Strategy: Know Your Political Economy to avoid Co-option by Global Capitalism

slave

The growing global protest movement present in every continent under various guises with various tactics (including ‘’the arab spring’’ to ‘’anti-austerity protests’’ in Europe, and ‘’occupy wall street.’’) present a myriad of political demands with economic overtones demanding political and economic reform for a more equitable living conditions. Unfortunately, despite much sympathy and even mass uprisings that it can generate it is a reaction to a global crisis and like most desperate cries for help it does little to diagnose the problem correctly and institute a genuine cure. What is needed is a scientific analysis of the problem with verifiable proof and evidence understanding the nature of the problem and then determining a scientific (i.e., experimental with reproducible proof of concept) solution.
The many problems and demands (political or otherwise e.g., global climate change, epidemics, pollution, endless wars and oppression, etc.) have at their core desperate economics in common that has become increasingly clear to most related to a crisis in capitalism at its ‘’globalized’’ stage thus sharing essentially similar economic issues across the planet. Thus, study of economics is fundamental to understanding the nature of the problem. But study of economics (science of the various elements of production / exchange / distribution to satisfy human survival in their systemic interaction) is about studying the nature of ‘’power’’ since all power is ultimately based on control over survival. This is then a necessarily ‘’politicized’’ subject with politics often presenting as a camouflaged expression of economic (i.e., power) interests. So one must be careful of this assumption when studying economics, and the world ‘’Political Economy’’ is more suitable for this purpose.

The capitalist world view of the world is ultimately an ideological / political expression of its economic interests – i.e., private or individually-oriented, profit-minded. As such it is disjointed, unreal, living in seemingly never-ending bursting bubbles. This mode of thought is not just present in the capitalists, rather in all of us. That is because it is an expression of our economic lifestyle (not to mention the indoctrination by the educational system and the media / misinformation industrial complex). When we live and work alone, being used to a system of hierarchy that over time we take so much for granted (i.e., leaders, presidents, heroes, elective representatives, gurus, experts, teachers, etc. etc.) we develop a framework in our brain (the way our brain synapses become organized) that views the world in a preconceived / prejudiced way without even being conscious of it. This is reinforced in our daily lives of consumerism and having to fend for ourselves and being in competition with others thus forming an exclusive self-identity separate from everybody else on the planet. Any wonder why there is a pandemic of egotism / narcissism / various other personality disorders?? But this ensures easy manipulation and profitable sales. Alone we are powerless to fend off so many ploys and gimmicks. So for the ones who can they choose “if you can’t fight them, join them”. With the economics being played out in a global systemic scale the whole global population has thus become corrupted, with most trampling the weaker ones only to be trampled later when they become weaker. This short-sightedness robs people of their social consciousness (awareness that as a dependent species one’s individual human’s well-being depends unconditionally on the welfare of the rest – i.e., the entire global society in our highly populated interconnected “globalized” world).

We are only starting to realize that social consciousness is essential to our long-term survival. But any surprise why we have developed more ecologic consciousness than the social one? Now that would not be so good for business would it? It is called “Divide and Conquer”. Nevertheless, social consciousness and ecologic consciousness work in fact in a continuum as we depend not just on each other as members of the human species but the entire living species and even non-living species that make possible our habitat and survival. As evidenced by the protest movements echoing each other we are being ‘’forced’’ to consider a new way of thinking (“dialectical” – interconnected cooperative worldview) as the now old one (“metaphysical” – disparate or disconnected individualistic egocentric private competitive worldview) is being proven increasingly short-sighted and dangerous as we reach the limits of our ecosphere. Furthermore, we are being forced by our conditions to rethink ideal / spiritual / dogmatic / traditional (i.e., “idealistic”) nature of entities and increasingly look for physical / independently verifiable (i.e., “materialistic”) explanation of phenomenon and possibilities. This combination of “dialectic materialism” (viewing nature and its entire phenomenon as ultimately physical and interrelated) is thus an ideology being ‘’forced’’ upon us – as we are still ‘’possessed’’ by the old ideology. But ‘’forced’’ by what? By nature – i.e., evolution (the imperative power of survival). This ideology is also the ideological method of modern “science”. Not the capitalist science (mostly based on “metaphysical materialism”) which views the world in isolation pursuing (through discovery and invention) what is most profitable (i.e., short-term for the capitalists) rather than what is most sustainable (i.e., long-term for the ecosphere).

