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As the smoke cleared, Edmund Storms <[email protected]> mounted the barricade and roared out: > As much as I hate to agree with Grok's basic attitude toward capitalism, hehehe. Like I care. But continue. > I would like to suggest that several decisions, based in the rules of > capitalism, > will eventually lead to the total destruction of this approach, at least in > the > form practiced by the US. In fact AFAIC: we either get rid of capitalism -- or it gets rid of us. You do the math. And that's not just in the U.S.A., but Worldwide. > The evidence can be most clearly seen in the fact that China has now > captured 95% > of the world's supply of the rare earth elements. This is important because > modern > technology is uniquely dependent on these elements. For example, super > strong > magnets cannot be made without neodymium. In 1985, farsighted people in the > Chinese government saw the growing importance of these elements and set out to > insure a good supply for their country. At the same time, the US companies > allowed > the supply available the US to slowly decrease to near zero, including > selling the > ability to process the materials to the Chinese, in order to make an immediate > profit. As a result, we are now dependent on other countries for these > essential > elements just like we became dependent on other countries for oil. However, > this > time, no substitutes exist. Again (on this eList): What do you mean, "we", White Man..? Fact is: the working people of the Planet have little-to-nothing in common with this tiny parasitical 'elite'. Which is why they require such a huge police apparatus to keep us all in line all the time -- and have the sheer chutzpah to call it "Democracy" to boot. But (to paraphrase Lenin): 'the capitalists will sell us the rope by which we will hang them!'; and so nothing much has changed there, Bubba -- tho' imperialism has tried its damnedest to organize the World's bourgeoisie in a cabal against all the rest of us; even tho' they'll as easily stick a dagger in each others' backs, given the chance. And as we'll all soon find out soon enuff. All over again. > The difference in approach between the US and the Chinese rests on farsighted > people making long range decisions regardless of immediate profit, in the > latter > case. Some might call that 'socialist planning'. Even when it's being done as part of some capitalist praxis. Go figger. > In contrast, the US makes decisions based on making a profit in a short time. Not "the U.S.": 'U.S. *capitalists*'. Important distinction there -- which they don't want you making, eh? "U.S.A." is a concept and a construction -- and not nearly as real a thing as social class, for instance. Fact of the matter is -- *we* aren't *them*. Few of us own or control much or any _capital_, for one thing: viz. youse-all's endless 'under-capitalization' issues... ;P > As even a cursory experience with the media demonstrates, the US lives in a > world > of illusion created by the need of companies to make an immediate and growing > profit. We were encouraged to go into debt to buy things. This advice had the > easily predicted consequences. It has been and was predicted for many decades, in fact. However, most/enuff north americans preferred the sweet lies. And the bribes. And now this is all over. Kaput. And it's barely sunk in yet. And STILL these liars are stringing most of us along! >:/ > Now we are encouraged to believe that Obama can fix the mess if we would only > spend > more, with the government taking up the slack. This belief contains just as > much > illusion as the belief that personal debt would have no consequences. While Keynesian-style counter-cyclical deficit spending will certainly take much of the savagery out of capitalism's innately chaotic boom-bust cycles (leaving aside the 'Mother Of All Heists' presently going on, brazenly, in front of our faces), *Keynesianism itself will never be able to [re]solve this cycle*, per se. And since we should all be able to see by now how fundamentalist market othodoxy can neutralize Keynesianism pretty much anytime the ruling-class and its fascist neocon minions put their little collective minds to it, you can generally be expecting more chaos and less order in this system -- regardless of purty words coming from On High, when Good Cop takes his turn from Bad Cop's lead-in. Not to say this system has much more life in it, in any case -- seeing as how capitalism has pretty much reached firm and solid objective restraints to its further expansion on this planet: its 'limits to growth'. But I do hear that Dick Cheney has been investing heavily in development of martian drilling rigs... with much the same apparent thinking as Rudolph Hess' -- who believed to his dying days in capitalism spreading itself out to the stars... (snicker). > In other words, the US keeps looking only a few quarters into the future > while the > Chinese are planning for decades. We seek to win isolated battles at great > cost in > countries that have no importance to our survival while the Chinese intend to > win > the economic war of the future. There's no "we" there. Class differences in society are objective and profound -- in spite of our lifetimes immersed in 24/7 propaganda to the contrary. You really have little-to-nothing in common with the U.S. ruling-class: the 'Murder Inc.' that they and their henchmen truly are. > I don't know if any of you play GO, the great Chinese game. If you do, you > can > see how this game is being played out on the world stage by China. Bush > played > poker and lost. Now Obama is playing Chess and is also losing. Meanwhile, > we > have to stand back and watch our country being brought down by short-sighted > ignorance. > > Ed Weiqi is indeed a great game. Life and History, however, are even *more* complex than that, of course. However again -- their dynamix are _knowable_ -- and thus somewhat predictable -- as all real science is. As long as we can get past all the petty distractions being thrown in our faces -- and into our solar plexii -- by our venal class enemy. - -- grok. - -- Build the North America-wide General Strike. TODO el poder a los consejos y las comunas. TOUT le pouvoir aux conseils et communes. ALL power to the councils and communes. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkoTGfsACgkQXo3EtEYbt3EPAQCfegXQOGY1yRFSqa4atXuUrASY gxUAn0kh4Vtf91N3XqBA2WFVd0fYkBpA =T0fG -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
