Quote:
Originally Posted by robayon
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
turn this statement upside down.
you're protecting those hierarchies because you believe that hierarchies are natural. yes, hierarchies probably existed before even language did, i understand power. you're saying oppression and victimhood are necessary for human survival, in essence. that i reject.
i believe that what you're referring to here as it were 'human nature' are actually simply... values, or power relationships or something. and those values are derived from concepts like abundance and scarcity. i believe we should be working to eliminate scarcity. we are not doing that. scarcity creates hierarchies. can you name a society that has not experienced scarcity at some point? i can't.
have a dream. utopia isn't an attainable goal, it's an aspirational goal. obviously no resource is infinite, but we sure treat the earth that way under the hierarchy you're defending here.
i realize that part of the capitalist hegemony's use of power is to stomp out the ability to dream of something better than capitalism, that's precisely what they want you to fail to do. which is also precisely why i think we should do it. additionally, it's why they've conditioned americans especially to knee-jerk react negatively to socialism, despite incorporating some aspects of it into american capitalism. i say if we can't overthrow capitalism, then at least incorporate more aspects of socialism into it. at least that will keep the ship floating for a little while longer. i mean, it's still sinking, but... doing nothing certainly isn't acceptable.
unfortunately, doing nothing is precisely what conservatives want us all to do.
|
The entire story of humanity is built within struggle and suffering. The essence of a human is to suffer and understand what it means and then to try to attain something better. Israel means literally "struggle with God" in Yiddish. Every religion is based around this essence. So I do dream and aspire, just not through the revolution that you suggest. It will only bring more suffering and misery than what was perceived we had.
Capitalism with all of its flaws is a heck of a lot better than anything that was before. People get to chase their money.
How would the system work when public projects are required to be done by volunteer only? How would we make something happen like the internet and keep the servers and utilities to keep them running?
The money incentive is there to get stuff built and get stuff done. The alternate would be forced labor. As it always was before capitalism. Sure I guess there was grain and food incentive in some nations but always supplemented with slaves for public works projects.
Capitalism also moves those scarcities around a lot better and more efficiently than any other system.
until EVERYBODY can turn off their own human greed there will be no better system than capitalism.
As far as the earth goes, I am hopeful that human technology fueled by capitalism will hit a critical mass before the so called runaway global warming. I am skeptical of 8 billion people working together of their own volition to bring peace and harmony.
Best thing is to start to cultivate your own garden.