Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, September 29, 2005
When a planet is run by (Keith) Moons
Good topic Mickey...For many years when I was teaching school I argued that the “competitive paradigm” was having an adverse effect. I rarely got anyone to agree with me but it is a topic that is of special interest. I was always met with the answer that competition was good because it helped prepare the students for the world of work and business. I always answered that it might be better to teach cooperation instead of competition. Eventually, because of a strange set of circumstances, I wound up as a high school basketball coach.(I did not even know how many players there were on a team.) That experience, more than any other, taught me how adverse the effects of competitive sports in schools were.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/29 at 07:49 AMWe officially have a new Chief Justice. Does anyone feel any different?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 11:26 AMCoach Jackowski?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 11:26 AMI especially enjoyed reading your “front page,” this morning, Mickey. Wonderful word-manship.
I think I inherited my love of words from my mother, who was always trying out some newly discovered word, in conversation with me. I’ve often wondered where you think yours came from. Clearly, you love the little darlings just as much as I do…I had lots of comments flitting about in my bean when I arose from bed. Since then, I read a little piece about Our Morals Czar, William Bennett, who reportedly said, recently:
“I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”I’ve been unable to tear my thoughts away from this atrocity for more than a few moments…
If someone would say something even vaguely uplifting, I’d sure appreciate it.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 12:24 PMMickey...maybe sympathy should go to the kids. Imagine having a 4’10” basketball coach, who opposed competition, and didn’t know the difference between a basketball and a ping-pong ball. I told them that I was there to teach them “sportsmanship”. They had a winning season, I changed careers and moved to Florida.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/29 at 12:26 PMThe MSNBC Question of the day asks if a female should be appointed to the Supreme Court. My reply was, “I am a woman. Gender on the Court makes no difference to me. Because the Court has moved so far to the Right, a Socialist or an Anarchist should be appointed to bring a little bit of needed balance.”
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/29 at 12:33 PMNo matter what you might think of Michael Jackson, these comments by Judge Roberts when asked if he should get a Presidential Award in 1984 are disturbing:
“If one wants the youth of America and the world sashaying around in garish sequined costumes, hair dripping with pomade, body shot full of female hormones to prevent voice change, mono-gloved, well, then, I suppose ‘Michael,’ as he is affectionately known in the trade, is in fact a good example.”
Posted by JOS on from Puerto Rico 09/29 at 12:44 PMJoe, for what it’s worth, I Googled that quote and didn’t find anything. But, if you still need cheering up, here’s a joke I was planning to post this weekend:
Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: “Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.”
“OH NO!” the president exclaims. “That’s terrible!”
His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the
president sits, head in hands.Finally, the president looks up and asks, “How many is a brazillion?”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 12:52 PMOther replies…
Joe: I got my love of words from reading so much. My sister is two years older than me so, when she started first grade at 6, she’d come home and force her 4-year-old brother to learn her lessons. I was reading at 4 and haven’t stopped.
RMJ: The best part of your coaching experience is that you did it your way and the team had a winning season. Bravo. And I love your MSNBC reply.
JOS: Did he really say “mono-gloved’?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 12:55 PMHi Joe and JOS...the quotes that you post here from Bennett and Roberts are dripping with prejudice. I had not heard the Bennett quote before. Did anyone ever call him on it or was it just left to slide by? Reminds me of the anti-Muslim things that that extreme right wing blond says all the time. I can’t think of her name at the moment.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 09/29 at 01:00 PMHi Mickey and Rosemarie and JOS - Hey, how are you feeling, JOS?
Thanks, Mickey - great joke. One can actually imagine Bush saying such a thing. ( And, you should thank your sister! She did the world a service...) Here’s the link for the Bennett quote. Man, it sure got to me.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.phpSometimes, even when I’m able to keep myself from “hatred,” I’m overwhelmed by despair.
