Psychotic Views Part Five:
Capitalism is an economic system in which, all or most of the means of production and distribution are privately owned and operated for profit, originally under fully competitive conditions. Generally characterized by a tendency toward concentration of wealth. In its later phase, its tendency toward great corporations, increased government control, etc.
Communism is an economic theory or system based on the ownership of all property by the community as a whole. A hypothetical stage of socialism characterized by a classless and stateless society and the equal distribution of economic goods to be achieved by revolutionary and dictatorial means. State control of economy, emphasis on state requirements instead of individual liberties, a one party political structure.
Socialism is a theory or system of the ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals with all members of society or the community sharing in the work, the products. The stage of society in Marxist doctrine, coming between the capitalist stage and the communist stage, in which private ownership of the means of production and distribution has been eliminated.
Three big “isms’ of rule during the modern era. All of these are theoretical systems, put into purely theoretical terms, a lot of things can sound good, worded in the proper way, theories can sound enormously positive, even ______________ or Edensque, but put into practice in the physical world, they turn bad quickly and become a dark exploitive force that bears no resemblance to its theoretical counterpart. All three of these systems have proved to be abysmal failures in terms of the treatment of the general population by those who rule over them. They are also failures in terms of their original structures as models for national operation. People in the U.S. love to commend the day that communism was defeated. My first question is: “Was Communism defeated? Totally defeated? Russian controlled communism in Europe collapsed, fell into shards and rubble, but what about China? Isn’t China still Communist? Well, isn’t it? One party rule.
Would you like my theory why the Russian European version of communism collapsed? Well, you’re gong to get it anyway. The Russian version of communism didn’t collapse because it was evil (it was), it didn’t collapse because it oppressed, brutalized and murdered its own citizens (it did), it didn’t collapse because a key ingredient in its operation was delusional paranoia (it was). The Russian version of communism collapsed because it closed its doors to trading with the West. Now, you can disagree all you like, but that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. The U.S. and its Western Europe allies have always been mealy mouthed hypocrites when it comes to the subject of communism. They point out all of the reasons why communism collapsed and why it was a force for evil and needed to be combated, fought and defeated at all costs, but again I ask the question: “ What about China? China is a world power, China is Communist.”
The reason the Chinese version of communism lasted longer than the Russian version is because the Chinese version was never more practical and adaptable to the realities of the world. The Chinese version took into account what the U.S. and it’s Western Europe really stood for money, not democracy, own people just like the Russian version did. The Chinese version of communism chokes all attempts of basic human rights and freedoms just like the Russian version did. No free speech, no free press, no worker rights, etc. Both engaged in murdering purges, but the Chinese version opened its doors to U.S. and Western European trade. The Chinese version allowed U.S. and Western European companies to come into China and set up operational methods of business. The Russian version did not allow this to happen. The Chinese version allowed U.S. and Western European companies to come into China and make money. Lots and lots of lots of money was made. The Russian version did not allow this to happen. The Chinese version was open door, the Russian version was closed. Those operating the Chinese version knew the U.S. and the Western European countries could openly yak all they wanted about democracy, freedom and human rights, but privately they knew what mattered most to them. Money, international mega corporate money.
The U.S. government doesn’t give a fuck about human rights, it never has and it never will. Oh, they mouth the words beautifully on cue at times, but they don’t mean them, after all, words are just words without coinciding action.
DON”T BELIEVE A WORD
Words are only spoken
And a heart is like a promise
There to be broken.
“THIN LIZZY”
If you are willing to go along with U.S. business’s political interests, then you can do anything you please: oppressing, torturing, killing, etc. When Saddam Hussein was warring with Iran, he was an ally. We sold him all sorts of killing weapons then. Why? We did it because he was killing Iranian, a country on our enemies list. So, fuck all the human rights violations. Human rights violations against Iranians never came up, not did the countless number of human rights violations against his own people. It was only after he invaded Kuwait, that it mattered. All of a sudden, he was an oppressing, torturing, murdering bastard.
If you allow military bases in your country and U.S. businesses, then you are an ally; otherwise, you’re not. What you do to your own people never enters into equation. The U.S. government has allied itself with some of the worst human rights butchers the world has ever seen. Pinochet, Videla, Suhanto, Pol Pot, Somoza, Mobutti, Amin, Bother, Truyillo, the Saudis, etc. What has the U.S. government done about the stifling, oppressing, human rights violating and party rule of China? Nothing, and Saudi Arabia and other countries have done the same. If, for whatever reason, this money would be pulled out of U.S> banks, then goodbye U.S.A. This coupled with all of the U.S. business dealings in China buys a whole lot of silence on the subject of human rights violations. Mums the word is the U.S. government’s approach with China. No mention of workers rights, civil rights, child labor, lack of free speech and other freedoms.
U.S. businesses are in monetary orgasmic delight in China. Spend a couple of dollars of labor there, then bring it over here and sell it for$500, $600 or more. Check the human right violations that went on so you could carry around your fancy little laptop, PC, Dell, Apple, or even your standard desktop office type computer. Check the human right violations that went on so you could do your shop all in one convenient shopping at Wal-Mart. It all comes back to that word, expedience. The best friend government ever had. Expediency, not ethics, not right and wrong, not decency, it’s expediency.
