Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Democracy versus Capitalism



   Another school shooting. Another American Mass Murder, graded on the amount of indifference and carnage, weighed in upon the scales of fame, and now, the POTUS says that this is unacceptable and we must change. Change what? Gun laws? Mental health programs? The fabric of American community? How deep must the change go for such atrocities to end?
  When democracy finally realizes that capitalism has no values, with the exception of the more, and that our capitalist culture is what denigrates our personal relationships, and the fabric of community, maybe that would be a start of some real change. These days it seems as if all the functions of capitalism, of management itself,  have turned on American society. The financial crisis of 2008. Shipping manufacturing jobs overseas. Capitalism seems to value labor only as a commodity and fails to realize that consumers and employees are essentially human beings, much more than functions and commodities. Americans are citizens, and it's democracy that allows every corporation the right  to exist. Democracy has the ability to pull the plug on any capitalist venture, but our representative government has been bought wholesale by capitalism, ruled by their narrow interests, all covertly administered by corporate lobbyists. Even banning assault weapons is a law we passed that was washed under the bridge.
   Change? Our society is based on competition, individual relationships of mutual usage, all based on greed, on wealth, on fame, and such a social compact has it's very foundation resting upon such violence. No wall streeter went to jail. George Bush is a war criminal and nothing at all happened to him. We started this country on the genocide of the Native Americans and the enslavement of other races. We're the only country to drop atomic weapons on another people. We have a deep history of violence. We're even killing other peoples children with drones, but these days Corporate America not only feeds on the other nations of the world, but on it's own people. Violence seems to be 'the flowering' of who we are. To change that demands more than outlawing assault weapons, requiring background checks, and upping the scope of community health services. Such change requires a change in the way we see ourselves, a change in the way we live.
   You have to find this out for yourself, for there are no political or religious answers. All the people of the world are more than employees, more than consumers, more than accumulated wealth, more than fame, even more than citizens. What are we? We all have but a short time upon this earth to ask these questions, made even shorter by corporate environmental degradation and poisoning: what we call Global Warming. What is the answer?
  

Friday, April 8, 2011

~~~A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand~~~

"House Divided" Speech by Abraham Lincoln


   Does today's Class War compare to The Civil War? Will there ever rise such a man as this to appeal to~~~The Better Angels of Our Nature~~~or will politicians forever more be bought and sold by the powers that be? How does the denial of personal freedom compare to the social denegration that springs from~~~economic and environmental destruction? Who can live peaceably together with slaveholders~~~or~~~corporate entities that have no social responsibilities? Is democracy for All The People~~~or~~~is it a Tattered Quilt of states rights? Was it really~~~North vs South? Is it really~~~Democratic America vs Corporate America? Blue vs Grey~~~or~~~Red vs Blue? Today there are Two Americas~~~the haves~~~and the have nots~~~and i don't believe we'll ever be blessed with a man such as this~~~to unite our house divided.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Is The American Dream Only A Castle In The Sand?




"The present civilization is based on greed and individual competition; it can not last forever because it has no intrinsic value. The individual, who has created and is dominated by this civilization, is caught up in accumulation, which is his sole incentive; that is, the individual tries to express his ambition and attain his desired social position through the accumulation of wealth and power. He has therefore set up social distinctions and such a civilization, based on ruthless selfishness, must eventually break down. It is merely a matter of time. As long as you have this conception of individuality, which is but selfishness and greed, no civilization, no structure built on it can last, nor can it free the mind from sorrow."
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Early Writings, Volume 7, Radio Talks, USA and Canada 1932
"Las Vegas is the savage heart of the American Dream." Dr. Hunter S. Thompson