of notions, or someone without any education and culture.

If each of us analyzed ourselves and asked if one or more of these adjectives represent us, we could apply a high degree of relativity in our evaluations. If we were poor, we should easily notice it. In the case of being sick, I already have my doubts. Surely there are people who take five pills every day and believe they are in good health, perhaps thanks to these medications.

We are all ignorant in the face of the vastness of knowledge, but, of course, I am not referring to this with the term ignorant in the title of this work. I refer instead to a lack of basic culture and knowledge. Even in this case, things are relative. Basic for whom? What is basic knowledge for one person may not be for another.

Raise your hand if you’re stupid! No one? No one is stupid around here? Well, in the end, I believe that no stupid person would define themselves as such. On the contrary, usually, stupid people consider themselves intelligent. I even think that if someone were to reach the point of calling themselves stupid, they probably wouldn’t be, and almost certainly, they would have intelligence far superior to many people who consider themselves smart. Perhaps those who call themselves stupid do so simply because they recognize their limits and maybe want to be a bit hard on themselves.

The conclusion is that if we conducted a large-scale survey of the population asking who is stupid, the statistical results would tell us that practically no one is (or perhaps only a small group that defines itself as such without being so). Are there no stupid people in our society? Honestly, I think they abound; I see legions of idiots on the streets. Come on, surely you know quite a few too!

Why a book with this title? Simply because this is what I see. This is the course that life seems to have taken for many people in our society, and this is what the powerful seem to have in store for us. I’m not saying anything new; it’s not a novelty that the ignorant masses can be more easily dominated.

Not all of us are poor, sick, stupid, and ignorant; only one of these adjectives applies to some people. In other cases, there is a combination of two or three of these attributes, and unfortunately, there are increasingly more people who embody all four of these characteristics.

Instead, the goal should be the opposite: to avoid being poor, sick, stupid, and ignorant; that is, to have a good standard of living, to be healthy (both physically and mentally), to aspire to intelligence, and to limit our ignorance as much as possible.

These four attributes are not isolated elements; on the contrary, they are strongly interconnected. Being represented by even just one of these adjectives is a serious matter; imagine the combination of several of them. In this case, the action would be synergistic, as in toxicology, where 1 plus 1 does not equal 2, but can be 7, 8, 10, or who knows what. Toxic elements, once combined, multiply toxicity and related risks. The same thing happens with our four adjectives: poor, sick, stupid, and ignorant, which I consider to be real toxic elements.

If we are poor, we probably do not live well. We are without work for many months or languish for years on furlough, with no chance to make plans for the future and with strong limitations in the present. Maybe we have a part-time job that allows us to earn a few bucks, or a full-time job that is poorly paid. Perhaps we are forced to work all day for a pittance, and maybe it’s also a very hard or frustrating job. When we come home, we are shattered, both physically and mentally, and we have no desire for anything. We take a shower, have dinner, and collapse on the couch without strength and without the desire to think. And the coup de grâce: maybe we even turn on the infernal box called television.

We are poor, struggling to make ends meet; we are not living, we are simply surviving. In this situation, it can be quite understandable that the person in question does not have the desire to seriously inform themselves, study, apply themselves, and think. In our situation of poverty, we can see in the distance how ignorance stretches its arms to wrap us in its coils. Stupidity is easily attainable, without any effort; just press a button on the remote control from the coach.

No one likes to be sick. Illness equals weakness. If we are sick, all we want is to get back to health as soon as possible. If the pathology we suffer from is serious, all other things no longer matter. If we inform ourselves about something, assuming we do, it will be about our illness and certainly not about international politics, political corruption, bank frauds, ...

If we are stupid, well, in this case, not much can be expected from us; being fools, our lack of intelligence is evident. Intelligence is the ability to understand, the ability to solve problems, and it denotes capabilities, skills, knowledge, and understanding.

We cannot expect much from ourselves if, by definition, we lack all of this. The stupid, having little intelligence and understanding, will act inadequately, do foolish things, not understand, probably do what others do, and, of course, will not waste time studying and truly informing themselves.

But let no one despair; the positive side is that no one considers themselves stupid. As Adolfo Di Bella writes in his wonderful book Il poeta della scienza Vita del professore Luigi Di Bella: Stupidity is polyglot and timeless, and the imbecile always makes fun of himself, from the beginning to the end of his life; his existence is like a disharmonious hum of creation, his memory will last less than the flowers thrown on the coffin; but he doesn’t care. He always makes fun of himself.