We can then apply this “scientific” method to study the evolution of economic systems throughout history across the planet from the primitive hunters-gatherers societies to present day “globalized” capitalism. This provides very important clues as to what is happening, what real choices we have, and what will be the ingredients of effective and sustainable change. Overwhelming evidence suggests that economic systems represent stages in human productive ability progressing in a relatively pre-destined manner (i.e., one system developing dependent on full evolution of the previous system, hunters-gatherers to slavery of antiquity to feudalism to capitalism) amounting to an evolutionary process motivated by the survival imperative of our species. As such every economic system including capitalism has a beginning and an end. Death of a system depends on its fundamental internal economic contradictions which translate into its inability to ensure survival for the majority of populace thus losing legitimacy and motivating search for an alternative economic system based on alternative more sustainable fundamental economic parameters which eventually replaces it. Economic systems based on private ownership depend on growth for survival (e.g., in capitalism no growth = falling profits = death). Reform is possible as long as the system has room for growth. In capitalism for example, real reform (i.e., in the economic level) became increasingly impossible once all the markets were conquered globally (i.e., most significantly after the conquest of the Soviet and Chinese rudimentary capitalist markets). As such, the situation is much different and indeed much more dangerous and desperate than the “Great Depression” era when more than half the world was not yet taken over by capitalism. Now with market saturation globally, and maximum privatization to generate the last drop of profit, capitalism has entered a cannibalistic / self-destructive phase aided by technology which is used to maintain profit levels but which displaces labor / workers considerably faster than a new use for them can be found in an accelerated manner creating ever-rising global unemployment as well as related economic / political / cultural / religious / health and environmental strife. We are thus witnessing not just ‘’the Greater Depression’’ but ‘’the Greatest Depression’’ and indeed ‘’the Final Depression’’ as capitalism undermines itself due to its internal contradictory economic elements (explained above) in an accelerated pace (‘’science’’ and technology as a catalyst) on a global scale. Thus the survival imperative of the current economic system comes into conflict with the survival imperative of the species. The overlords of capitalism cannot sacrifice their supremacy and their raison-d’être for their troublesome subjects. The dictators will not be dictated to. Various methods of ‘’divide and conquer, diffusion, dispersion, isolation, threats and blackmails, campaigns of disinformation, distractions, surveillance, incarcerations, torture, murder and genocide, torture, oppression, etc. etc.’’ i.e., force is in order. But force has always been an instrument of a dying system and its scale is very telling of its fear, desperation, and defensiveness. Real power (i.e., sustainable power) does not rest on force but rather a superior sustainable economy. Just as it was the economic power of the pioneer capitalists that outcast the forceful desperate feudal lords, clergy, and kings who could not meet the survival demands of the majority populace a new economic system will outcast the decaying capitalist economic system burdened by its immense wasteful appetite and destruction and inability to secure the survival of the species – equating to illegitimacy.

So what are the real options for the global masses of slaves? How is this ‘’evolutionary change’’ (based on the survival imperative of the species) going to happen? How will capitalism come to an end and what will replace it? First we need to consider the process of change. Nothing is as it appears to be. This is a “scientific” i.e., “dialectically materialist” concept. Everything is in process of change – change is the only constant in nature. Thus, when we consider capitalism disappearing it is not enough to consider it in isolation. Humanity due to its interdependence has always lived in an economic system. Thus, one economic system cannot disappear without another one replacing it. Currently, capitalism is undermining itself at an accelerated pace (explained above) – it is its worst enemy. But an alternative economic system is not yet apparent. There are many claims to this of course especially by those claiming “socialism” and “communism” but practically all of these have proven to be politically-oriented claiming gaining of individual or group (i.e., private) political power as the basis of eventual economic change. This defies the historical evidence regarding the nature of change in economic systems and it is no wonder that these have all proven to be utopian (i.e., “idealist” rather than “materialist”, “metaphysical”” rather than “dialectic”) – whether reform-oriented or “revolutionary” by claim. Economic change (i.e., infrastructural change) has always proceeded political (and other super structural) change. Economic power is the necessary ingredient for political and other changes. Economic power is always manifest through an economic system.

