Capitalism, capitalism. How do I loath thee? Let me count the ways….
Few would argue with the conclusion that greed, selfishness, ruthlessness, and egocentrism are qualities that all of us humans possess, to varying degrees of course. Equally compelling is the argument that nearly all of us are capable of acting with kindness, compassion, justice, honesty, generosity, and empathy. Yet despite the sweeping epidemic of unnecessary suffering caused by torrential waves of avarice, self-centeredness, and brutality, our filthy moneyed elite, their well-compensated sycophants, and countless millions of deeply inculcated members of the working class defend the sacred cow of capitalism with the zeal of the Sicarii. What a brilliant way to conduct human affairs and organize ourselves socioeconomically! Not only do we embrace the inevitability of our human frailties; we willfully and perpetually embrace a system that ensures that the worst elements of the human psyche will predominate AND which amply rewards those who act the most reprehensibly.
One of the idiocies advanced as a logical argument to justify the continued existence of the abomination of capitalism is that while it may be flawed, it is still better than any alternative. If capitalism is the best humanity can do, it's time to cash in our chips and leave Earth to our non-human animal counter-parts. They may not have opposable thumbs and formidably sized frontal lobes, but at least they don't engage in the systematic destruction of themselves and the rest of the planet. However, before we act too hastily and engage in mass seppuku, perhaps it would make more sense to implement a mass reorganization of our socioeconomic structure, basing the new paradigm on far more egalitarian, sustainable, democratic, just, and rational principles. Or we could just keep destroying each other and the fucking planet….
Perhaps most disturbing of all is the way in which capitalism's relentless advocates have managed to bamboozle billions of people into equating it with democracy. Diabolical to its core, but sheer genius nonetheless. Concluding that capitalism and democracy are somehow synonymous is a bit like saying that Dick Cheney and the milk of human kindness relate to one another in even a very remote fashion. (Have you seen the myriad pictures of his evil grimaces floating around the Internet? Despicable creature that he is, he doesn't even attempt to mask his malevolence). Capitalism is naturally hierarchical, authoritarian, and brutal. Corporations, the legal vehicles for the plutocracy to maximize their profits while minimizing liability, are structured as tyrannies. What the hell is democratic about dog eat dog, law of the jungle, and every man for himself? Besides, if we uber-capitalists here in the United States are truly "democratic," and we "elected" a depraved idiot like W. to what is ostensibly the most powerful position in the world, what does that say about us?
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Anonymous2011-09-25 15:45
Hence why the statist vs anti-statist argument is pointless. These words have no meaning.
>>164
"Evidence of the earliest known city-states has been found in ancient Mesopotamia around 3700 BC, suggesting that the history of the state is in truth less than 6,000 years old; thus, for most of human prehistory the state did not exist. Since homo sapiens have existed for about 200,000 years, it implies that state-organized societies have existed for at most 3% of the whole epoch of recognizably "human" history."
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Anonymous2011-09-26 6:12
>>165
Tribes are states. The state has existed for 100% of human history.
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Anonymous2011-09-26 6:17
Just why are anarchists so statist?
For people who claim to hate the state they sure do love creating the socio-economic conditions for statism to thrive. This could be compared to more rational practical people who recognize the state is inevitable and instead work to reduce it's impact and ensure good governance thereby reducing statism in practice as opposed to theorizing statelessness while never actually accomplishing it.
It's a fact. Anarchists love the state, they are mindless conformists who enjoy obeying their corporate masters. Of course it doesn't matter whether you're conformist or not, I'm just saying.
>>166
States govern from the top down, stateless societies govern from the ground up. If you cant tell the difference between consent and assumed consent then you dont understand what makes the state different from any other firm . ( theres a bit of ideological control as well which has sustained its "legitimacy".) >>167
The state's nature is to grow, just look at the smallest "state" the us at its founding. It went from being a small minarchist constitutionalist states to one of the biggest nations on earth and tyrannous as well, thinking you can sustain it from growing is a fantasy at best.
>>162 You know, you shouldn't be afraid to post with your tripcode all the time
Good lord, that is terrible! Wasting bandwidth like that with two videos that are over two hours in length combined! The simple blog post is sufficient.
My points still stand (especially education).
>>163
My thoughts as well. Not to mention extremely long and tedious (to the point of being comical) for laying out one's political philosophy (and this is crash course, mind you).
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Anonymous2011-09-27 8:37
>>169
It should be as long as it needs to be whether that's 3 minutes o 1 hour and 20 minutes, the problem is it's irrational layout.
>>170 It should be as long as it needs to be whether that's 3 minutes o 1 hour and 20 minutes
Not for an introduction. There's no reason why a political philosophy couldn't be summed up in an introductory manner in three to four paragraphs and/or a three to ten minute video. Leave the more complex and tedious bits for interested parties who want to look into it more. If it has to be that long and tedious, it's either really that complex to explain, or filled with a bunch of rubbish to allocate large amounts of video time and/or text to look like one is making a strong argument. I'm inclined to believe it's the latter.
>>169
I posted at work and i have my trip on auto fill. >>170
I spent 30min on the first 2 paragraphs of >>150
>>171
Its not that easy, because there is no "Objective" means of property ownership/claim. If you give me a standard other than the usual "because the state said so" or "they have the guns", then i can show how the state is not legitemate by that standard. Usually the neolockean standard of ownership comes up and by that standard the state can not claim vast amounts of land it does not "improve" or "use".