And the ignorant? The ignorant ignores things; the higher their level of ignorance, the more things they will ignore. The lack of knowledge can be very serious and dangerous in many circumstances. Often, the ignorant is comfortable in their situation. Why bother to inform oneself, study, think? But if it’s useless! Books are boring, and besides, if you read a lot, you go crazy. I am very informed; I watch television every day, Mr. Ignorant could tell us.

CHAPTER 2

POOR

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We must take money where it is          found: among the poor. They have           little, but they are many.

Ettore Petrolini (1884-1936)

Money, money, everything seems to revolve around money. It appears to be the only thing that matters, although it shouldn’t be so. Money should simply be a means and as such should be considered. A means and certainly not the end.

We attribute so much importance to money, and in the end, we are always poorer. Years ago, the European Union introduced AROPE (At risk of poverty and exclusion), a new system to study the poverty of citizens. The data from many countries regarding unemployment, poverty, and material deprivation are very grim.

Istat (National Institute of Statistics) states that in 2017 in Italy, there were over 5 million absolute poor, with a greater risk of indigence in families with underage children. Poverty was higher in southern Italy, where 1 in 10 people is poor.

The situation is not better in Spain, where, according to the European report of 2015, 28.6% of the population (13,334,573 people) is at risk of poverty and exclusion. 22.1% of the population suffers from poverty, corresponding to 10,383,238 people. The number of citizens living in severe poverty corresponds to 3,543,453 people, with incomes below €333.80 per month. Almost 4,670,000 people receive a pension that falls below the poverty threshold.

The situation at the European level is equally concerning. In the European Union in 2016, 117.5 million people, about a quarter of the population, were at risk of falling into poverty or a state of social exclusion. Since 2008, Italy, Spain, and Greece have contributed nearly six million people to this total count, while in France and Germany, the percentage of the poor population has remained steadily around 20%.

But why so much poverty?

THE ORIGIN OF SEIGNIORAGE

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It is well enough that people of           the nation do not understand           our banking and monetary             system, for if they did, I believe           there would be a revolution             before   tomorrow morning.

Henry Ford (1863-1947)

If one wants to try to understand how the power structures of the world operate, one cannot avoid studying and grasping certain fundamental monetary concepts, and seigniorage is precisely one of these.

The term seigniorage has medieval origins and literally means lord’s profit, indicating the total revenue obtained through the issuance of currency. Seigniorage is divided into primary and secondary seigniorage. Primary seigniorage refers to the issuance of currency, while secondary seigniorage involves the fractional reserve, the monetary multiplication by the bank that grants loans. In medieval times, gold coins were primarily used.

At a certain point, people began depositing gold with goldsmiths who stored it in safes. In exchange for the received gold coins, they issued paper receipts, which, when presented, would allow the holders to reclaim their gold. People started exchanging these paper receipts as if they were actual money, and goldsmiths began issuing them even to those requesting a loan, as they discovered that there was never a scenario where everyone came to withdraw all their gold. Only about 10% of creditors redeemed the deposited gold, so goldsmiths started selling these credit notes even though they were not backed by gold. To understand: they had a value equivalent to 100 in gold in the safe and lent much more because they realized that only a minimal number of people came to reclaim their gold. They introduced the concept of fractional reserve (or secondary seigniorage), where the gold they had in reserve was only a fraction of the banknotes it supported. Of course, they charged interest in exchange for the loan they had given, even though they had not handed over any gold but simple pieces of paper. Essentially, they created profit out of thin air.

Things have not changed, and if anything, they are even worse today. The bank continues to lend much more money than it actually has in the vaults, thus lending money it doesn’t have. To be precise, it should be emphasized that the bank doesn’t lend anything but provides a guarantee of payment in exchange for the payment of interest.

IMPOSSIBLE TO PAY PUBLIC DEBT

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There are 10¹¹ stars in the galaxy.           That used to be a huge number. But it’s         only a   hundred billion. It’s less than         the national deficit! We used to call           them astronomical numbers. Now we         should call them economical             numbers.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988)

The public debt is impossible to pay. Countries like Italy find themselves in the miserable condition of having to pay very high interest on the public debt every year. We have now reached the point where we are not paying off the debt anymore; we are only paying the interest on the debt, which amounts to many tens of billions. Countries like Italy, if not subject to the slavery of debt, would be flourishing nations.

Some might say that debts must be paid and that if we don’t want debts, we shouldn’t incur them. I agree;