Jun 16 2006
Farsightedness
I’ve been having a bit of an email dialogue with one of my friends out in Oakland. We played together in several bands over the years, were in an affinity group a few years ago, and got arrested at the WTO minesterial in Montreal a few years ago (yee ha, we sure threw a cog in the wheel of the New World Order on that one!). He’s a great, funny guy, and we’ve been talking about the goings on in South America, of which he seems to be very hopeful for, although he is aware of the romanticism of it all. He’s travelled quite a bit there recently. He doesn’t think anything will get better in the world until capitalism is brought down, with all of the misery and such that it brings.
Now, my point of this is I hear this argument (if one could call it that) a lot from some of my more anarchist-socialist leaning buddies, and I agree with them. But here’s the kicker. I never hear a plan. Ever. It’s as if I were to ramble on about how someday we won’t have a need for religion because humanity will finally see through the fictions and stuff and realize one can reach that kind of bliss and be a good person without resorting to belief in fairy tales, but I never talk about how we’re going to get rid of such a deeply ingrained belief system. And that’s a problem I see with many on the far left. It’s like we’re at point ‘A’ in time right now, and they’re at point ‘Q’. What does point ‘B’ look like? How do we get anywhere when this belief we espouse isn’t even a blip on the radar of most of the public? And that many people like being able to spend $4000 on a television set, and even the ones living in barely-standing mobile homes still manage to find money for their 500 channels of shit every month? And the sad truth that most Americans are so insulated from the effects of their affluence that they wouldn’t give enough of a shit to change thier lifestyles even if they did? It’s really frustrating, and it really ties into the idealism that ties our hands on the left.
You’ve heard me rant about it before; we can’t seem to really get past talking about the way the world should be enough to have a plan to make it that way. And even if the stuff in Latin America is the real deal, it’s not going to work here in that form. America is a different planet. Che was a Stalinist who killed a lot of people, and that’s not a right-wing thing, it’s just history. Chavez might be alleviating poverty in Venezuela or he might just be another lightweight dictator who talks about it. Get over it.
Stop telling me how it should be. I know that already. Give me some kind of clue that you know how we’re going to get us there, because, to be quite honest, I don’t think that many of you have any more of a clue than I do. Howzabout how we’re going to survive two and a half more years of this asshole president? Do any of you know? If not, then why the hell should I listen to you about what it will be like when the walls of capitalism come crashing down? Do you have a clue as to how thick and titanium-reinforced those walls are? Are we going to even be around long enough to enjoy it?
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It’s as simple as this; Socialism/Communism sounds good in principle but it’s contrary to human nature. You cannot expect people to not want more than they have. Socialism has never worked. In every instance it has either collapsed under revolution and corruption or will soon. Cuba being the exception…but is there any doubt that country is more about Castro than the politicol system? More dictator than Communism. In the years a country has been under socialism/ communism it has been guilty of human rights violations to those who resist, thus undermining its very purpose. Not to mention economically it just doesn’t work. The economy will eventually fail because people don’t work hard when they know they will get paid. Capitalism isn’t perfect, but at least it jives better with human nature. Even China is coming around…they’re privatising left and right and it’s only a matter of time before Hong Kong is the norm and not the exception. It’s over.. that altruistic system has been proven unproductive for years now. A Mixed Economy is most effective. U.S., UK, Canada, Germany…These are the strongest economies in the world for a reason.. You need the free market to progress and the social programs to scoop those in need. Let’s put it to bed. It’s a romantic idea but better time is spent on fixing the existing system than a complete overhaul.
I agree. We need a hybrid of capitalism and socialism, i.e. a regulated form of capitalism that doesn’t allow others to get rich on the backs of the poor or at the expense of the common good. Tax income and investment equally. Tie international trade agreements to fairenvironmental/labor/human rights concerns. Nationalize natural resources so the gov’t actually makes money, and sells them at market value. There are a lot of things that can be done. People who work hard and are enterprising will still be able to get rich, but not from exploitation. ANd maybe there’ll be less at the top income brackets, but oh well, society as a whole will be better off.