| Theory |
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Conversations with Capitalists May 21, 2006 by RedStar2000 |
Being pro-capitalist in the present era is clearly uncomfortable...unless you are one of capitalism's "lucky winners" on a significant scale. The more articulate youngsters who still buy into the capitalist mythology nevertheless find it difficult to defend. Modern conservative thought is...well, not very thoughtful.
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Going off to college in America
Imagine an educated working couple, combined annual income over $100,000 a year (!), who want to send their kid to college in America.
Want to read a long article about what they face?
Paying for college
What happens to a capitalist country where most people can no longer afford to pay for a college education for their kids?
Welcome to the "nation of burger-flippers"?
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First posted at RevLeft on April 23, 2006
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quote:
Great news!
Less opportunities for anti-intellectual, spoiled-brats to indulge in their little beer bonging, trying to get laid fantasies--which is what college is perceived as among adolescents.
Maybe this will separate the boozing, hedonistic morons from the kids who REALLY want to and should be there!
Sorry brats....the party's over!
Yes...family wealth is the benchmark that separates the really serious students and the fuckoffs.
It is??? *laughs*
Pretty weak, even by your standards.
Well, what about those tests?
Yeah, I suspect that most people who go on to college aren't "ready" for "college level" work (hell, I would have flunked the biology portion of that exam myself...I skipped it in high school because I thought it was boring).
Now why is that?
Does it have anything to do with the fact that most public schools in the U.S. really suck?
If salaries for public high school teachers are really low, what does that strongly imply about the level of "talent" attracted to those jobs?
Do public schools get the educational equivalent of "burger flippers"...as opposed to the prestigious private high schools who have educational "chefs"?
It strikes me that a civilized society would regard the education of the young as a "resource-worthy" investment (to use terminology with which you are familiar).
On the other hand, what does all this say about the social order we have now?
How does senile ruling class sound?
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First posted at RevLeft on April 24, 2006
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quote:
That's what you get when you feel the need to "educate the masses". When culture or education is geared "towards the masses", you're going to have a degenerated form of it.
There's simply not enough resources to lift every educational hopeful to the status of a "chef".
What sort of "poverty" are you pleading here?
There are "not enough" material resources to provide a "first class" education for anyone who wants one?
You must know that's absurd.
There are "not enough" actual or potential "first class teachers" to provide a "first class" education for anyone who wants one?
Well, that's a possibility...teaching may be a talent in "short supply". It may be something that only a few people are "really good at". And it may be something that "can't really be taught"...like creative writing.
What happens now is that elite private high schools hire the brightest people they can find and pay them really well...so if you are born into an upper-class family and are reasonably bright yourself, you're going to go to one of those schools and get "the best education money can buy". Graduating from one of those schools with high grades will get you automatically admitted into a "first class" university...especially if your parents can afford to pay "full fare".
Why don't more "really bright people" become high school teachers? Because the pay is shit, that's why. A really intelligent person usually prefers to work for a corporation because that's where the big money is.
Is that where it should be?
As to the "cultural level of the masses", what options do the masses have? The dummyvision may have 500 channels, but what if it's all mindless crap?
The internet may have lebenty-zillion sites, but if 50% are porn sites and 40% are shopping sites, what are people likely to find?
The people who produce the content of our "culture" are motivated by how much money they can make...not how "good" a "product" they can make.
Sometimes, something "good" becomes popular...but the "good" was accidental. The goal was to make money.
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Have you ever considered putting the blame squarely on the kids, their crap culture, and their careless, permissive parents?
Nope. The people you condemn do not make policy. They have neither political nor economic power in this society. To them, life is simply a matter of chance.
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Well, I plan on getting a few scholarships (National Merit, high ACT score).
A capable student can find plenty of money this way.
Your optimism is commendable. But I'll tell you, I put up some "big numbers" myself on the national tests...good enough to get admitted to a school like Columbia.
But they didn't offer me a dime!
If you are really bright and get big scores, then yes, you can get admitted to a first class university.
But it won't do you any good unless your parents have serious money.
Funny story: when I did end up at a little shit municipal university, I hung out with some kids who, like me, had racked up a 99th percentile score on the National Merit tests...we referred to ourselves as "the National Merit Scholarship Losers". *laughs*
Good luck...you'll need it!
