On Jan 20, 7:16 am, archytas <[email protected]> wrote:
> I've always had trouble with "capitalism" - the word hardly appears in
> Marx and I've never seen any satisfactory definitions of it as a
> phenomena.
As a phenomenon it is highly misunderstood and applied for dubious
political purposes. On another Newsgroup I was shocked to see this
statement in response to my accusation that the writer had no idea
what socialism was except as a thing to be destroyed to protect us all
from evil.
"I take socialism to be the opposite of capitalism. Capitalism is a
social system based on respect for individual liberty. Socialism is a
social system based on lack of respect for individual liberty. "
(I shit you not!)
This is unbelievable that anyone could have such a stilted view point.
Capitalism is not a social system, but a description of an economic
process.
> I have long thought we have an entirely stupid, sick way
> of doing business with each other, and that one could really only
> guess this was more sick in countries without democracy and lead by
> crazies and beaten with the hammer of state capitalism.
By "state capitalism" I take it you mean the Soviet system?
> I've always had trouble with "management". Essentially, one had to
> wonder how these not very bright people make themselves so valuable.
Smoke and Mirrors!
> I suspect they are thieves. The Guardian is running a string of
> conferences on why no one saw the current mess coming (not true - some
> of us did), ending with questions about the corruption of character
> underlying the mess.
> I've given up teaching because I can't stand the sleaze of academe any
> longer, or the pathetic cheating we have to encourage.
Performance targets? Tracking? Key Skills? Transferable Skills? CPD?
Evidence based performance related target? BS? Mangement Speak?
People still
> managing express concerns that honesty is long gone, but do this
> quietly because they fear talking of it is career suicide. I wonder
> if we have confused "capitalism" with some desire to be free of power-
(See above!)
> freaks and somehow let it into our lives in ways we should have
> resisted? Everyone is admitting in private (questionnaires etc.) that
> they are routinely lying - I actually find some very confused people
> in my practical examinations of organisations - and would like to
> establish why I feel this is worse now than ever before in my life. I
> got used to lies as a cop, but this current stuff is something else,
> more like a disease.
> It's pretty obvious that Enron was the key model underlying
> "capitalist" activity. In a similar sense Baby P is probably not an
> exception but the rule. Lying connects activity in public and private
> sectors, along with brazen denials that anything is going wrong. Our
> bwankers have clearly been sitting on top of one hell of a barrel of
> stealing that dwarfs Enron.
> I haven't heard the world stop as all this money drops from sight
> under the magician's cape. I wonder if we could start again without
> these parasites?
Yes there is a place called Utopia. Get your one way tickets!
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