I recall being pretty young when it occurred to me that people who love to compete, generally win their competitions. I also noticed that, when kids picked a fight, it was always with someone smaller, apparently weaker. I never observed much of the “nobility” so often referred to in descriptions of competition.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 01:24 PMRMJ, I believe you mean Ann Coulter.
Joe: I stand corrected and I will use that quote in a post soon. Clever man, that Bennett. Said something like that and then announce how “repehensible” it is. Like telling a jury to disrehard what they just heard.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 01:35 PMI believe he actually did use the words sashay, garish, pomade and mono-glove all in one sentence. I read it in Time or Newsweek then found several examples on Google. No one ever accused him of having a poor vocabulary.
Joe, feeling much better today, thank you. I am actually looking forward to being able to start exercising…
Mick, I think we are in for quite a weekend (Yanks/Sox), huh?
Posted by JOS on from Puerto Rico 09/29 at 01:36 PMAnyone ever think they would see a US Marine working for Al Jazeera?:
Posted by JOS on from Puerto Rico 09/29 at 01:41 PMI’d love to talk Yanks-Sawx with you, James...but in a thread about ending competition, uh, I dunno.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 01:48 PMIt’s an easy question to ask but hard to answer. All my thoughts so far have needed a community of some sort to start with. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing. Non-violent revolutions have succeeded where an alternative social support structure has been established. In Poland, for instance, the unions were able to extend themselves to money and other assistance to resisters in jail and their families who were cut off from government benefits (Read “A Force More Powerful).
Pooling resources is another way to co-operate and disengage from government/corporate control.
I’ll be travelling today (it’s 5:00am here) so I’ll have plenty of time to perhaps come up with somethng specific or something that can spark an idea from someone else.
Are there any examples from you latest book, Mickey?Posted by Jim on from 09/29 at 02:11 PMThese are some thoughts that I have been working on.
The economy is a convective cycle, with energy in the form of labor, materials and ideas rising up, while wealth, civil order and social security precipitate down. Supply side theory has created a situation where more has been rising then is effectively used or precipitating down and the results are large storm clouds of surplus currency boiling over a parched economy. For reference, consider where the money the government borrows would go, if it were not being recycled through the public sector. We already have a situation of serious asset inflation and this money would just increase the effect. Government borrowing is effectively a nationalization of surplus wealth, but rather than actually taking it, the revenue stream of the government is being transferred to those with surplus wealth in the first place, which only adds to the problem.
Only as much wealth can be saved as can be effectively invested,beyond that it causes asset inflation. If the government wasn’t borrowing this money, it would only create more inflation in the private sector.
In 1996, Bob Dole had a campaign slogan, “We want you to keep more of your money in your pocket.” My first thought was, Well thank God it isn’t my money, or it would be worthless.” The logic behind this is that as a medium of exchange, money is actually a form of public commons, much like the highway system. Under our current ideology of individualism, we assume it is private property. To use the roads as an analogy, it would be as if every time a new road was built, everyone tried to claim as much as possible. The eventual result would be that everything would be paved over and no one would be able to get anywhere. We are close to reaching that situation with our monetary system, as every aspect of life is judged according to the bottom line and the economy is still about to seize up.
I first started questioning economic pronouncements when trying to figure out how Paul Volcker cured inflation by raising interest rates. Yes, it is started by loose money, but reverse engineering in not always so simple. By raising interest rates, his solution for the oversupply of money was to raise the cost of using it! Government borrowing is a more likely explanation for what brought inflation under control After supply side economics squeezed it out of the general economy, the government skimmed it off the top and then spent it. As public spending supports private investment, rather then competing with it, the effect was compounded. Frankly, the boom of the 80’s and 90’s had more to do with the baby boom going through its most productive years, than anything else.
The fact that Social Security is a direct transfer is one of the primary reasons it is so efficient. Only as much money can be saved as can be invested and there is a dearth of investment vehicles, relative to the amount of surplus currency in circulation. It is a situation similar to the electric industry. As it would be prohibitively expensive to build the battery storage for the amounts in question, it has to be used as it is generated. Creating the investment vehicles necessary to store private accounts would be like storage batteries for the electric industry.