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First posted at RevLeft on April 25, 2006
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quote:
Is this why you hate capitalism so much, Redstar?
Probably had something to do with it. Insofar as I can remember that far back, I just assumed that intelligence and effort "would be rewarded" -- you should see the letters they send you when you rack up big numbers on those tests...it's like the sun "now officially shines out of your ass"! *laughs*
I was certainly not any kind of a "commie" in 1960...a "left-liberal" maybe. I did work on the Kennedy campaign during the summer after graduating high school.
(And that's another story!)
Later on, I heard this from a woman whose father was on the board of some "big name" university...she explained to me why Columbia admitted me but didn't give me any money.
"What they want," she said, "is for you to bust your ass and become successful and then send your kids to Columbia!"
They want you to think that "even if I couldn't go, my kids will go!"
Guess they missed on that one. *laughs*
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First posted at RevLeft on April 25, 2006
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quote:
The kid can do what a lot of people do, join the service, use his/her GI Bill and or Tuition Assistance program (which pays some 90% of tuition costs) and get his degree that way.
Now that's an option.
Become a professional killer for U.S. imperialism!
And when they cut you loose and assuming you're not dead or a hopelessly fucked up cripple, then you can go to college.
Ain't that sweet!
Makes burger-flipping look "not so bad after all". *laughs*
quote:
Or if he is near the top of his class he can apply to one of the service academies. ALL of them are certainly respected universities.
Yes, a Ph.D. in Mass Murder is a valuable asset in "late" capitalism...no argument there.
Lots of "job opportunities" after you graduate. *laughs*
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I'm not sure that college costs as percentage of income has changed substantially in the past 20 years or that college is any less affordable today than it was 20 years ago.
Everything I've seen points in that direction; tuition and fees have risen far beyond the inflation rate for many years. Scholarships and grants are disappearing...replaced by student loans that one can only escape by leaving the country permanently.
quote:
I'll stay in this evil capitalistic society even at the risk of "flipping burgers".
Your choice.
Just don't "whine" if things turn out badly for you; you can't say that no one warned you!
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First posted at RevLeft on April 25, 2006
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quote:
Oh, puhleze, most people in the service have never killed anyone.
And, I dare say, most of the SS men at Auschwitz probably didn't personally kill a single Jew.
That didn't change the purpose of Auschwitz.
Or what it meant to be willing to become a member of the SS.
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But I'm not holding my breath waiting for you to honor their service, redstar.
No, I'm leaving that for the International War Crimes Tribunal. They have more experience at that sort of thing than I do.
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Who have we colonized?
quote (BBC):
Rice joins Rumsfeld on Iraq trip
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making an unheralded visit to Iraq, joining US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who arrived hours earlier.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/middle_east/4945180.stm
Just the most recent addition to our Glorious Empire, of course. A full list would be exhausting just to read.
quote:
Well, everything you've seen is not supported by statistics published by the U.S. Department of Education.
Clearly invalid statistical techniques at work here.
"Per capita" income means how much per person...it says nothing about how that income is distributed. It's well known that over the last three decades, income increases are nearly all at the top of the scale.
"Average" tuition means just that...an average. It throws in (and counts as equal) the $200/semester tuition for Horseturd Bible College and the $22,000/semester tuition for New York University in lower Manhattan.
A much better number would consist of how much each full-time college student actually pays...get an average from that and then see how much that average has grown over the last few decades.
And don't include the "community colleges" in the numbers; they are basically trade schools...which serve a useful purpose but should not be confused with univerities.
Statistical scams are commonplace in contemporary public discourse; it helps to know at least a little bit about statistics to spot them.
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Why is paying for college such a big issue to a communist?
We are looking for "signs" of the decay of capitalism in the "old" capitalist countries.
I started this thread to point to the fact that it is now ruling class policy in the U.S. to make higher education a class privilege...as it was prior to 1945. A similar policy is being put into place in the U.K. with "top-up fees".
What this suggests is that the "old" capitalist countries will, at some point, fall behind the "younger" capitalist countries...creating the kinds of crises that Marxists expect to see prior to communist revolution.
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First posted at RevLeft on April 26, 2006
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quote:
Yes, I wondered how long it would take for you to compare U.S. servicemen to Nazis. I see it didn't take all THAT long.
Or to compare the US military to the SS. How typical for a radical lefty communist.