This greatly admired model by both the Chinese government and U.S. corporations cannot sustain for a long period of time. This ultra rapid Chinese growth will only succeed in speeding up the amount of time it will take to collapse and it will collapse. There is not doubt of it, this Chinese model of open trade communism is going to collapse. There are heavily underreported stresses on it even now, and as time moves forward, the stresses will become more and more apparent, more and more intense and more and more difficult to deal with.
One thing government officials of all political system have in common is that they live in a world of inpenetrable denial until it is too late. How many systems of rule have there been? Did all of them all believe their system was invulnerable to collapse? Yet, they all collapse: monarchy, oligarchy, plutocracy (which is what the U.S. really is), autocracy(1 man rule-dictators, despots), capitalism, communism, socialism. All have been tried as ruling systems, All in the end, collapsed. Some collapsed sooner, some later, but they all do collapse. One reason for this was stated in the previous paragraph, denial. They all live in a world of denial. A second reason is the lack of long term planning. Everything is thought in the short term. A third reason is corruption. The old saying, “absolute power corrupts absolutely” applies here. There isn’t a brand of ruling system that hasn’t seen its demise occur, to some degree or another by corruption. Corruption has torpedoed a lot of ships in the past and will continue to do so in the future. It is doing so as I write, right here in the U.S. Time will only bring more torpedoes and more holes in an already failing ship.
Going back to the original definitions of capitalism, communism and socialism, let’s look at each in a littler more detail. The definition of capitalism states that it is a system based on private ownership for motives of profit. Which is certainly true if you use the U.S. model as an example then it is obviously true. The last 30 years have greater and greater amounts of large sums of wealth ending up in fewer and fewer hands. Another part of the definition that rings true is capitalisms tendency toward great corporations, but the one glaring aspect of the definition which clearly rings false is the tendency towards greater government control. In the last 30 years, the U.S. government has ceded so much of its control over to big business that it could appear to the eye that there is little to no control at all. Oh, the structures are in place that could exert control if it so chose, all of the U.S. government cabinet departments were supposedly organized for such a purpose. OHSHA, FDA, FCC, EPA, etc. were brought into existence with the idea that reins had to be placed on big business in order to keep them from getting out of control. Rules, laws & regulations were to keep big businesses in check to keep power and money from getting into fewer and fewer hands. These cabinet departments have had their budgets and staff cut repeatedly and if they are honest people trying to do an honest job in the middle or at the bottom, their hands and mouths are going to be tied by the politically appointed department heads who are in charge.
The FDA was supposed to ensure that the public would be eating safe, clean food and safe, clean prescription drugs, which it no longer does, even in the most basic sense. They are just shills for mega food companies and mega drug companies. The food companies and the drug companies are literally writing bills passed in the U.S. Congress.
The EPA was supposed to ensure that the public would breathe safe, clean air, use safe clean water and to be safe from being exposed to toxins, chemicals and other health damaging environmental factors. Again, they aren’t doing this anymore and again big polluting companies such as oil and coal companies have the privilege of writing congressional bills.
I could go through all of the cabinet departments one by one and show how they are blatantly failing to do the job they were supposedly set up to do, but I won’t, you get the idea. All the departments are failing and all for the same reason. Corruption; oversight is minimally to non-existent. Corporations are running the government, not the other way around.
IF you read the definition of capitalism, you see that no where among the descriptions are the words liberty, freedom, civil rights, human rights, or civil liberties. Capitalism is an economic moneyed system that by its very definition, gives no thought or regard to these things. Is it any surprise then we are now in this current, pathetic condition with the only prospects are for the condition to worsen. By definition, the U.S. is a plutocracy. Plutocracy- government by the wealthy, a group of wealthy people who control or influence the government. Can anyone, in truth, deny that this most accurately describes the U.S. system of governance? We are not a democracy, we never were.
Now, I know that statement will incite screams, protests, name calling and threats. Democracy- government in which they people hold the ruling power. Rule by the ruled. The principle of equality or rights, opportunity, treatment, or the practice of this principle. The common people as wielders of political power. Does this describe our system of rule as you know it? Does this more accurately describe our system of rule or does the definition of plutocracy describe it better?
Here is a short history lesson. Our forefathers, the men who formed the country and framed the Constitution and created our form of government were rich, white landholding men. For the first few elections for President the only voting was electoral voting. After that when open voting was put into place, the only people who could vote were rich, white, land holding men. Jefferson penned the phrase, “all men are created equal”, but the only men created equal, in the minds of our forefathers were rich , white, land holding men. This was not a government by the people, for this was not a democracy. Our forefathers basically formed a government for themselves, by themselves and of themselves.
All of the native peoples were declared heathens, savages with no rights or privileges of any kind. They were declared inferior to white people, a socially subhuman class. So, they could be lied to, cheated out of and stolen from and they could even be massacred into genocidal oblivion if it comes to that. Black people too were declared a racially inferior racially subhuman class. They too were not deserving of any rights or privileges. They could be chained, whipped, raped and murdered. They were enslaved for over 350 years.
