Socialism has failed. Communism has failed. Fascism has failed. Our form of Capitalism is failing. Can any economic system created by man work or are we doomed to failure because human nature will always destroy whatever system is created?
“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.
The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.
The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education).
It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.
Albert Einstein, Why Socialism? 1949
Ron says:
We always end up with a small group of people controlling us.Saying all the right things and trying to make us beleave they have our best interest at heart.
Witness Obama care,70 percent were against it in the poles yet it got shoved down our throats.I get the vibe that Obama thinks he knows better than us.
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8th September 2012 at 5:56 pm
Colma Rising says:
The closer the “ism” is in key manifestations to FEUDALISM, the longer it works… as this seems to be the core hard-wiring of the human being.
While one might say that this is not so, in general the key aspects of that old system under which humanity found it better to gather about a piece of land where an edible plant grew, where they began marking things for sake of possession, fencing off boundaries and proceeding to quarrel over them remain engrained in the psyche.
Among those key aspects are
A) banding together to loot someone’s shit, protect one’s shit from looting, one victorious warlord beating the shit out of other victorious warlords and creating a network where each subjugated warlord beats the shit out of his underlings unless they kick upstairs a piece of their loot.
B) by having oneself shit beat out of them either by another warlord or group of warlords, or beating the shit out of farmers on your fenced off and marked area to grow edible plants, one finds themselves in a pecking order.
C) by kicking up your loot to the guy who will beat the shit out of you if you don’t, you are conditioned to be subjugated to authority which you may not like, but when another group led by warlords shows up to kill you and make off with all your loot, you tend to, by natural selection, desire to have a stronger warlord protecting you and your (his) loot.
D) Over generations, warlords marry other warlord’s kin, maybe their own kin after a while, while the farmers at the bottom of the chain marry each other. If the farmers have uppity kids, the warlords kill them or take them to their warlord fort to service them. The warlords call the product of this exchange bastards.
E) One set of warlords may come and off your warlord but sometimes they keep you around for more loot.
F) Eventually the farmers (peasants) come up in some way, throw the warlords out, and “elect” people to act as warlords. This is called a democratic republic.
G) Eventually, some other warlords, selected, elected or by birth, come to take your loot…. Or perhaps your warlords, selected, elected band you together to take some other people’s loot. Either way, at that point most prefer a “strong leader”, a “tough talker”, a “noble air”. They’ve had it that way collectively for 10,000+ years. People who don’t like this leader have the shit beat out of them until they do or prefer this leader over the ones coming to loot their shit.
Communist, Capitalist, Fascist…. It always ends up with somebody beating the shit out of enough people to get loot kicked their way and up the chain.
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8th September 2012 at 6:41 pm
Administrator says:
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8th September 2012 at 7:05 pm
Appalachian Trail Deblazer says:
Vigilanteism, could that be one of the ism?
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8th September 2012 at 7:31 pm
Llpoh says:
Good question, Admin. Been wondering the same thing. Capitalism seems to thrive on growth – can it survive without growth? I think so – it can perhaps thrive on competition. But that means their must be a fair game. No such exists at the moment. Seems to me the system of government is killing capitalism.
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8th September 2012 at 7:46 pm
flash says:
Colma , are you drinking again?
Get yourself a boat Tonto…seriously.
Don’t buy into bullshit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4evzpIVnMVs
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8th September 2012 at 7:57 pm
Colma Rising says:
Flashy McGreybush:
No bullshit. Name a historical period where any “ism” lasted before some asshole comes and kicks the shit out of the party for some loot.
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8th September 2012 at 8:34 pm
Kill Bill says:
If only everyone were just like me the world would be a peaceful place.
Of course everyone has a different idea on how society should operate.
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8th September 2012 at 9:29 pm
SAH says:
As long as 4% of the population is Sociopath, and 46% of the population is Retarded, nothing will ever work for the other 50% of us.
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8th September 2012 at 9:41 pm
Stucky says:
“It always ends up with somebody beating the shit out of enough people to get loot kicked their way and up the chain.” — Colma Rising
+1000 Best answer to Admin’s question. It has been true from the dawn of human history.
100 people live on an island; 98 of them are peaceful and mind their own business. The other 2 selfish power-hungry egotistic dicks will fuck it up for everyone else. (They’re probably both boomers.) Rinse, repeat, forever.