Considering what's been documented by the criminal "servicemen" themselves, how accurate.
Naturally, the totality of what they've done is far greater than what has appeared in the media thus far.
Your attitude of "denial" is "typical" as well...I'm sure that there are some Germans to this day who think that Auschwitz was a "fake".
To face the bitter truth about your own country is pretty challenging...and some people simply lack the intellectual courage to do that.
quote:
Then again, a couple earning over $110K a year can only put away $10K for their son's educational expenses is pretty pathetic.
Which makes all the couples earning less than $110K/year even "more pathetic", doesn't it?
Perhaps people should be honest with their kids right from the beginning: unless you earn a full scholarship, it's McDonalds for you, kid!
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First posted at RevLeft on April 27, 2006
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quote (Charles Krauthammer):
America haters and apologists who loved to sling around the charge of modern American imperialism have little or no understanding of the word in the context of world history. They confuse global power for empire.
Gee, how about that?
It's not an Empire, it's just "global power"...to rob and murder any damn place we please.
What America is: the most radically dishonest Empire in history!
And anyone who points out that obvious fact is an "America hater"...not a member in good standing of the Übervolk, no question about it.
The combination of imperial arrogance and rank dishonesty of Mr. Krauthammer's statement qualifies him easily for a post in the Bush administration.
I understand they're hiring. *laughs*
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First posted at RevLeft on April 27, 2006
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quote:
American Marines and GIs are not much different than Americans who don't enlist in the military.
Some are jerks, but most aren't.
Speculative.
Prior to the first Bush war against Iraq, your argument might carry some weight...mostly poor and many minority Americans just trying to find a ladder up out of the shit zone.
Even back then, I still think you'd find that a lot of enlistees were from rural and especially religious backgrounds and often from "military families" -- there's a whole "subculture" of those folks around...though I expect they sharply declined in numbers after Vietnam.
In other words, you have to be pretty backward to put your life on the line "for America".
But in our new era of imperial adventures -- Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and obviously more to come -- I think enlistees now are either exceptionally moronic or they really believe in the Empire!
quote:
Are all military personnel brain-washed, blood-thirsty, Bush-loving, imperialist, automatons?
Until proven otherwise, I think is the most reasonable assumption.
Of course, having been told that they would be welcomed in other countries with flowers and kisses...and discovering that the reality was somewhat different from what they were promised, I have no doubt that the occupation troops are having "second thoughts".
But I have yet to see any reason to believe that they will not "march on Tehran" if given the order to do so.
Now, if we see massive mutinies...?
quote (WBBM Newsradio):
Chicago Gang Graffiti In Iraq
Street gangs born in Chicago are making their presence known 6,000 miles away.
The Sun-Times reports Chicago gang graffiti is showing up in Iraq, the handiwork of gang members now in the military.
Army Reservist Jeffrey Stolesonhas taken hundreds of pictures of gang graffiti in Iraq.
A Defense Department official says he's identified 320 soldiers as gang members and he thinks that's just the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/30651.php
One can hardly wait until "our boys" get home and start applying the lessons they've learned in Iraq. *laughs*
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Have a nice day, Mr. Cynical.
You too, Mr. Gullible.
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First posted at RevLeft on April 30, 2006
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How to become a billionaire...!!!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...BUGE2IIPO11.DTL
quote (San Francisco Chronicle):
Ron Burkle was raised in Claremont, a quiet town in suburban San Bernardino County. His father was an executive at the Stater Bros. supermarket chain and Burkle, armed with nothing more than a high school diploma, started at the stores as a bag boy...
Have a father who's an executive and can get you a job with his company.
quote:
Burkle worked his way up through the ranks until, as a senior executive, he tried to lead a leveraged buyout of the chain. He failed and was fired in 1986.
Bagboy up to senior management? Dad helped a lot with that one.
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But...he won the support of the group that had offered financing for the attempted buyout, including Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, and other financiers in the company's circle. Burkle eventually became a close friend and affiliate of Michael Milken and with his help assembled a California supermarket empire.
Make rich friends! Do that before they go to prison.
In business, timing is everything.
quote:
He eventually sold the chains, including Alpha Beta, Ralphs and Food 4 Less, to Kroger for nearly $13 billion in 1999. Previously, he bought Chicago's Dominick's chain and sold it to Safeway for $1.2 billion, earning himself and his investors enormous returns.