The problem with the line item veto is that it would place most of the power of the purse in the hands of the president, but a way around this would be to break the bills into their constituent items and have each legislator assign a percentage value to each one. Then re-assemble them in order of preference and have the president draw the line at what is to be funded. Not only would this break up the budgetary log jams which make over spending irresistible, but it would take away some of the power this process gives to the legislative leadership and parties and returns it to the level of the individual legislators. Meanwhile the buck really would stop with the president. Democracy is a bottom up process and the republic is a top down entity. This would clarify that relationship.
Money and government are two sides of the same coin. One is rights, the other is responsibilities. Money is like processed sugar, so if we were to learn to maintain a more organic, holistic society and maintain wealth and value within every aspect of our lives and not continually drain reductionistic units out to put in some bank, then government would be forced to organize itself along similar lines.
Communism spent seventy years finding that a better society isn’t built at the expense of the individual and we are in the process of finding that a better individual doesn’t come at the expense of society. The coin always has two sides, even though we can only see one at a time.
Obviously these ideas are not going to get much traction while the debt bubble rushes toward its denouement , but when it crashes, alot of people are going to be looking for new models to follow.
Regards,
John Brodix Merryman Jr.Posted by brodix on from Sparks, Maryland 09/29 at 02:12 PMInteresting story, JOS. ( Glad you’re feeling better! ) I noticed that they refer to Al Jazeera as “controversial.” It’s a commonly used word in the mainstream media, and is a synonym for: probably criminal, almost certainly guilty of something, something you should probably avoid, not at all trustworthy, not something for us “good” people…
It’s Orwell’s NewSpeak.Yes, Bennett is a sweetie, eh Mickey? He’s actually regarded as a moral and spiritual leader. As is, of course, Pat Robertson.
More Orwell: Religion = Hatred & Bigotry.
(I’ve never known what to think of Orwell, but he was certainly a visionary...)Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 02:18 PMAnd I LOVE this post, Mickey - the quotes, the drawings which have movements in them and your way with words in general.
And hi, JOS, RMJ, joe, Rosemary and the rest of the ‘gang’!Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 09/29 at 02:32 PMHi Helga. Thanks for the kind words.
Jim: The stories in my latest book do, I hope, offer some examples of what others have done before this...with varying degrees of success.
Brodix: Thanks for the long post but I’m quite sure I understand what you are commenting on. I feel like someone I don’t know has left a long message on my answering machine.Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 02:48 PMjoe - u wanted something vaguely uplifting. i have to go for this....
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in
the end they always fall. Think of it...always.”
~Mahatma Gandhirefer this to the egyptian, roman, greek, french and british empires. and the american.
Posted by michael on from scotland 09/29 at 03:23 PMWonderful quote, Michael, thanks much. I often struggle to believe that “the good” will triumph, and sometimes I’m successful in my struggles. Gandhi is just such an example, though, isn’t he? It’s impossible that the Indians could have achieved independence from Britain without (generally) taking up arms. Yet, it happened.
Castro, I suppose, is another (somewhat tarnished) example. I would have wagered that the Cuban revolution would last less than 50 days. And, here he is - almost 50 years later.
(Gandhi should be “remembered always,” I think. Thanks again, Michael.)Hi Brodix. We have a “resident” economics guy named Harry. He’s busy with creating “local” economies, however. Here are a couple of links, in case you’re interested:
http://ripple.sourceforge.net/
http://ithacahours.com/home.htmlAs for me, I’m barely able to count the change in my pocket, so I’ll bow out here…
Hi Helga - You always bring a little “good cheer”
with you…Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 05:10 PMYes, Helga, thanks.
Joe, you seem a little lighter than usual yourself(?) Maybe I’m wrong.
Washington Post calls Filiberto sniper killing a “shootout”:
Talking about non-violence, Filiberto was no saint. That doesn’t mean he deserved to be shot and left to die.