slave

This is the continuation of the above discussion:

So what is the nature of this future more sustainable economic system? How could it come to existence? After studying this subject over 30 years I have come across some fundamental factors and characteristics. “Modern Science” (i.e., not “capitalist or for-profit science”) being “dialectical materialistic” in nature depends on experimentation – the concepts need to be proven. However, careful research is also part of this process and analysis of historical experiments (including current and previous many experiments for self-sufficiency and life outside capitalism) provide many leads for design of a better experimentation with likely higher probability of success. We must first analyze the various ingredients of an “economic system” in a historical perspective and then consider what has made capitalism such a failure at this stage. Of course if there was any room for repair / reform that should be attempted first since history shows that economic systems have a great inertia and usually do not disappear until thrown out due to inability to reform (not politically but in fact economically) and being replaced by a more productive and sustainable economic system. We then consider how the current economic environment may be leading to a more fundamental change in one or more ingredients of the economic system thus defining a new economic system. Economic systems are fundamentally defined by the type of ownership of the means of production (i.e., private vs. social) and on a secondary level by the type of production (i.e., individual vs. cooperative), exchange / distribution (private vs. social). Capitalism is a commodity-based economic system by definition requiring private ownership of the means of production. This evolved from the handicraft guild level of the village / small town to manufacturing and then large-scale industrialization when “capital” was born in full force extracted from labor as “surplus value”. Under capitalism, production achieved incredible rates initially due to the large-scale cooperative nature of production later coupled with the improvements in machinery / technology. However, this apparent achievement would not serve the population for long, because the product would be the possession of the private owner (i.e., the capitalist) and not the social producers (i.e., labor) and it would not be sold unless it turned a profit. Thus, from the very beginning it was not the laws of demand and supply that were in charge, rather the “laws of profitable demand and supply” (“laws of commodity exchange”). This course was accelerated over time as the growing accumulation of capital in the hands of global banksters and their corporate clients led to insurmountable monopolies growing with every financial crisis (due to insider theft of public investors) privatizing and encroaching into every corner of the world by “soft” or “hard” power ensuring a practically unaccountable unreformable “world government”. So private ownership is the Achilles heel or the defining factor of the system and its dysfunctionality. Without it there would be no transaction, no profit, no economic and thus no political or other powers. For this power to exist it requires the majority’s faith in its legitimacy – i.e., that private ownership is legitimate. Once private ownership is viewed as foreign (i.e., theft) by the majority, the whole pyramid scheme collapses. After all this private property was fundamentally acquired by theft through profit (i.e., extraction of surplus value from labor). Many among us (decreasing majority) have private possessions, yet we forget how little these crumbs amount to and how easily they can be possessed by the capitalists – that we as a whole would benefit much more from sharing ownership (including most of the worldly possessions now claimed privately by the capitalists) than holding on to a few private possessions (including our homes as the latest economic crisis made clear). Even the more well-to-do should consider not waiting to lose everything before they decide to share knowing that is the future under capitalism.

So social ownership of the means of production (public ownership, i.e., no banks / corporations / businesses / governments / private interest groups of any kind) is an essential ingredient of the new economic system imposed by evolution. This equal ownership on the economic level (infrastructure) will then maintain and support the superstructure (i.e., politics, culture, spirituality) of the new society reinforcing a horizontal power structure with members engaged in communal living sharing resources, knowledge, power, and responsibility in an equitable way through consensus-based collective administration networking interaction with other similar communal societies globally. This type of ownership is not only consistent but is requiring of prevention, recycling, population and pollution reduction and control, habitat and climate restoration, and other needs and abilities-based measures restoring a sustainable equilibrium within the species and with the surrounding ecosphere. The production will be even more cooperative / technically-intensive but arranged in much more humane and non-alienating manner by the owners of production (i.e., producers = labor) themselves. Division of labor and the differences between town and country gradually but quickly disappear as society becomes reorganized. State and all its institutions from security to health are abolished and replaced by communally organized services provided by non-anonymous brothers and sisters. Exchange and distribution will also become increasingly social (i.e., all local money and even bartering eventually disappear) as the society plans and controls much better its needs and with increasing productive ability and lower needs enters into the phase of exchange based on needs. The social, communal, cooperative nature of economy will further be reflected in the elements of superstructure (i.e., from politics to culture and spirituality).

