Capitalists and Other Psychopaths

numan · Jul 6, 2017

When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. Let the seas be emptied of life. Let one useless war after another be waged. Let the masses be thrust into extreme poverty and left without jobs while the elites, drunk on hedonism, accumulate vast fortunes through exploitation, speculation, fraud and theft. Reality, at the end, gets unplugged....The quest by a bankrupt elite in the final days of empire to accumulate greater and greater wealth, as Karl Marx observed, is modern society’s version of primitive fetishism. This quest, as there is less and less to exploit, leads to mounting repression, increased human suffering, a collapse of infrastructure and, finally, collective death....The World Health Organization calculates that one in four people in the United States suffers from chronic anxiety, a mood disorder or depression—which seems to me to be a normal reaction to our march toward collective suicide. Welcome to the asylum.

emphases added

This has been the leitmotiv of much that I have written.
For many years, I have noted and been impressed by the way societies that have failed to meet the challenges that face them descend into delusion and insanity.
This descent, before our own, is most clearly seen in the France of the Ancien Régime and in czarist Russia -- ruling classes literally cutting themselves off from the base that supports them, delusions of grandeur, obsessions with trivia, fantasies, superstitions and idées fixes.
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arcturus88 · Jul 6, 2017

Capitalism is inline with nature. Socialism is a perversion to that nature.

David · Jul 8, 2017

arcturus88 said:
Capitalism is inline with nature. Socialism is a perversion to that nature.

Capitalism has failed spectacularly at least once every century and has suffered a less than total collapse every decade like clockwork. Socialism has had all of 1 major failure.

Not only is your assertion a denial of reality, automation and the end of associated labor will make it technically impossible even if it wasn't already fatally flawed naturally.

numan · Jul 9, 2017

'
The essence of capitalism is unrestrained predation.

And unrestrained capitalists are satanic predators.

This does not mean that capitalism is always satanic.

Even Marx recognized that capitalism gave birth to the greatest surge of productive energy in the history of the world.

Capitalism is admirable --- but only if its satanic tendencies are restrained.

Small scale capitalism can be wondrously beneficial; but monopoly crony capitalism is always evil unless it is controlled and restrained.
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arcturus88 · Jul 11, 2017

socialism is detailed well by the great ayn rand:

A morality that holds need as a claim, holds emptiness–non-existence–as its standard of value; it rewards an absence, a defect: weakness, inability, incompetence, suffering, disease, disaster, the lack, the fault, the flaw–the zero.

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

David · Jul 11, 2017

arcturus88 said:
socialism is detailed well by the great ayn rand:

Great Ayn Rand. :giggle: More like the spoiled crybaby that grew up with unloving parents and was never tought to share. She reads like a 13 year old posting on T_D.

arcturus88 · Jul 11, 2017

David said:
Great Ayn Rand. :giggle: More like the spoiled crybaby that grew up with unloving parents and was never tought to share. She reads like a 13 year old posting on T_D.

have you ever read a book? I'm not sure you have read anything other than socialist websites that have "reviewed" books.

David · Jul 12, 2017

arcturus88 said:
have you ever read a book? I'm not sure you have read anything other than socialist websites that have "reviewed" books.

Have you? Her argument boils down to I got mine, **** you. Now get yours and **** off. It's not a viable way of life if you want to live in a civilized world.

numan · Jul 12, 2017

Aufgeblassen said:
USA MOST civilized country on Earth! Hands down.

Where to Invade Next?

Film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes describes the film as "an expansive, rib-tickling, and subversive comedy in which Moore, playing the role of 'invader,' visits a host of nations to learn how the U.S. could improve its own prospects"....

* In Italy: labor rights and workers' well-being – paid holiday, paid honeymoon, thirteenth salary, two-hour lunch breaks, paid parental leave, speaking with the executives of Lardini and Claudio Domenicali, the CEO of Ducati

* In France: school meals and sex education

* In Finland: education policy (almost no homework, no standardized testing), speaking with Krista Kiuru, the Finnish Minister of Education. Moore notes that music and poetry have been eliminated in the American K-12 education system.

* In Slovenia: debt-free/tuition-free higher education, speaking with Ivan Svetlik, University of Ljubljana's rector, and Borut Pahor, the President of Slovenia. University of Ljubljana teaches at least 100 courses in English

* In Germany: labor rights and work–life balance, visiting pencil manufacturer Faber-Castell, and the value of honest, frank national history education, particularly as it relates to Nazi Germany

* In Portugal: May Day, drug policy of Portugal, universal health care, and the abolition of the death penalty

*In Norway: humane prison system, visiting the minimum-security Bastøy Prison and maximum-security Halden Prison, and Norway's response to the 2011 Utøya attacks

* In Tunisia: women's rights, including reproductive health, access to abortion and their role in the Tunisian Revolution and the drafting of the Tunisian Constitution of 2014. Rached Ghannouchi disapproves of compulsory hijab, saying,"The state should not tell women how to dress, or interfere in their lives."

* In Iceland: women in power, speaking with Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the world's first democratically elected female president; the Best Party with Jón Gnarr being elected Mayor of Reykjavík City; the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis and the criminal investigation and prosecution of bankers, with special prosecutor Ólafur Hauksson

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arcturus88 · Jul 13, 2017

David said:
Have you? Her argument boils down to I got mine, **** you. Now get yours and **** off. It's not a viable way of life if you want to live in a civilized world.

yes I have read her works.

She's an unapologetic capitalist. It is true though, in her world, striving and working hard is rewarded and she is against government forcing one to have their wages garnered to help those who won't help themselves.

I would recommend you read Atlas Shrugged if you have not. Don't read what a socialist blogger has to say about it, read it yourself.

Capitalists and Other Psychopaths

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