Posted by JOS on from The Island of Enchantment 09/29 at 06:08 PMAgreed, JOS. He was no saint (who is?) but any violence he perpetrated pales in comparison to, say, Kissinger.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 06:16 PMHi JOS -
Yes, Mickey & Michael helped shake me from my Bennett-induced funk…
I listened to a phone interview, On Democracy Now, with a Puerto Rican fellow who had known Filiberto and his wife for decades. He said something like this - the FBI began shooting into Filiberto’s house, so Filiberto grabbed his gun and fired back. Apparently, he got off about 10 rounds before an FBI sniper got him.As we all know, it’s illegal to defend yourself if government agents are trying to kill you. Thus, Filiberto was breaking the law. Thus, this is just an old fashioned shootout, between “cops and robbers.” Nothing “controversial” about it, I’m sure.
A gadfly might inquire: “What is a US Police agency doing, wandering about in a sovereign nation, shooting people? Isn’t that terrorism or something?”
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 07:12 PMMickey,
Sorry if the post was unwelcome. I had just linked in from your commentary on Znet and thought I’d offer some ideas in response to your call for ideas on how to reboot the system.
I realize they are not ideas with any hope of registering within the establishment, but it seems likely that the current political framework will lose forward momentum and fall over when they can no longer get away with papering over any and all problems with more debt.
These ideas don’t seem terribly complicated to me, but I may be prejudiced. They are intended as bumpersticker type concepts to inject into the debate when the people of this country are to the point of picking up the pieces.
regards,
jbmjr.
Posted by brodix on from Sparks, Maryland 09/29 at 07:16 PMI’m an economics guy to the same extent I’m a brain surgeon, Joe. I think both are wonderful and I wish I knew a lot more. And is it just me, or do most economists remind anyone of alchemists? There’s a fun flash game at the Andy Foulds Design homepage in the amusements section called “The Economists”. He’s got many amusing games there if you ever need to decompress.
Posted by Harry on from 09/29 at 07:16 PMYou are 100% welcome, Brodix. Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 07:19 PMHi Harry -
I just spent some time decompressing, thanx…However, I think I require something a bit more fundamental and enduring. Like brain surgery.
I noticed in a recent post that you know as much about brain surgery as about economics!Perhaps we could schedule a consultation…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 07:55 PMPS - I read a very interesting essay, this morning, about New Orleans. Some new, disturbing information - at least for me. Thought you guyz might enjoy it too. It’s at Z-Net:
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 08:02 PMExcellent article, Joe. I would love to hear truthful answers to as many of those questions as possible.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 08:04 PMWell, Joe, I may not be quite the surgeon you’re looking for, but consultations I can do.
Brodix’ posts reminded me of something I saw the other day at Living on Less. A commenter mentioned Loren Goldner’s thoughts on fictitious capital. I haven’t read it yet, though I have read and can recommend some of the other essays there.
Posted by Harry on from 09/29 at 08:40 PMI once taught - and tried to coach, in basketball - Navajo highschoolers in New Mexico. Competition was utterly foreign to them. We did everything, including tests, etc. as cooperative group activities, otherwise they just wouldn’t participate. They had a great time playing basketball, which I also knew next to nothing about how to coach, but they never seemed to know whether they actually won or lost. It was enlightening.
Posted by John Eden on from Georgia 09/29 at 08:53 PMfor people who like words
http://etymologic.com/index.cgi
http://www.fun-with-words.com/index.html
how to change the competitive paradigm? i have no clue so why the hell am i commenting? how about two opposing teams practice together instead of only seeing each other during a game. what makes people competitive? say that you and a friend are playing basketball, tennis, or whatever sport you could play one on one, but you are doing it just for fun. then one of you ask the other to play up to twenty. in the 30min to 1hr that you are playing for those twenty points does your friend become the enemy, will you try your best to beat him/her? or are you thinking to yourself i want him/her to beat me in this game? so what is the psychology behind this, is it because you are playing for points? i mean you are doing the same thing you were doing before one of you made the challenge.