The new society will be necessarily a “scientific” / experimental one. Reality not just sheer will and determination will show the way. Subjective manipulative concepts such as faith and reason will be discarded and replaced by more objective language of experimental proof and probability. Sharing failures and successes of the experiments with the global community of the other desperate and threatened (increasingly organized in similar communal units) including the growing army of the unemployed who have ample motivation for success is essential for growth of the movement and in fact survival of many. This will also mean increasing sharing of labor, resources, science and technology. By providing ever-improving examples, more and more communities will show the way to meet the growing needs and numbers of dispossessed and unemployed becoming outcast from the old decrepit capitalist system.

The new communities or communes are the economic units of the new system and form the backbone of the rising “social consciousness” / “ecology” in contrast to the “individualism” of the old dying capitalist system. Without this alternative cooperative economic life “social consciousness” and “ecology” won’t gain real traction and will ring hollow (working for the old capitalist system promotes hypocrisy where one’s short-term interests are forced against one’s long-term interests). All the ingredients for these communities are currently present and in fact have been present for a few decades. They are products of social / economic evolution themselves and are examples of organic growth (e.g., global integration of labor across ethnicities / races / sexes, alternative energy and communication technologies, holistic and nutritional / herbal medicine and prevention, ecologic building / recycling, biomimicry, permaculture, recycling and waste management technologies, etc.). They must be organized based on “modern science” and technology with active experimentation in all aspects of life, charged with “dialectical materialism” as a superior ideology (or approach) to reality and problem-solving with the aim of being independently verifiable and minimizing bias. A critical mass of motivated (by survival) knowledgeable, and skilled members in areas of experimental sciences (applied to basic survival needs e.g., food, water, shelter, health, energy, security, etc.) including advanced social skills for communal living and work / effective communication and conflict resolution working cooperatively and in network with the outside society and resources is needed. The initial aim would be relative self-sufficiency– i.e., provide for all survival needs of the members in a manner that can be replicated by most average citizens with reasonable training and resources so they can live a decent life without having to be employed or employ, without buying or selling, without taxing or being taxed – i.e. without being forced to partake in the old capitalist system. The experiment can start in some city neighborhoods as well as in the countryside. I do not refute the necessary sometimes serious conflicts that will arise with the current system (e.g., in the area of land or property, taxation, permits, etc.) but this will be an act of desperation for all parties – the overlords have to decide whether to give the dispossessed some slack to fend for themselves, keep issuing unemployment and welfare checks, throw the them into prison, or battle with them in the streets. In fact, the overlords should see these experiments as relief since they are increasingly unable to provide any living employment to the populace and ensure its survival. This is then a transitional stage in evolution – competition between two economic systems with survival of the species at stake and the greater nature the judge / arbitrator.

There is no point confronting or trying to overthrow the system nor to reform it as the system is in its death march based on its mortal internal economic contradictions (outlined above). Capitalism is its own worst enemy. It will not explode; it will become increasingly irrelevant and implode. This will happen as people must attempt to establish a new viable sustainable alternative economic system since we cannot live without one and will have to endure the increasingly crushing burden of the capitalist corpse. You are your worst enemy as you work and live in capitalism – you feed it by your employment, taxes, and purchases which feed the profit machine enabling its mischief against yourself and your global fellow slaves. Our ideas, resistance and protests no matter how lively or even violent do little to cure the disease which is essentially economic in nature. The only meaningful action is to establish a fundamentally new economic system based on common ownership and cooperation (feed the new system / body, cast away the old corpse). High time to act, not to react. Experiment and prove the way by example. “Modern Science” defined by “dialectical materialism” approach and experimentation (funded and performed socially not privately) offers the best hope. Let’s support the protest movement but not as an end, rather as a means of establishing an alternative evolutionary sustainable economic system by engaging masses to start the socioeconomic experiments necessary to pave the way to a viable future. Only with this newly gained economic power embodied in the new economic system can we have meaningful choices and dictate our future.

