U.S.Crusade | RaceandHistory | RastaTimes | HowComYouCom | News Links | Trini Soca | Africa Speaks
Trinicenter.com Trinicenter.com Trinidad and Tobago News
Online Forums
Create an AccountHome | Account | World News  

International Watch
  • Home
  • AvantGo
  • Feedback
  • Search
  • Stories Archive
  • Submit News

  • Categories
  • Africa Focus
  • Arab Spring
  • Audio & Video
  • Book Review
  • Caribbean
  • Inside U.S.A.
  • Invasion of Iraq
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Latin America
  • Medical
  • Pakistan
  • Pandora's Box
  • Racism Watch
  • Satire
  • US War on Iran
  • US War on N Korea
  • War and Terror
  • War on Russia
  • War on Syria
  • World Focus
  • Zimbabwe

  • Old Articles
    Friday, February 08
    ·
    Wednesday, February 06
    ·
    Tuesday, February 05
    · Savage Capitalism or Socialism: A Conversation with Luis Britto Garcia
    Sunday, February 03
    · Canada vs. Venezuela: The Background Gets Even Murkier
    Thursday, January 31
    ·
    Monday, January 28
    · The History - and Hypocrisy - of US Meddling in Venezuela
    · Canada Is Complicit in Venezuela's US-Backed Coup D'état
    Wednesday, September 26
    · Why Israel Demolishes: Khan Al-Ahmar as Representation of Greater Genocide
    Friday, September 21
    · US Disregard for International Law Is a Menace to Latin America
    Saturday, August 25
    · How Long is the Shelf-Life of Damnable Racist Capitalist Lies?
    Thursday, August 09
    · Martial Law By Other Means: Corporate Strangulation of Dissent
    Wednesday, August 08
    · North Korea and The Washington Trap
    · Venezuela Assassination Attempt: Maduro Survives but Journalism Doesn't
    Sunday, May 20
    · The British Royal Wedding, Feelgoodism and the Colonial Jumbie
    Friday, May 04
    ·
    Monday, April 09
    · The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is Bad News for the Planet
    Tuesday, March 20
    · Finally, Some Good News
    Thursday, March 15
    · Zimbabwe Open for Business, Code for International Finance Capitalism
    Friday, January 12
    · Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War In Africa
    Wednesday, December 13
    · The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was

    Older Articles

    Features

    Sudan''s Crisis

    Zimbabwe: Land Reform and Mugabe

    U.S Coup in Haiti

    Venezuela and Chavez


      
    World Focus: After 400 years, capitalism is a colossal and catastrophic failure
    Posted on Monday, April 17 @ 23:43:18 UTC
    Topic: Sociology
    SociologyBy Arthur Shaw, vheadline.com

    It is now practically a staple or fad of bourgeois propaganda, which proudly calls itself "news," to characterize the Left, communism and socialism as outmoded, old, old-fashion, antiquated, so 19th century, and obsolete ideological baggage.

    The same treatment is also administered in smaller dosages to populism, that is, a political movement that promotes the rights and interests of the common people or the masses largely without systematic ideology or with a mishmash of eclectic ideologies.

    But capitalism and bourgeois ideology ... that is, garbage like liberalism and conservatism and all the rubbish between these extremes of bourgeois ideology ... are older than communism and socialism.

    (By the way, today's premiere piece of rubbish between the bourgeois ideological extremes of liberalism and conservatism is something called "globalization" or "globalism," which is nothing but the stinking corpse of Adam Smith warmed up again. Today, everybody infected with bourgeois culture and ideology wants to be a "globalist" which is considered as cutting edge, brand new, the latest thing, and strictly futuristic.)

    Before we proceed further with our subject about what ideology is worn out, perhaps here is a good place to define what we are talking about. Capitalism insists on the private ownership of means of production or, in other words, of capital goods and also insists on the importance of the market as a mechanism for determining the movement and accumulation of capital. The state, under capitalism, exists primarily to enforce private property rights in the ownership of capital goods and of consumer goods, but especially property rights in capital goods which only capitalists own. Bourgeois ideology lies about socialism and communism not allowing private property. Socialism and communism guarantees private property in consumers goods. For example, under Cuban communism today, 85% of the Cubans own their homes which is the highest rate of private homeownership in the western hemisphere, exceeding even that of the USA, for in the first quarter of 2005, the USA homeownership rate was 69.1%.