Done!
See how "easy" it is! *laughs*
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First posted at RevLeft on May 2, 2006
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One of the "symptoms" of a ruling class "in decay" is an increased inability to think rationally in terms of its own class interests.
Here's an example...
quote (San Francisco Weekly):
But Can He Predict the Weather?
f you think there's something different about the address above the entrance of KRON television headquarters, the fortresslike building at 1001 Van Ness Avenue, you're right. The number 552 has been added.
The reason?
A station exec's astrologer advised that 1001 was a bad number for business.
And business at San Francisco's venerable Channel 4 hasn't been good lately. Advertising is down, its entertainment and local news shows lag in the ratings, and parent company Young Broadcasting, which spent $825 million to buy KRON in 2000, is swimming in red ink.
So the station's honchos turned to East Bay astro-numerologist Jesse Kalsi to provide a "patch," which is numerology lingo for fixing a bad number. Now, what you see over the door is 1001552.
"Obviously, there are skeptics who think it's a bunch of hooey, but I can tell you things seem to have improved since the change," says KRON Programming Director Pat Patton, who says he brought in the psychic with the approval of station management.
Others scoff at the suggestion that astrology is the answer to the station's woes. "It's nuts, what can I say?" says a staffer, who, like others who roll their eyes at the numerology experiment, insists on anonymity.
One person who doesn't mind being quoted, however, is recently departed former news producer Kevin McCormick. "It encapsulates the absurdity of the place that a numerologist could influence a decision to alter the street address of a television station," he says.
Meanwhile, the KRON door patch is paying dividends for Kalsi. In early April, he appeared as a guest on a KRON weekend interview show and the programming boss says he's entertaining the idea of finding a permanent on-air gig for the psychic. "He deals with marriage problems, health problems, financial problems," Patton says. "We'll see what the future holds."
http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-05-03/...kafreecity.html
It's known, I think, that the de facto President of the U.S. during Reagan's second term was Nancy Reagan's astrologer.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Who is George W. Bush's "spiritual adviser"?
And good luck to you if you ever find yourself looking for the "10,000 block" of Van Ness Avenue. If it existed, it would be at the bottom of the San Francisco Bay. *laughs*
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First posted at RevLeft on May 5, 2006
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The Modern Capitalist "Work Ethic"
quote (Christian Science Monitor):
A better way to prevent student cheating
NEW YORK – As another academic year draws to a close, amid a rushed flurry of final exams and term papers, it's time for professors to play their least favorite role: cop. With some surveys finding that up to three-quarters of college students cheat, faculty and administrators are making a bigger push for integrity. What most still lack, however, is a compelling moral argument against cheating.
Honor, with its emphasis on doing the right thing for its own sake, is no match for the anxious cynicism of many college students. This point was driven home to me by a junior I met last year in North Carolina. Why not cheat, he argued, given how many of America's most successful people cut corners to get where they are? Cheating is how the real world works, he said. Look at the politicians who lie or the sluggers who take steroids, or the CEOs who cook the books. The student also pointed to the hurdles he faced as he tried to get ahead: high tuition costs, heavy student loans, low-paying jobs without benefits. America wasn't a fair place for kids like him, so it made sense to try to level the playing field by bending a few rules.
Many young people take this bleak view. A 2004 poll of high school students found that 59 percent agreed that "successful people do what they have to do to win, even if others consider it cheating." Young people believe in honor and value integrity; they also worry that living by these beliefs could mean ending up as a loser. In justifying her cheating, one student told a researcher: "Good grades can make the difference between going to medical school and being a janitor." Few professors have a ready retort to this logic.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0508/p09s02-coop.html
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First posted at RevLeft on May 8, 2006
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quote (Mel Levine):
In conducting interviews for my new book, Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, I heard repeatedly from employers that their current crop of novice employees appear unable to delay gratification and think long term. They have trouble starting at the bottom rung of a career ladder and handling the unexciting detail, the grunt work, and the political setbacks they have to bear. In fact, many contemporary college and graduate students fail to identify at all with the world of adults.
Sounds good to me!
By the way, why "should" gratification be "delayed"?
Because John Calvin said so? *laughs*
quote:
The problems start early. While many of today's young adults were growing up, their role models were each other. Kids today don't know or take an interest in grown-ups, apart from their parents, their teachers, and entertainers. That stands in contrast to previous generations, when young people "studied" and valued older people in the community.