off topic:
http://tinyurl.com/bhcjjthat quote from bennett reminds me of this quote from Clyde McBeth a chemist behind a pesticide called Nemagon used on banana plantations in central america. (we still have plantations) the pesticide is causes sterility and extreme deformities: “From what I hear, they could use a little birth control down there.” http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12311
Posted by tm on from the underground, as in notes 09/29 at 08:59 PMMick, no doubt Filiberto IS a saint when compared to Kissinger.
Interesting, but perhaps false, story about Roberts during the 2000 florida fiasco:
Joe, the story you relayed from Democracy Now sounds about right to me. Unfortunately, after the initial outrage there seems to be a backlash against Filiberto here in PR, mainly due to anger over students here raising cain.
That “25 Questions” article originated at Tom Englehardt’s website...he’s pretty good, if a tad too much of a Democrat.
On the topic of economics...what does everyone think of ParEcon, Michael Albert’s book? I read a fairly good amount of it...but after a while, it’s all economics to me.
Welcome, Brodix! That’s an interesting name.
Posted by JOS on from The Island of Enchantment 09/29 at 09:07 PMtm/John, I was writing while you posted.
John, that sounds like a great experience, wouldn’t it be nice if we had that cooperation problem in other schools across the country/continent/world.
tm, are you a Dostoevsky fan?
Posted by JOS on from The Island of Enchantment 09/29 at 09:15 PMI think it would be impossible to eliminate competition...and ill-advised. It can be healthy and I know I feel good when I play one-on-one ball...win or lose. Sometimes I feel, “Why keep score?” Other times, I want to gauge myself aganst someone else...just for a little while.
Lots of good links posted here. I’ll need some time to check ‘em all out.
As for economics, I view that field as I do PolSci. Plenty of theories...not enough real-life applications.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 09:21 PMyes i am jos, brothers karamazov is my favorite book my favorite character is that bastard son smerdyakov what does that say about me? perhaps this may change when i read the book again.
Posted by tm on from underground 09/29 at 09:32 PMI agree...there is such a thing as healthy competition...in fact, it is necessary for the survival of every species. As soon as humans eliminated competition (by dominating) we began to overpopulate the planet.
Anybody remember the white christian lady who “stayed calm” while being held hostage? Now we know why, as long as she had her crystal meth, she could handle anything:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=1165044
tm - I love Brothers Karamazov...and yes the bastard son had my sympathy...but for some reason I identified with the youngest brother. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I identified with aspects of all of the characters..including the father (now that’s bad).
I once went saw the movie with the young (was it Arkady?) played by a pre-Star Trek William Shatner...he overacted beautifully.
I have to read it again.
Posted by JOS on from The Island of Enchantment 09/29 at 09:49 PMJOS, she must have been a Meth-odist…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/29 at 09:54 PMThat could be your best one liner of all time…
boston wins...yanks win...according to espn, it’s a “three for all” this weekend...I love it.
sorry, non-sports fans…
Posted by JOS on from The Island of Enchantment 09/29 at 09:58 PMnight all…
Posted by JOS on from The Island of Enchantment 09/29 at 10:04 PMWow, I go off for dinner and when I return, the whole landscape has changed.
Hello to John and TM -
Mickey, I think you’re right. We can’t and shouldn’t eliminate all competition. Some of it is natural, I imagine ( though I have no idea what natural is, anymore ) but it’s also useful. As Jim pointed out, yesterday: “So called “primitive” societies limited competition to games that enhanced the ability to survive i.e. horsemanship, archery etc.” That makes lots of sense. Races to encourage fast running, some sort of “lifting” competitions, to improve strength and stamina. Did you ever watch those “lumber-jack” competitions, in which those huge guys get together to eat logs and toss boulders? I guess that arises out of early communities which survived by selling timber. No matter where people live, certain survival skills are essential. It’s a mistake, though, I think, to give competition any sort of “central” significance in a society - since so very many people end up losing. But hey, outlawing a little one on one would be bizarre…
That said -
John, I’d be very interested in hearing more about your experiences with the Navajo. I’ve looked about a bit, of late, for a good book about “primitive” or tribal life, in order to get a better sense of what “normal” might actually be. I’m assuming that normal is more normal in a non-capitalist, generally non-competitive society.
