On this blog, I generally speak in absolutes. It's not that I know I'm right. I certainly do not. I just don't think starting every sentence with, "I think" or "I believe" would allow my posts to be readable. That would make things more cumbersome than they already are.
"We are almost always wrong, maybe not all the way wrong, but at least a little bit. Even the simplest questions have vast complexities built into them, and understanding that we never fully understand things leads to a much healthier and more effective relationship with the world." -Hank Green
There is no way to know what caused what or how something now will effect the future. Knowing that, here's my tirade.
Capitalism doesn't work. I liken it to a Phoenix. A wonderful mythical bird who has all these wonderful properties. However there is one major flaw. The damn thing will suffer from spontaneous combustion. A baby bird will rise from the ashes; but the damage was done in the fire, because in this analogy the combustion ate the world economy. The economy will eventually recover and become an adult phoenix with all those wonderful characteristics of the mythical creature and then it will catch on fire again.
As much as I don't like to say it, Socialism doesn't work either. It doesn't have the mythical properties that capitalism does. In principal, it should work and not have the problems that come along with the expedited growth in Capitalism. However Socialism has the same root cause of problems as Capitalism. That is human greed. Proper Socialism requires those in power to remain selfless. That may happen initially, but eventually selfishness wins out. Classes are created and there is no social motility. The lower class becomes hopeless and the upper class becomes lazy and subsidized and the economy comes to a screeching halt.
The point is, if there is one, is that human greed is bad for the economy.
Karl Marx didn't think Communism would work in the mid-nineteenth century. He knew for communism to work well technology needed to be better. We still have not reached that place where the technology will allow for Communism to work. We're getting there and I think Marx would marvel at Smart Phones and what they have helped to cause in Egypt. Still until we reach a level of technology where the necessary desires of a modern world can be met with ease, Communism doesn't work. It quickly becomes Authoritarian rule like the Soviet Union.
Marx also thought we'd be living under Global Communism now. He couldn't believe that workers would continue to remain, so sub servant to their bosses. There would be no way the Working Class would continue to live in the class structure that treats them so poorly. However Marx seems to underestimate the worker's willingness to put up with shit. The class structure really isn't that much better today than it was back then. Labor conditions are much better, but it still remains that poor people work for rich people.
There was no great uprising in the West however. The Bourgeoisie got wise to the unrest of the Working Classes and threw them a bone. Better labor conditions. Only one revolution happened and that was in Russia where an out of touch King was thrown out, because people were hungry and he'd never thrown out the bone. Otherwise the Capitalists of the west had managed to make it so the owner of the factory was still making an abhorrent amount of money compared anyone working in the factory and make the workers contented.
This post was not supposed to go in that direction. I didn't mean for it too. I just wanted to give an example of an opinion of mine to better show my point. However it kind of turned into a bit of a manifesto. I'll stop that here. Hopefully you all aren't scared away by what I actually think.
Anyway I wanted to address a comment I got on one of my posts. Since I get so few comments you'll figure out which one. However, it's not really about the comment itself. It's about how it was presented. I was reminded that it is a 'free world.' That is a statement I agree completely with, but it wasn't appropriate for what I was saying. For one, I wasn't forbidding anyone from using a particular website. If you want to use it that's fine by me. I was just my opinion.
More importantly, the use of 'free country' or 'free world' or 'you're infringing on my freedom of speech' when you disagree with them on something. That has happened to me more than once. I don't mean to sound conceited, but I know how to argue well. I'm well informed and believe deeply in my convictions, but am not so blind as to not see the other side's view. So if you're debating something with someone please don't accuse them of taking your freedoms just because they manage to form an analytical argument against your views.
Thanks for reading and please comment.
-Michael
P.S. This is probably the most disjointed blog I've ever posted. Partly because parts of it were written at different times. Mostly because I went all preachy in the middle.
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