Women too were seen as inferior, they too were not deserving of any rights or privileges. They were used, abused, neglected, beaten and raped. Women too were seen as a subclass who, like all except white males, were seen as much less capable intellectually. So were Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese and other non-whites, non Christian and the poor were not deserving of any rights and privileges. They were seen as a subclass and inferior. They were expendable and if they died doing dangerous work, it didn’t matter.
Everything stated above is historical truth. I didn’t fabricate a single thing. This is what life was like for non-white, non-male, poor people. Now, you cannot possibly suggest that this was a democracy, could you? Democracy is either for every person or it doesn’t exist. You cannot claim a nation is a democracy if they declared rights, liberties, freedoms and privileges only apply to a small percentage of the people. If everyone does not have them, then your nation is not a democracy. All claims to do call it so are false.
The definition for communism states that it is a system based on property ownership by the community as a whole. In theory, this might be seen as a human, fairly equitable situation, but his theory was never realized in practice. Now, as an inherent criteria for the implantation of communism, individual rights, freedoms, and liberties are sacrificed as a trade off. In communist countries, though, there was no real trade off. Individual liberties, freedoms, and rights were sacrificed for nothing. The people received nothing in return. Communities had no power. Communities had not say in anything. There was no prospering for the community as a whole. The is glaring massive contradiction even in the very definitions of communism. In the definition of communism, it says it is characterized by a classless society and the equal distribution of goods. Later in the definition, though, it says, “ state controlled economy with an emphasis on state requirements’. You cannot have a classless and stateless society and a state controlled economy emphasizing at the same time.
Lenin cohorts in Russia did not give a damn about equal distribution of wealth and privilege spread equitably among the entire Russian population. They wanted it for themselves. The Russian people in getting rid of the 300 year old Romanov Tsar rule and bringing in the 70 year rule of state run communism, merely exchanged one tyrannical, bloody nightmare for another. This nightmare reached its peak during the reign of Stalin, who has the dark distinction of being the most murderous ruler in human history. His degree of paranoia, to this day, goes unmatched. Which is really saying something because there have been some severely paranoid leaders in human history that have held the reins of power. Look at Russia now, with Putin running the show. He’s not Vlad the Impaler, but he’s certainly not Vlad the Liberator either is he? Another maniacal leader who’s in love with himself and power, both in equally high doses. He does not care about his country or his people, just himself.
Look at those countries to the south of Russia used to be controlled by them under communism, Turkmanistan, Uzbekistan and the rest. They are a mess, with corruption, spilled blood, murder and brutal regimes.
Western Europe is also a mess, a different kind of mess, but still a slowly withering on the vine. Greece, Italy, Ireland, Iceland and others all suffering through severe economic and financial difficulties and now drastic austerity measures are being imposed on the people at the bottom of the ladder, which is always the way isn’t it? The people at the top spend money like they’re printing it themselves on things they want giving it to big moneyed people without thought or care. Then, when the people themselves need the money, it’s ‘sorry everyone, the well has run dry’. Can’t be much longer before the big three economies of Europe, England, France and Germany start suffering the same fate?
One of the chief tenets of socialism is all of members of society or community share in the work and products ownership. Under such a system, ownership and operation of the means of production. Distribution is carried out by society or community instead of private individuals. In theory, such a system can sound much more equitable and just to the public as a whole, but completely eliminating private ownership leads to a strict absolutist state control of every aspect of people’s lives.
Socialist heads of state can be democratically elected or take power through a coup or military dictatorships. A democratically elected socialist can seem benign and decently intentional at first but then become more and more oppressively dictatorial. Primary concern can be less and less about the public good and more and more about staying on the throne of power. Elections can become more and more questionable. Opposition voices can become silenced more and more through violent means. The national press becomes less and less free. Theoretically, there is little to distinguish socialism as a method of operation and communism as a method of operation. Both are defined as to eliminate private ownership and want ownership, production and distribution to be carried out and shared by the community as a whole, but communism places strong emphasis on the state control of the economy and heavy emphasis on requirements made on the people by the state. You could possibly say that communism is an extreme version of socialism, or you could say that socialism is a watered down version of communism.
In practice, capitalism, communism and socialism are all systematic failures. All are guilty of abuse, neglect, enslavement, tyranny, exploitation and mania. All have blood on their hands that time and history can never wash away. All to different degrees of course, but all present just the same. I have always believed that the people who would do the best job serving their country in a position of power never seek such a position. Such people are too humbled in their opinion of themselves, too selfless and too wary of the nature of power. Their egos are too modest and their need for vain glory too weak and the opposite is true for those who do seek such positions.
I think I’ve said all I have to say on the matter of systems, of rule. For now, every possible system has been tried. They’ve all proved to be failures, some more grandiously and dramatically than others, but they have all failed. It is a common ground that they all share.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to stop writing for awhile. I’m not even remotely sure for how long. It might be forever for all I know. There’s another attack coming on, so I’m just going to turn out the lights, try to ride out the dark wave that’s slowly rising before me. Last time I wrote about it while it was actually happening, but not this time. This time I’m--------.