JustinPerry

Could you maybe give us a 1 paragraph summary?

slave

JustinPerry, thanks for your interest. What I tried to explain in my seemingly lengthy essay is about a different ''radical'' world-view and suggest solutions based on that view for our current global multi-faceted crisis. ''Out-of-the-box'' views are by definition difficult to understand at first because they demand a different ''framework'' of assessing the world / issues. In fact, one of the most effective and pervasive ways that the establishment (not just at the local regime level but at the global systemic level) maintains it grip on the population is by limiting the public space / venues / formats issues are discussed (e.g., limiting the time allocated for alternative discussion of issues to soundbites or very short timeframes, directing the discussion based on an inherently biased priorities avoiding inclusion of alternative issues / free interaction / public participation, framing questions based on biased assumptions, etc.). All this amounts to is making a caricature of the opposing / alternative view, ensuring its misunderstanding, effectively dismissing it as weak and irrelevant, ensuring the dominance of status quo and its world view. Context is the key word in exploring for truth and viable solutions. It is the limits of context chosen that is very telling. The wider / broader a context in which an idea holds water (i.e., is consistent with reality) the more valuable it is (i.e., able to tackle real issues in real situations). This is the burden that any new idea, not to mention any idea worthy of consideration (i.e., including one from status quo = capitalist world view) must bear and prove itself.

That is what I attempted to do (necessarily imperfectly) considering the format provided and the audience I considered. I hope you understand now why I could not be much more brief as I would risk being even more misunderstood. You may read some of my other posts concerning other discussions to get further insight into the world view I am presenting and related solutions I am proposing.

slave

I do not know what your agenda is dolphin. The problem is you never paid attention to what I was writing and decided you had figured me out. You have been too grumpy. Better be careful before you accuse people of one of your stereotypes. The information you provided should be useful and welcome by most. It also proves the desperate nature of capitalism. I have known about such plots from long ago and am not alone to have predicted some of their mischiefs by science and deduction. If one considers that the capitalists have run out of new markets you would understand why they would want to maximize their returns from the ones they already have. So periodic shake-outs in the name of ''democracy'' or some other generous altruistic notion for ''humanity's good'' is to be expected. That would serve as a function of tightening their control of the markets as well as giving the populace false comfort (at least based on novelty alone) appeasing them to conformity and submission. I do not believe that they started the ''arab spring'' especially if you followed their actions and utterances at first ignoring and dismissing it. However, they realized the dangers of doing so soon and conspired to co-opt the movements seemingly sympathizing with them while undermining them behind the doors. In some cases (e.g., Libya, Syria) they may well have started the movements while in some others they selectively have helped to bitterly crush them (as in Bahrain, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia). This is not dissimilar to the way they have co-opted the ''green movement'', ''anti-Iraq and Afghanistan war movements'' and any number of other reform movements. From direct coups and genocides, to creation of crises (e.g., 9/11, anthrax, epidemics, other terror attacks) using fear for distraction and control, to co-option, etc. we should not be surprised by the increasingly conspiratorial nature of global capital and its potential for catastrophic crimes and disasters as it struggles desperately to survive illegitimately unable to sustain the species.

As a student of history this might as well have been quoted from my book:

''A capitalist stirs up a war in order to make profits, and in fact our elite banking families have financed both sides of most military conflicts since at least World War 1. Hence historians have a hard time ‘explaining’ World War 1 in terms of national motivations and objectives.

In pre-capitalist days warfare was like chess, each side trying to win. Under capitalism warfare is more like a casino, where the players battle it out as long as they can get credit for more chips, and the real winner always turns out to be the house – the bankers who finance the war and decide who will be the last man standing. Not only are wars the most profitable of all capitalist ventures, but by choosing the winners, and managing the reconstruction, the elite banking families are able, over time, to tune the geopolitical configuration to suit their own interests.''

slave

On the same theme capitalists (the overlords, i.e, the banksters or 0.1% of 1%) may go as far as declaring themselves as ''anti-capitalist'' hypocritically blaming the very system that they lead and represent, especially as outcries against the capitalist economic system (i.e., not just the corporations, and regimes) escalate. They may then use this to nationalize industries and institute a more conformist totalitarian fascist regime, even as far as calling it ''socialist'' or ''communist'' depending on the public currency. This was long ago predicted (about 150 years ago) by Marx & Engles and is the very definition of ''state capitalism'' and since no real states exist anymore should more aptly be named ''the ultimate world government'' disguising itself as anti-capitalist. That should immediately bring images of the old Soviet Union, Mao's China, Nazi Germany (even current North Korea) in mind.

