How many people do you get to believe this stuff you write? I accept that we have some serious issues to resolve in this nation. Your claims manage to touch on issues that we face as a nation. Unfortunately for those who believe what you say, however, you don’t state any facts.

Where did you get your information? I laugh, for example, every time I see or here someone supporting a global warming argument by stating that the polar bears are drowning. What if I told you that most of the world’s polar bears live in Canada. There are 13 populations of polar bears in Canada and 11 are stable or growing.

Where are the bears drowning? In Hudson Bay? That population had rapid growth leading up to its decline. Nearly fifty are shot each year. How many should live there? Are you an expert in ecology?

Why don’t we address issues with thought? How about some real data? This type of writing, like the general mass media, is no better than any dishonest, greedy capitalist. Whatever sells.

In these times of excitement about the current state of things, when people are ready to “change” it would help to think clearly and logically. If not, the problem will probably only be exacerbated.

Your point about empire as the focus of critique and the center of the Problem is apt and an essential difference to the arguments espoused here about the simple capitalistic/socialistic dichotomy.

Empire, traces back a good 10,000 years. What we call capitalism is barely an infant.

The American Empire has its lineage going back thousands of years. That a form of economics evolved over the last few hundred years or so, hardly seems the crux of the real issue.

As I said, the mix of economies is universal. This is no pure economics. But beyond this mix is the issue of survival and empire’s corporate preditory uneconomic growth patterns is a danger to humand and much of the planet’s life.

This is the problem we are faced with.

i’d like to also point out to worshipers of the amer structure of society that our ancients did not have schools, hospitals, rulers, media, medicine, tv, sports, movies, etc., yet they survived.

survival being the ultimate test and testimony for being a success. and we are still surviving- tho we don’t know for how long- so that others may live.

i also avoid use of the word “capiatalism” . i rather describe what is going on in an empire like US. for one thing, the ruling class in US privatizes much of the governance while at the same time vigourously opposes big or larger governance.
larger governance obviates governance for profit; that’s why rich people speak agaist it.
yet ruling class in US governs everything; so, it is just a sleight of hand since we are ruled over with iron grip anyhow.
tnx

Scientists working to improve the efficiency of steam engines develop an understanding of the conversion of heat into work. They learn that the flow of heat from higher to lower temperatures is what drives a steam engine, likening the process to the flow of water that turns a mill wheel. Their work leads to three principles: heat flows spontaneously from a hot to a cold body; heat cannot be completely converted into other forms of energy; and systems become more disorganized over time.

No they won’t. They will sell the rope to their enforcers who will use it to hang the agitators. That’s the history of Capitalism. In order for their to be a Socialist revolution there must be as you have mention before in your post an education process.

As we have seen here there is a concerted effort to equate Socialism as merely yet another “ism” like Capitalism and that such an overturn of Capitalism will essentially be futile and will only degrade into yet another ruling class formation. Using such linguistic sophistry will clearly be a lure to those indoctrinated in Capitalistic rhetoric promoted during the Cold War.

Therefore education serves not only to challenge such faux-leftist rhetoric but builds solidarity especially when people understand their class interest.

Liberalism help to undercut working class interest 70 years ago but people today can clearly see that Liberalism failed because it left the elites intact. It took the elites several generation to rollback the New Deal. This crisis is now making people realize the illegitimacy of the Capitalist economy. Thus there are people other there rediscovering Marx. Thus this the best opportunity for Socialist to help educate people seeking this rediscovery and educating is extremely important as a antidote to obfuscation by posers pretending to offer “solution” that will eventually mislead the people.

The point is that Marx was correct about various capitalistic tendencies so much so that Capitalist have spend enormous amount of energy and propaganda to discredit his “intrusion”.

However what we see here on DV is that their is a faux-left (aka: Shieldsists) that deploy linguistic sophistry to discredit Socialism as merely another “ism” to equate such ideas on the same level as “Capitalism” in order for Shieldsist to promote their own set of ideas and tenets. This is what is behind the phoney discussion of “ism”. What else is “ism” other than a shorthand in order to describe as set of ideas and tenets.