I nominate as a solution, Exileism. This is where leaders are elected, and them immediately exiled to a far off island, to rule from there.
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8th September 2012 at 10:22 pm
Stan says:
We be Ok as long as we have obama
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8th September 2012 at 6:25 am
flash says:
Tonto, I wasn’t questioning your rationale, just the rambling delivery.
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8th September 2012 at 9:32 am
flash says:
@Stuck…something like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqonCo0A68o
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8th September 2012 at 9:34 am
Outtahere says:
Up until the last couple of decades, Capitalism has been the best system ever. It has given the world more new and innovative products and better healthcare than any other system in the past.
BUT, it has to be regulated by moral people and run by moral people. Obviously that part of the equation is now missing. Crony Capitalism and lobbyists devoid of morals have hijacked not only our system, but our way of life. Without morals and regulation Capitalism just becomes another
failed “ism”.
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8th September 2012 at 11:15 am
flash says:
The heroes will save US for the god-awful results of past-boomer excess, of this I’m sure.
and so is Mr. Metro. Mark it your 2020 calendar
“To avoid speaking in code, let me rephrase this as follows: The Millennial Generation is correcting for the excesses of Boomers and Gen-Xers who today run America. I need not remind you what those excesses are: Leadership gridlock, refusal to compromise, rampant individualism, the tearing down of traditions, scorched-earth culture wars, and a pathological distrust of all institutions……No one knows what challenges this Millennial Generation may eventually be asked to bear. Hardly anyone expects them to become America’s next “greatest generation.” But someday you can say you heard it from me: That is their destiny, to rescue this country from the mess to which we, the older generations, have contributed… perhaps a bit more than we ever intended—and in so doing to become a great generation indeed.”
Neil Howe
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8th September 2012 at 11:19 am
flash says:
oops. wrong thread.
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8th September 2012 at 11:20 am
Outtahere says:
Wrong thread or not, you’re still correct. The younger generations are going to have to figure it out for themselves how they want to live and under what type of government. Us Boomers dropped the ball by falling for the easy credit and promises of better things to come from a bunch of career politicians who sold their souls to the Lobbyists and Crony Capitalists. OK, we fucked up! But, what are you going to do about it? It’s your life, your livelihood, your future. What are you going to do about it????
Short of a real Revolution, nothing is going to change. If you don’t get off of your asses and get involved you’re going to end up subjects, not citizens. Yes, we have lived through the Golden Age of America. But what about the future? Are you going to let the career politicians control your future and your destiny? Or are you going to really Change things and correct the path that we were led down.
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8th September 2012 at 6:32 pm
llpoh says:
Outtahere, I disagree re your comments abut regualtion. It is the regulation that has fucked things up. The regulation is what is being manipulated. If there were no regs, capitalism would work just fine – survival of the fittest and all of that. But some regs are of course required – re monopoly power, emission control, safety, etc. But the problem is that these are being skewed to help some and hinder others.
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8th September 2012 at 6:52 pm
Administrator says:
A simple 38 page regulation kept bankers from destroying the world for 65 years. Ten years after its repeal, bankers destroyed the world.
The “solution” was a 2,500 page piece of shit, written by bankers, and passed by corrupt politicians bought off by the bankers.
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8th September 2012 at 7:08 pm
Christopher Harrison says:
The source of our recent instability is an “ism” that lies beneath socialism, communism and capitalism — and that is industrialism. We have spent the past 200 years effectively eating our ecological seed corn. The reason that capitalism seems like such a great system is that it is more efficient at that endeavor than the other two “isms”. That doesn’t change the fact that it is based upon an unsustainable premise — mainly that through “development” (a more accurate term in an historical sense is “enclosure”) we can create a first-world lifestyle for the vast majority of the world’s inhabitants.
The sooner we abandon fealty to any of these “isms” the better off we’ll all be, IMHO.
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8th September 2012 at 5:39 am
Outtahere says:
@ Christopher
So you would prefer to live under a feudal system and living in a straw hut living off of the land? OK.
But I prefer a world where so many diseases have been conquered, so many people’s lives made
better through hard work and innovation. I’m sorry, but I like air conditioning, electricity, automobiles,
airplanes, trains, etc.; but that does not make me a bad person. Or does it?
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8th September 2012 at 10:14 am