Oh, I can't complain. As one of the older people on this board, I've noticed quite a number of young people who seem very interested in my personal "Tales from the 60s".
That would probably not meet with Mr. Levine's approval, to be sure.
Overall, it seems that Mr. Levine's complaint is that today's college students are not being taught "to like the taste of shit". And he wants colleges to do more teaching along those lines.
Won't happen. Colleges are businesses now...and "pleasing the customer" is crucial to "the bottom line".
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First posted at RevLeft on May 9, 2006
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quote:
Basically what you're saying is, "max out your credit cards on booze, vacations, and lobster dinners while you can."
Delayed gratification is rationally a questionable course in a social order that may not last.
One needs some clear reasons for expecting a "prosperous future" in order to "plan for one". There's not much point in "saving your leftovers" when you're a passenger on the Titanic. *laughs*
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By comparative standards, American colleges emphasize the liberal arts and the humanities more so than Japan and German universities. Foreign students flock to our research universities and for what reason?
Emphasis on liberal arts and the humanities is a legacy of the past...when higher education was a class privilege and the student did not necessarily "expect to work" after graduation. And since higher education is becoming once more a class privilege, similar considerations prevail.
Foreign students come here to study science and technology because the U.S. still has an "edge" in those fields. Probably not for much longer.
quote:
Which means, "please the stupid young college students" with watered down curriculums, fad courses, entice them with special deals and services, grade inflation, scholarships for athletes, and don't fail anyone who doesn't belong there because that's a "loss".
Isn't that how a business enlarges "market share"? When auto corporations are reproached for manufacturing gas-guzzling and palpably unsafe SUVs, don't they always reply that "they're just giving the customer what he wants"?
You imagine that college students are "stupid"...but are they not simply "having a good time" while it's still possible to do that?
There aren't going to be many "good times" in the coming decades...if any at all.
The really smart kids are figuring out ways to gather the resources to get out of the U.S. while it's still possible to do that.
And the real dummies are plodding along to get their MBAs...thinking that it's their "ticket to ride". *laughs*
quote:
So what's the communists' solution to the problem? Send more dummies to college?
The "communist solution" is to offer people some real hope for a future that won't consist entirely of ass-kissing and shit-shoveling.
Outrageous, right?
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First posted at RevLeft on May 10, 2006
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Mr. Harris does draw some interesting distinctions between Marx and the proto-fascist ideologue Georges Sorel.
If Marx was right, as I think he was, then the populist movements in Latin America will serve as "modernizers" of capitalism in those countries. The wealth there will be used to create a modern infrastructure: schools, roads, potable water supplies, etc. They will create both a modern capitalist class and a modern working class.
Sorel, in common with many 19th-century thinkers, thought that ordinary people were incapable of rational thought and action and could only be mobilized by myth and "heroes".
Mr. Harris seems to agree with him. *laughs*
Populism is actually a rational response to objective material conditions in those countries where it flourishes...it is always a mistake to allow foreign capitalists to loot and plunder your resources. They will not "develop" your economy; they will "take the money and run".
It was Marx's hypothesis that a modern proletariat would develop the capacity to rationally administer a highly-developed economy...and do a better job of it than the old capitalist class ever did.
This is "outrageous heresy" to capitalist ideologues...as if one were to suggest to a feudal lord that there was no such thing as "noble blood".
Thus Marx must be "refuted at all costs"...and converting his ideas into a "mythology" is one way to do that, of course.
Meanwhile, Mr. Harris worries about the "myth gap"...where are capitalists going to find an "inspiring myth"? Well, they're doing their best with Christian Fascism...but that doesn't seem to be working out all that well. And the panegyrics on behalf of a "Great American Empire" ring hollow amidst the carnage.
A nasty little problem, eh? *laughs*
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First posted at RevLeft on May 13, 2006
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quote:
I wasn't saying redstar thought they were 'good' but he thinks they are progressive and almost sees them as bourgeois revolutionaries who will install 'modern capitalism'.
My question is what the fuck have they been living under so far, you can't be ruled by the IMF unless you have a basically capitalist infastructure.
You confuse what's "on paper" with what actually happens.