But we should expect this and not be fooled by politics. We need to constantly focus on economics - political economy. Private ownership is the ultimate defining factor of private power including capitalism. Ownership so concentrated in the hands of so few does not equate to social ownership / socialism / communism / some other form of benevolent order, rather private ownership to the extreme despite all the political claims - we should not expect any less from such desperate monstrous thieves as the last of the capitalists / banksters.

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slave

''I am here to inform people with my considerable knowledge and root out disinformation specialists that are out to mislead people with fairy tales and fantasies that are intended to lead them astray and keep them delusional and confused.''

How very generous of you!

What you know too well is that you are part of the campaign for disinformation to equate socialists and communists with fascists. You know very well that communism is about communal living / communal ownership with absence of any government or any private power. It has nothing to do with your ''global bankers'' which I venture to guess are your ultimate handlers despite your pretenses to despise of them. Such is the nature of 21st century capitalist hypocrisy. The ''arab spring'' documented manipulations is only one example of this tactic.

You have done this repeatedly and recklessly proving your sinister agenda. You have also repeatedly attacked me personally using such words as ''shill'' and ''idiot'' trying to provoke me into similar attacks thus undermining my character and message. You and your handlers are really desperate, proving my message. Ron Paul and Michael Moore just like many public figures are all suspect or they would not have been let to take so much especially mainstream media airtime. The masses will remain fools only for so long. History is against you and your handlers, time is ticking.

Words are cheap. Means are a more meaningful way of assessing the real goal.

marchelo

hey guys, this nonsense is unreadable and isn't ever going to get anywhere.

Dolphin has some crazy agenda/is a troll. He is not interested in conversing, only preaching. The best thing you can do is let him shout it out in post after post saying the same thing over and over, like a hypnotist/ or a troll.

You can tell who is genuine around here because they don't pretend to have all the answers. This is a people's movement. We are here to figure out the problem of government together. I implore you all to listen to one another, learn what works and gracefully surrender that which is fallacious or unsustainable. If you find yourself resorting to personal attacks or grand conspiracy theories, just don't.
If we ask questions and seek honest answers, we will find the truth together or not at all.

Update 12/8: Dolphin has since been deleted as well as most of the blank posts made by him

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slave

Ignore dolphin.

slave

marchelo, I reported dolphin to administration and hope they take care of him with all his venom. This guy is out of control. He is the kind that seeks attention and just loves to feed off your attention of any kind. I suggest that you completely ignore him as I am going to do henceforth. I'd love to hear your ideas and others based on what you proposed:

"You can tell who is genuine around here because they don't pretend to have all the answers. This is a people's movement. We are here to figure out the problem of government together. I implore you all to listen to one another, learn what works and gracefully surrender that which is fallacious or unsustainable. If you find yourself resorting to personal attacks or grand conspiracy theories, just don't.
If we ask questions and seek honest answers, we will find the truth together or not at all."

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

KnaveDave

Remember it is the "scientific" economists of our times who COMPLETELY missed seeing the greatest economic disaster of all time:

http://thegreatrecession.info/blog/2011/11/why-economists-never-learn-economic-recession-v-depression/

So, to whom shall we turn for this economic science. The first thing people have to do is remove their blinders of economic denial. They need to see that the recession did NOT end as economists all over the world claimed it did in 2009, that we are not entering a second dip, as in a second recession, but a second dip in what is one long depression. So far, no one is using the word "depression," but that is what we are in, and the "second dip" is only because the center of the depression was propped up with the largest creation of phony (unbacked) money in the history of the world. Naturally, such an enormous influx of money pushed the economy up, but it only pushed it up a very tiny bit, and it was not economically sustainable, so the governments of this world had to stop this "quantitative easing." As a result, we're now sliding back down (the second dip).

