gomaos Posted March 3, 2003 I am inspired onto this topic by the Bush/Hussein thread. If you ask yourself, what do they stand for, well, Bush just stands for ultra-rightwing-capitalism, so-called democracy, while Hussein stands for total tyranny and human rights neglect. You can't just symphatize with Hussein because he's entirely evil with no attempt to be good, while Bush still tries to wear the face of freedom. Where I live, I seem to be surrounded by Bush/Howard supporters. They all cling to their conservative ideas of capitalism. "You have to work your ass off" to achieve happiness. Capitalism is based on one strong aspect of human nature: GREED. While a healthy amount of greed may have been necessary for cave-men and women, i.e. eat as much as you can of the food while it's available so you will survive times of no food, in our times it is necessary to change our way of thinking. A wise man from England I think, sorry forgot his name (thank you Mary Jane) who lives somewhere in Northern NSW wrote this approx 15 years ago: "The way humans presently behave in their treatment of their planet, i.e. Mother Earth, is that of a breastfeeding baby who cuts it's mothers breast open with a scalpel to get more milk" or so. That's the way Capitalism stands for: The greediest will reap the greatest rewards... the greatest reward, on top of unlimited wealth, is unlimited power OVER OTHERS, over the planet and it's resources. While by nature land would belong to the people who live there, capitalism awards it to a select few. A system that's based on Negativity(what else is greed but negative?) can only produce bad results. I compare capitalism to a Casino: Everybody knows that most are losers and only a select few will win and get immensely rich: The owners of the Casino. Yet everybody aspires to be like them, everybody wants to be part of the Power Race. If we can make peace with our inner self and find out what we really need, we can see that we don't need to be like them and don't want to be like them. For those who hold the power must be deluding themselves about what it is what makes them happy. If it gives them an adrenaline/dopamine rush to be so powerful, well that could easily be achieved by some drugs as well. You don't need to go to the Casino to get that rush. A few drugs will do the same for a fraction of the amount you spend in the Casino. Well, to sum it all up: Capitalism sucks! Communism didn't work because too many humans are too easily tempted by shortcuts to money and power. So what else have we got? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
monkeydance Posted March 3, 2003 Closed informational systems are a big problem. Open source all closed informational systems. why is it that a companies or governments process;s are private? They should be peer reviewed for efficiency and to prevent misuse. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Auxin Posted March 3, 2003 "Well, to sum it all up: Capitalism sucks! Communism didn't work because too many humans are too easily tempted by shortcuts to money and power." Thats pretty much how I feel, but capitalism isnt inherently corrupt and greedy- we think that because what we are told is capitalism is really extremist capitalism. Capitalism can be practiced with compassion and generosity when you can find people willing to do so. Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying capitalism is the best way to go but at this stage of human development communism wont work either because people are too greedy and corrupt. I think at this point in our evolution (philosophical, not genetic) the midpoint between non-extremist capitalism and non-extremist communism is an appropriate path. When people become enlightened enough to not be greedy or corrupt, and people want to help all sentient beings live a healthy, productive, peaceful life thats when communism will be the way to go. Some day ours will be a truly enlightened species, until then we just have to strive to be a little bit better than we were the day before. The only person you really have to be better than is the person you were yesterday. If everybody follows that philosophy the world will be an increasingly good place and someday we will abandon war and greed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nabraxas Posted March 4, 2003 i'm going to disagree slightly & say that it is exactly because communism & capitalism have never been allowed to reach their extreeme forms(both ov which are theoretical anarchy ) but have always been hi-jacked & subverted by greedy politicians/bankers; that both appear to have failed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