IMF "loans" are nominally for the purpose of developing a modern economy but, in practice, are mostly used to bribe a small number of "native administrators" to "keep things under control" while a small portion of the economy is hyper-developed and the rest is left to rot.
In addition to bribes, the IMF money is used to construct a modern airport and to arm and train a local military force...two obviously useful things for imperialism. Whatever is left over is used to import luxury goods from the "first world" for the native administrators of the backward country.
Angola has a modern oil producing industry...and a deadly cholera epidemic currently raging in its capital city.
A "Chavez" in Angola would make a huge difference...as is happening in Venezuela at this very moment.
The mistake that "first world" observers usually make is assuming that populist rhetoric about "socialism" is accurate. It's not.
Your assumption is that because that rhetoric is not accurate, that "therefore" countries like Venezuela and Angola "cannot" become modern capitalist countries and "fight it out" with the "old" capitalist countries...they are somehow "frozen in time" and will not advance until "after" there is communist revolution in the "first world".
That's a Leninist error based on the idea that capitalism is "globally decadent" and can no longer "do anything useful anywhere".
Ain't so.
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First posted at RevLeft on May 17, 2006
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quote:
What do communists think of school shootings?
Depends on who they shoot, doesn't it?
Random shootings are sort of stupid and pointless. But shooting bullies or really obnoxious authority figures wouldn't bother me at all.
It's not a very effective strategy but it certainly "sends a message".
Anything bad that happens to bullies (adult or adolescent) is, in all likelihood, simply what they have coming to them!
PS: This is not advocacy...I am not telling anyone here to go shoot anybody as a "step" towards revolution. But if some kids choose to take this path and actually kill some real assholes, I will not condemn them.
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First posted at RevLeft on May 17, 2006
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quote:
You don't know why a bully acts the way he does.
Nor do I give a fuck!
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First posted at RevLeft on May 17, 2006
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I suggest that you guys have a look at this excellent article.
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First posted at RevLeft on May 17, 2006
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quote:
Marx claimed there would be a worldwide, proleterian revolution, caused by a shift in the class conciousness.
Not exactly...he considered that such a revolution would begin in the most advanced capitalist countries. He even listed them: England, France, the United States, and Germany.
We might amend that list slightly now...to include Italy and Japan, for example. But it has to happen in those places first...or else the Marxist paradigm is wrecked beyond repair.
quote:
I view dialectics the same way I view 'postmodernism' or 'deconstructionism': meaningless bullshit.
Indisputable.
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First posted at RevLeft on May 17, 2006
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quote:
The fact that the continuation of capitalism for another century would almost definately mean the destruction of humanity or at least civilization as we know it, might make you think that a revolution would be nice.
Capitalism has already managed to "destroy civilization as we knew it" a century ago. Look at the "civilization" of 1906 and tell me how much of it still remains standing.
And how useful it is that so much of it has been destroyed beyond repair.
I expect capitalism to continue its "good work" for another century -- though maybe somewhat less -- chopping away at all the pre-capitalist crap that we are still cursed with. There is still much reactionary shit that needs flushing down the "toilet of history".
The "destruction of humanity" is hype, of course...usually comes from the primitivists and not to be taken seriously.
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First posted at RevLeft on May 18, 2006
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quote:
Are you being pro-capitalist here or just expressing that capitalism [is] better than its predecessors?
"Pro-capitalist" in the same sense that Marx was...seeing it as a system that, like a powerful acid, continuously eats away at all the traditions that have kept us down for many thousands of years.
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If it's theorized that capitalism was suppose to erode these types of things, then how and why has religion endured through time?
The whole point is that capitalism has steadily eroded the power and influence of all forms of superstition everywhere in the world...the bloodthirsty fanaticism of religion's most ardent supporters is a sign of their desparation. They know they are in "deep shit" and that all the major trends are running against them. They howl like the proverbial "stuck pigs"...to no avail.
And, of course, whenever they still get the chance, they behave like fascist assholes! Digging their own graves even deeper.
The irony of it all is that even when capitalists try really hard to encourage religious belief, they do so by turning it into a modern business...thus accelerating the modern cynicism over the whole enterprise. *laughs*
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First posted at RevLeft on May 18, 2006
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quote:
The problem is, these are the countries in which such revolution is least likely; they are the rich ones....