The point is that Max Shields is proposing his own set of ideas by belittling not only Marx’s contribution but the 150 years of the refinement of his initial ideas within the Marxist tradition.

Fortunately folks and especially young people today are rediscovering Marx in order to understand what is occurring right now in the economy.

For those who are interested in a Marxist analysis of the current crisis I refer you to Richard Wolff excellent presentation.

The key for any change is solidarity. Unfortunately Shieldsism will not move people in that direction.

if the ‘food’ is also used to devolve, let’s say, 100-200 mns amers, then the good genetic pool wld be seriously reduced threatening the existence of also die uebermenschenliche klasse.

generally speaking, the larger the genetic pool, the greater number of geniuses and they engender all progress. alas, alack, woe to us, politicians control technology and the scientists. but, the is there anything of value that thy don’t control with iron grip?
anyhow, the topic is interesting. tnx

.

That’s certainly an important point. When we deal with values and agree on a situation then it’s much easy to move to workable solutions than to cram “isms” at people when they are pre-conditioned to react one way or the other.

The point isn’t whether Marx was right about various capitalistic tendencies, but that we have concentrated wealth and power. The latter is a fact, Marx and his analysis is an intrusion. This is true because of the unnecessary baggage that various labels bring with them, not because of the merits of a point here and there.

My point is that I think society can change for the better much more quickly/peacefully if we avoid isms and labels.

Service is what we basicially have. Much of it, like insurance, is make work; some like health care is essential. But if an economy is properly scaled and maintaining a steady-state, competing with Asia or wherever low wages exist, becomes a non-issue.

Local food systems provide local food rather than shipping it from thousands of miles. This increases food security, transparency, and nourishes a local economy. Likewise light manufacturing to produce what an location needs generates the multiplier effect essential for a real living economy. Exports can naturally happen as products are indigenously created and surpluses sent to cities and regions through an area.

Economics are fairly straightforward when they are not built on the speculative Ponzi schemes and high-rolling Wall Street toxicity.

The globalization of the market, as it has played out over the last 3 decades, was speculative capital taken to the nth degree. It was destined to crash and burn. Obama is trying to prop it up. He’s a real problem; along with his chosen neoliberal/neocon warmongering economists/national security advisors.

This is not simply about socialism and capitalism.

The much much more intelligent decision would be to try to revert as much of that land back to farm land as possible. It is the southern most part of Canada and was originally some of the best farm land we had.

Of course Richard Florida’s dream of a giant “zone” of people who answer phone calls for a living is attractive too… that is if you’ve already been de-evolved.

given what you have said it is quite scary to consider fate of humans. the (dis)information combined with: poisonous city air and planning, complete disconnection from things like night sky, which have been a part of human spirit/consciousness since the beginning, white sugar filled foods, and generally no connection with food production, or comprehension of nutrition, not to mention the toxic chemicals being spewed into our habitats, and the raping of our oceans and resources in general… the mind numbing media…

Given all this, is it fair to guess that pluto’s goal is “de-evolution” of human beings? Do they seek to create a subspecies of human beings that only know how to follow? Even if this is not conscious “conspiracy” isn’t that exactly what is happening anyways? Didn’t Nietzsche warn of this slave mentality (morality) 150 years ago? If only he knew just how deep the “noble lies” really go.

Large portion of human population is being “genetically modified” to play role required of them by plutos. This idea is at least as old as Plato’s Republic.

Look around you… is there any other explanation?

plutos have been able to do that because they controled in toto also ‘education’, [dis]information, armed services, money etc.

this is what we have to tell kids. it wld be nice if i wld be allowed to give kids a lesson of my own or a lesson by an enlightened teacher but we know that canno happen.

so, as long as oligarchy controls all schooling and [dis] information, they’ll capture kids’ hearts and minds. which means no change is possible or probable. we can expect worsening.
after all education=knowledge; without it we become no better than an ox, dog, or a murderous biped. tnx

and as max says we can nationalize farmlands, energy sources, mines, etc., and not call it socialism. yes, i agree.
small business can be private but police, army, healthcare, education, etc., must be in control of democratic people and not a few plutocrats or their agents. tnx

Max