Harry - I downloaded that essay. It looks good. Thanks. Now, about that surgery…
JOS - I read a couple of Albert’s essays on ParEcon, a couple of years ago. I didn’t get a good sense of it, though, because something he said made me fearful of some “new world order.” I don’t know if I was over-reacting or not. Whatever new world might arise after governments and capitalism collapse, I hope it has lots of room for misfits and dorks and weirdos and losers and people who prefer to walk on their hands. There should be a place for people who won’t talk but who sing everything. There should be room for people who don’t like people, and room for people who can’t stop smiling.
Somehow, I didn’t think Albert’s world had enough room. Bad juju! But, I could be wrong.Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/29 at 10:32 PMThanx, Mickey.
JOS, It’s my middle name; John Brodix Merryman Jr. Apparently it was shortened from Brodrick in the great grandmothers transition back to America from the marrige to some Scotchman.
I’m not really into economics per se, it’s just that, as I like to say, I realized early on, being a younger child, that the ones in charge are the ones writing the rules, so I’ve spent my life studying the rules.
As a point of reference, here’s a riff on religion and politics I recently wrote;
The problem I have with the concept of God, the all-knowing absolute, as Pope John Paul ll put it, is that the absolute isn’t the apex, it’s basis. So the spiritual absolute would be the essence out of which we rise and to which we fall, not a focal point from which we fell and seek to return.
Intelligence and consciousness are not synonymous. Intelligence is a cumulative process of distinction and judgment. The dichotomy of good and bad is not some grand metaphysical contest between light and darkness, but the basic binary code of biological calculation.
One, as in mono, isn’t the absolute, zero is. The absolute is not some extreme of either the right or left, good or bad, light or dark, it is the equilibrium around which opposing elements revolve. The medium of which everything is. But of itself, it would just be a flat line on the heart monitor. It is these differences pulling against each other with all their might that is what life is, be it yin and yang, matter and anti-matter, conservative and liberal, etc..
I see liberalism as social expansion and conservatism as civil consolidation. Those institutions which expand knowledge/power, such as education, media, sciences, tend to be inherently liberal. Those which consolidate this energy, such as business and government, tend to be inherently conservative. The government social programs of the last century helped create a form of conservative liberalism, often referred to as PC. The reaction to this was a liberal conservatism, otherwise known as libertarianism, which sought to redistribute civil control back to the presumably more culturally conservative local level. Having been originally based on a simplistic rejection of government, now that this movement has matured and coalesced, it is in trouble because it lacks any core civil philosophy, leaving its social conservatives and economic conservatives little more than a toxic coalition of greed and cultural rigor mortis.
The story of Jesus started out as a tale of social insurrection and with its adoption by Constantine, crossed the political spectrum to become a tool of civil indoctrination.
The essence of the trinity, God as the absolute, the extant and the infinite, is one of time. God of the ordered past, the vital present and the eternal future.
Theists think consciousness creates order out of chaos. Atheists think order creates consciousness out of chaos.
The problem is that since everything is the center of its own reality, objectivity is chaos. It is only from a subjective point of reference, be it a center of gravity or conscious being, that order has any meaning. As that point of reference, we are the apex. A magnification and concentration of the universal essence of being. Order and consciousness create each other.
regards,
brodix
PS, how do you format paragraphs here?