I guess you could claim these countries will become immiserated, but of course that's the claim Marx originally made, and we see how right he was.
Yes, Marx had the "time-frame" wrong.
The "old" capitalist countries are now seeing the opening stages of capitalist immiseration according to Marx. The big welfare programs are being dismantled. Class privilege looms larger with every passing year. Wages are stagnant or declining; consumer debt exploding; weekly hours expanding; etc.
What is most striking about the "old" capitalist countries is the malaise...the "end of hope". More and more people have caught on to the realization that "everything is a racket."
Even the most ardent neo-conservatives cannot muster up anything in the way of "inspiring" rhetoric. All they can do is piss and moan about the equally demoralized liberal wing of capitalist politics.
The new capitalists in Asia and Latin America believe in the future...even when they borrow socialist terminology to make it a little more palatable.
Ain't so where we live.
quote:
Try reading the Wikipedia page on deconstructionism and tell me if you understand it any better after reading it.
Even the Wikipedia editors want to it be entirely re-written. *laughs*
Marxists have been using what might be called a "soft deconstructionism" for a long time. It simply means reading a pro-capitalist text in such a way as to expose the unstated assumptions.
"Hard" deconstructionism appears to deny any core meaning to any text. Read it any way you like as "all meanings are equally meaningless".
You've heard the one about the "deconstructionist Mafia"? They make people offers that they can't understand. *laughs*
quote:
Red star, so am I right in thinking you put support for the myth of bourgeois democracy and other bourgeois views as better than the myth of religion.
Yes, bourgeois mythologies are clearly superior to pre-capitalist mythologies...because they are far more grounded in the real material world.
That does not mean that we as communists "must support them" in their struggles against pre-capitalist mythologies...but it's certainly a grotesque error to take the opposite position -- that we "must support" pre-capitalist mythologies "because" they are "anti-capitalist".
Consider the great Danish Cartoon War. The bourgeois myth of "free speech" vs. the pre-capitalist myth of Islam. From the communist standpoint, it was a furious battle between reactionaries...and served principally to discredit both mythologies.
That's a "good thing" for us! It wasn't so good for the "lefties" who felt like they had to "choose sides"...ending up making them look like vulgar opportunists and gullible suckers.
The only time we really have to put our energies into opposing pre-capitalist mythologies is when they assume a political form that threatens our own objectives; Christian Fascism in the U.S. being a primary example. The "left" here has thus far failed abysmally to mount any kind of serious anti-fascist movement against those bastards!
Unless that changes soon, I really expect the worse here. People have an entirely unjustified faith that "bourgeois legality" will "protect them" from Christian repression.
Hah!
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First posted at RevLeft on May 18, 2006
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quote:
I specifically remember that you never seemed to blame the parents or the kids for that matter in regards to education...it was always "the ruling class's" fault simply because it is they who "set and determine the policies".
Then again, that's typical for a communist...always blaming someone or something else.
And your position is not "typically capitalist"...not to say Calvinist? That is, individual "failure" is due to one's own "sinfulness". Material prosperity is a consequence of individual "virtue".
The myth that we are "captains of our individual fates" is no doubt pleasing to the winners of the capitalist lottery...who never grow weary of flattery.
As an explanation of what actually happens in the world and why, it is, as the kids say now, extremely lame.
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First posted at RevLeft on May 18, 2006
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Naturally I welcome a cappie's attempt to understand the communist goal with a commentary on my essay.
Comparing it to the "libertarian" capitalist vision is, however, rather misleading.
Right-Wing "Libertarianism" and the Restoration of Slavery
Arguments as to the practicality of communism are inevitably related to material conditions as they exist now and are irrelevant to conditions as they may exist a half-century or more into the future.
We cannot help but be aware that "the ways people think" have changed enormously over the last few centuries...and those who imagine that those changes are going to, in some mysterious way, "just stop" are clearly living in fantasy land. We see in the campaigns for "traditional American values" how ludicrous it is to attempt to "turn back the clock" even to 1950 or so. *laughs*
In my opinion, it really boils down to what ordinary people in their tens and hundreds of millions think is the "acceptable civilized minimum"...and I think the time is approaching when class society will be regarded as failing to meet the acceptable mimimum of civilized existence.
Capitalism, at best, will be regarded as the "highest stage of savagery".
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First posted at RevLeft on May 18, 2006
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