Ownership is subjective and usually is up to the people to decide what consitutes "owning" land in a specific region but to claim the area deemed "The United States of America" seems to me as an overclaim with obvious social problems arrising from this. All anti-statism mostly is, is for people with similar or equal preferences to form their own societies from the ground up, now this may resemble a state but is different from the assumed consent that the "constitution" had.
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Anonymous2011-09-29 4:01
>>168
Governing "from the ground up" implies that you can't have anyone rise too high, status-wise or otherwise. That sounds like it would inhibit and impede any sort of innovation.
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Anonymous2011-10-03 15:06
Letz get that petition over 150 votes to get it public.
If it gets over 5000 they have to answer it...
Would love to hear the answer.
even being corrupted capitalism itself is bad...
you cant have a corruption free society when theres a few getting richer and lots staying poor
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Anonymous2011-10-11 0:20
>you cant have a corruption free society when theres a few getting richer and lots staying poor
Implying that making everyone equally poor gets rid of corruption.
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Anonymous2011-10-11 0:25
everyone should have the same basic things to live well.Only then we could think of getting rich.
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Anonymous2011-10-11 2:31
Capitalism is the reason for most of the world's political liberalization, capitalism requires an educated middle class to think up all the ad campaigns and sort out the finances of the rich and interpret the unfathomably complex tax and property law system, this huge bureaucracy then goes on to demand power for themselves and empowers the lower classes to do it. Not everything is black and white.
In the real world it's not uncommon for things that seem unfair like capitalism to turn out to be better than esoteric daydreams like socialist/anarchist utopias which are only better in theory.
>>185 In the real world it's not uncommon for things that seem unfair like capitalism to turn out to be better than esoteric daydreams like socialist/anarchist utopias which are only better in theory.
What is this "real world" you speak of? Anarchy existed way before states were formed and we did just fine then without all the religious/political wars. Socialism? The US has BEEN socialistic already, the only thing keeping us from becoming a communist state is the corporatism which i perfer WAY more than the former, not that it says much because its like choosing to cut your finger instead of your hand.
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Anonymous2011-10-13 1:17
Capitalism is awesome it's humans who corrupt it.
Did you know that thanks to Capitalism the middle class was invented?
Did you know that thanks to Capitalism we can have luxuries that back then only royalty had?
I can do an entire list of Capitalism facts but you get the point. Capitalism is the best economic system of teh now! But of course every country needs at least a little Socialism too.
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Anonymous2011-10-13 1:37
The interests of the dealers[capitalists] ... is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined ... with the most suspicious attention.
It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.
-Adam Smith
Capitalism as intended isn't what most Republicans think it is.
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Anonymous2011-10-13 1:43
Their[Capitalists] superiority over the country gentleman[landowner ie homeowners]is, not so much in their knowledge of the public interest, as in their having a better knowledge of their own interest than he has of his. It is by this superior knowledge of their own interest that they have frequently imposed on his generosity, and persuaded him to give up both his own interest and that of the public, from a very simple and honest conviction, that their interest, and not his, was the interest of the public.
- Adam Smith
Obviously it brings to mind the Koch brothers and the Tea Party, Republicans, and the efforts to block higher taxes for the rich. People seldom realize that Adam Smith advocated higher taxes for the rich.
In political terms there are 2 core issues concerning free enterprise stemming from basic logic, that all private individuals should be on equal legal footing and that the state should not try to interfere with the economy when it doesn't know what it's doing. Republican corporate shills oppose equal legal footing while Democrats oppose preventing the government from making mercantilist keynesian style interventions.
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Anonymous2011-10-13 22:44
Keynesian style isn't working out so well.
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Anonymous2011-10-14 5:05
>>191
Correct. We don't need hippy faggots waving placards in wall street, we need violent right wing extremists with nooses.
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Anonymous2011-10-14 8:40
>>192
LA OWS fags beat you too it. They are calling for violent revolution and the usual far left jew hate. :)
Stay classy.
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Anonymous2011-10-14 11:30
So you'd like Comunist oppression? Sucks to be your 2 inch tucked in dick
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Anonymous2011-10-14 11:42
>>193
They're naive idiots who think shitty poems accompanied by drumbeats or beginner acoustic guitar chords will convince sociopaths of the error of their ways. Also no one ever mentioned "jew hate", not sure what the fuck you're talking about there.
>>196
Come on, everyone knows there is always a minority who are the exception to the rule in every large group, if it's an insignificant proportion I'm going to talk like it's 0 just like I don't mention millions of other insignificant things.
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Anonymous2011-10-15 15:27
Whatever Japan is doing seems to be working. Oh yeah, but they actually have discipline, work ethics, loyalty, values, and honour.
Japan has been in a recession for 20+ years now. Their unemployment rate is slightly lower than ours, for the moment, mainly because so many of their working males are dying of old age and not being replaced, Japanese women having found during the 80s "bubble" years that they prefer the "parasite single" career-girl lifestyle to anything that might result in--ick!--childbirth; birthrates are a tiny fraction of replacement rate. Not coincidentally, their national debt has passed 200% of GDP and is rising rapidly as more and more geezers demand government pensions paid for by fewer and fewer workers.
Japan is in an economic and demographic death-spiral. In another 30-40 years they're going to be a province of Korea, if they're lucky, or China, if they're not.