--Knave Dave
http://thegreatrecession.info/blog
(Who calls his site "the great recession" somewhat tongue-in-cheek, for if this is a recession, as economists have called it, it is certainly a GREAT one -- being bigger in nature than the Great Depression. I also call it that because it's been a truly great recession for the top 1% who have never made so much money in the history of the world and who have not in this country been taxed at such low rates for a very, very long time.)

slave

Do not mistake scientists with pseudo-scientists. You need to be a practitioner of science and a good one at that to know the difference. For every real doctor there are tons of quacks, for every christ there are many anti-christs, etc. etc. If it sells they will use the label. The devil is in the details. Please, don't judge a book by its cover. In this environment of smoke and mirrors we all need to verify the truth / reality ourselves rather than relying on some guru / expert / specialist / authority. Your best chance is by becoming a "scientist" yourself not by the official definition of the privately-funded for-profit capitalist "educational" institutions but by doing the work yourself or collectively with other like-minded people always questioning private interests and their "scientific theories", the old-fashioned way like Darwin, Tesla, Edison, in an era where big money interests especially in social spheres (e.g., economics, psychology, politics, sociology, anthropology, etc.) were not so entrenched.

The current economic crisis is best described as "The Greatest Depression" or "The Last Depression". You could find my reasoning in my various other posts. I hope you start helping to establish a new economic system.

MundusVultDecipi

slave I never seen this before! I read the first post and am enthralled! I added it to my favorites and will get back to you on this.

TheRielDeal

@slave, "...even non-living species that make possible our habitat and survival." What do you mean by "non-living"?

also...

"We can then apply this “scientific” method to study the evolution of economic systems throughout history across the planet from the primitive hunters-gatherers societies to present day “globalized” capitalism. This provides very important clues as to what is happening, what real choices we have, and what will be the ingredients of effective and sustainable change. Overwhelming evidence suggests that economic systems represent stages in human productive ability progressing in a relatively pre-destined manner (i.e., one system developing dependent on full evolution of the previous system, hunters-gatherers to slavery of antiquity to feudalism to capitalism) amounting to an evolutionary process motivated by the survival imperative of our species."

--I'd like to add a footnote here, for the benefit of all readers: I agree with this excerpt and would like to add my thoughts. First, it must be understood that "human nature" is not a scientifically legitimate concept. "Human behaviour" is a more accurate term, when describing our condition. Since we do not exist in a vacuum, our entire existence and all our activities are the result of behaviours based on our surrounding social structures and environment. We compete and greed plays such a vital role in our existence, not just because it is "human nature" but because this small element of human nature is promoted un-naturally in capitalism. A society could be organized to support other, more positive behaviours, like co-operation. A society which recognizes that civilization arose from co-operation, not competition is more honest and natural. If cavemen were predominantly competitive, then we'd still be living in caves and battling the rival cave-dwellers for survival. The cavemen who learned that co-operation was most beneficial to survival (sharing ideas and developing human advances) evolved into civilized man, while the greedy competitives died off (or perhaps became CEOs).

slave

@TheRielDeal, what is the date of the quoted text? I could not find it.
P.S. From what I recall, I think using the word "species" was a mistake, and I should have used "matter" (non-living matter) instead.

TheRielDeal

Sorry, I can't remember the date. I was on a reading/writing rampage when I first began drafting the above comment about a week ago. I'll continue to look for the original discussion and let you know when I find it.

whitefeather

Thank you @TheRielDeal; Your statement "We compete and greed plays such a vital role in our existence, not just because it is "human nature" but because this small element of human nature is promoted un-naturally in capitalism. A society could be organized to support other, more positive behaviours, like co-operation. A society which recognizes that civilization arose from co-operation, not competition is more honest and natural. If cavemen were predominantly competitive, then we'd still be living in caves and battling the rival cave-dwellers for survival. The cavemen who learned that co-operation was most beneficial to survival (sharing ideas and developing human advances) evolved into civilized man, while the greedy competitives died off (or perhaps became CEOs)" hit the nail on the head.

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