    But bourgeois ideology and propaganda still spread lies about an alleged disrespect of communism and socialism for private property in consumer goods. The disrespect, if any exists, under communism and socialism is limited to capital goods and this affects the interests of millionaires ... less than one percent of the population.

    Returning to the present-day relevancy of the Left, the theoretical origin of socialism mostly lies in the 19th century and its emergence as a social and economic system lies in the 20th century. Capitalism emerged as a fairly distinct socioeconomic formation emerged in Italy, the Netherlands, and England as early as the 16th century and found theoretical expression largely in the 18th century the appearance of Anders Chydenius's book The National Gain in 1765, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in 1776, and David Ricardo's On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation in 1817.

    We can look at the alleged obsolescence of socialism from the points of view of either longevity or diminished and comparative utility. We have just considered longevity in the preceding paragraph. From the point of view of diminishing utility, capitalism and bourgeois ideology are also dinosaurs. Capitalism and the various schools of bourgeois ideology almost dominate the whole world, yet 70% of the peoples on the globe (if not a higher percentage) live in abject and extreme poverty except for the populations of two dozen developed capitalist countries which live as parasites off the resources of the undeveloped capitalist countries.

    After 400 years, capitalism is a colossal and catastrophic failure. The purpose of bourgeois ideology is to falsely depict capitalism as an outstanding success.

    And the economic and social gap between the parasitic and the exploited capitalist countries is growing. The narrow successes of capitalism rest on its broad failures.

    So, capitalism and bourgeois ideology are old and stale whether we look at them from the points of view of their longevity or diminishing utility.

    The only social systems that are older than capitalism are feudalism, slavery, and primitive communalism. Still, bourgeois ideology tries to palm-off rotting capitalism and globalized bourgeois culture as something fresh, new, and contemporary.

    To be sure, capitalism has changed a great deal and is still changing. After all, rot is a kind of change, too. Imperialist globalization avails itself of the swift transportation, instant communications, indefatigable and smart robots, all kinds of managerial sciences to increase the velocity of the same old thing that is the heart and soul of capitalism ... trading. The trading ... of everything ... is all the rage. The sovereignty of the less developed capitalist countries is being eaten away to remove obstacles to unfettered imperialist exploitation.

    But the rot abides because the rate of exploitation (along with the consequent rate of poverty) is soaring from about 300-400% to close to the 1000s.

    The class struggle is not obsolete although the class of capitalists is obsolete. The class struggle of the capitalists against the people or the masses has intensified. There are strong indications that the class struggle of the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and perhaps of the people of Nicaragua is also intensifying.

    Bourgeois propaganda describes the struggles of the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and perhaps Nicaragua as old, out of fashion, and 20th century.

    In the USA, most of Europe, and a part of Asia, some of the peoples appear to be on a prolonged coffee break. Their coffee break makes these people feel profoundly up-to-date. This extended coffee break is the main ground for the silly belief in the obsolescence of the class struggle. But the coffee break ... however prolong it may be ... does not demonstrate that the class struggle is obsolete in rich and developed capitalist countries because the capitalists, especially in the USA, persist in their centuries-old struggle against the interests of the people.

    The coffee break will surely end once out-sourcing, in-sourcing, unemployment, and the eradication of social security, health care, and pensions spread, reach, and exceed the level of social tolerance, if the level of tolerance has not already been exceeded.

    Whatever is the case, many people in these lands of plenty and privilege are dancing happily as they enjoy their wonderful coffee break.

    But imperialism never breaks for coffee.

    No espresso.

    "Brother, can you spare a 'dime' for a cup of coffee."

    As more and more of these people on coffee break discover that they too are hungry, in the streets, sick and abandoned, and unschooled, we will see if they still think that the class struggle is obsolete.

    Reprinted from:
    www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=54145

     
    Related Links
    · More about Sociology
    · News by admin


    Most read story about Sociology:
    The High Cost of Manliness


    Article Rating
    Average Score: 5
    Votes: 1


    Please take a second and vote for this article:

    Excellent
    Very Good
    Good
    Regular
    Bad


    Options

     Printer Friendly Printer Friendly



    Homepage | Trinidad News | Africa Speaks | U.S.Crusade | Fair Use Notice


    Copyright © 2002-2014 Trinicenter.com
    Trinicenter.com is a 100% non-profit Website
    You can syndicate our news using the file backend.php or ultramode.txt
    All logos, trademarks, articles and comments are property of their respective owners.
    PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2004 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL.
    PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.
    Page Generation: 0.20 Seconds