Actually I train horses for a living. So it’s off to the barn....Posted by brodix on from Sparks, Maryland 09/30 at 05:05 AMRe: Rita—Over 2.5 million folks might just as well have said to each other “run, Forest, run!” But honestly, it was amazing to see in action how ruthless people could be on the roadways, yet show a great deal of concern and help in order to get their friends and families out of harms way. Which leads me to the next point.
Re: competition—I think Kropotkin best describes my own hopes when he wrote: “In the practice of mutual aid, which we can retrace to the earliest beginnings of evolution, we thus find the positive and undoubted origin of our ethical conceptions; and we can affirm that in the ethical progress of man, mutual support, not mutual struggle—has had the leading part. In its wide extension, even at the present time, we also see the best guarantee of a still loftier evolution of our race.”
Re: Joe (and parecon)—I honestly don’t think people here are ready for democracy in the workplace, as Albert describes in parecon, mainly because of the responsibility that goes with it. Hardly surprising is that parecon, and economic change most generally, is a very hot topic in other parts of the world, but not here to any significant extent. But if the “new world order” is consciously designed to prevent economic decision making in the hands of a priveleged few, then it might be worthwhile to look at it a bit more closely, no?
Re: competition and demographics—I recommend a previously unpublished short story by none other than Kurt Vonnegut, titled ‘2BR02B’. I have it in book form, but I’m sure it is also online somewhere. Related is a site I first came across in the late 90’s: http://www.vhemt.org/ Worth a look, to say the least.
Posted by RT on from Houston 09/30 at 05:18 AM“Order and consciousness create each other.
regards,
brodix “Not round here, I can assure you, Brodix!
If you want to understand economics better than 99% of economists, read “The Truth In Money Book”. There used to be a website devoted to it.
The first thing debunked is that the US Gummint creates the US Money Supply. It does not; nor print the dollar bills. If it did 90% of the current ills would evaporate including debt and poverty. It’s part of the biggest scam in history. But that’s another story.
Economics, as practised, is a mixture of accounting, politics and Ju-Ju. Read the “Truth Book” and the accounting will become understandable, the politics will then be obvious and the Ju-Ju will be crystal clear. Economists remind me of modern day witchdoctors dreaming up explanations for processes they don’t or won’t understand. Aaaaahhhh, that feels better!!!I’m off to bed, perchance to dream (of the incredibly simple co-operative action that will bring down corporate fascism almost overnight!) .
I sometimes feel like a blind man searching for the Holy Brail.
‘Night, JimPosted by Jim on from 09/30 at 06:57 AMJim,
I’ve some understanding of the Fed Reserve, Standard Oil, the oil based dollar, the Iraq War maintaining an oil based dollar, etc. The fact is that within our lifestimes, the dollar will be little more then bundles of paper and stories of the good old days. My interest is as to what the conceptual basis will be for how we go about starting the economy back up.
I’m sure we will be living in interesting times. If I’m to make a few predictions, on a personal level, these McMansions are going to be family communes, surrounded by gardens, as there will be little ability for the next generation to build further out and the rising cost of oil/transportation is going to relocalize food production and basic manufaturing.
On a broader level, the wealthy and powerful will find ways to aquire large amounts of the federal debt being issued, at bargain cost. This will then be traded in back room deals for large amounts of federal property, such as mineral leases, national parks, highways(turning them into tollways), etc. Something similar to what happened in Russia after communism collapsed.
This is why it is important to promote the realization that a monetary system is public property, rather then being suckered into the notion that it is private property. This isn’t an ideological position, but a basic understanding of what it really is.
Henry Ford understood a hundred years ago that workers had to be able to afford what they built for the economy to function. It’s not that trickle down economics is mean-hearted, but that it’s lousy economics. Order may be top down, but growth is bottom up.
The problem with the economy as a game of Monopoly is that when one person does control everything, the game is over. In reality this phase is referred to as revolution.
As a natural process, it’s very healthy. Spring to winter is evolution. Winter to spring is revolution.
Posted by brodix on from Sparks, Maryland 09/30 at 12:29 PM
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