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i wish i had known more about the nature of corporations when i was in my super pro-capitalism phase. i sort of distanced myself from that shit for awhile because there were questions i couldn't answer, but when you treat corporations as something external to capitalism which affect capitalism alot of things straighten out. this is especially true when looking at "extreme" examples of capitalism, where you have a single business controlling a market so tightly as to negatively affect everyone not in the shareholder room - this example, common as it is, is not capitalism at work but corporate responsibility to the shareholders at work.
"greed" is not an inherent property of capitalism, capitalism is just sort of a label we put on a force we observe, the force being that weird magical thing that causes people to interact and create connections, physical and social. it's value-free, like gravity. you can't very well say "fuck gravity" and write an anti-gravity manifesto because you are ditzy and fall down alot. likewise it would be dumb to be like super-pro gravity and talk about how gravity is awesome all the time. that's basically how i see capitalism now.
corporations, however - they are entities that are legally bound to exploit capitalism and create profits and grow endlessly while putting as much as the cost of it on the taxpayer and the environment. i think if the distinction was made between business and straight up corporatism, you'd have alot of republicans willing to pay attention to shady things like halliburton and diebold and even fuckin' walmart.
the_paul it's weird because i get a similar yet opposite feeling about the perception of obama/bush - you must live somewhere that leans left and well i'm from louisiana so it's all bumper stickers of george bush saying "miss me yet??" and obama-bashing. i'd like to poke around for a study that removes confirmation bias, and tallies the actual amount of pro-obama/anti-obama writing published and compare it to pro/anti bush writing.
it's weird because in the past few years of my life this weird feeling started to creep up on me - at first it was almost a purely passive aggressive thing, like a resigned acceptance of our doomed future. like when the healthcare bill was passed i was like "fuck it - if we're dropping trillions on guns, bombs, war, subsidies for israel -and- their enemies, africa, corn, and tax breaks for every company ever - i might as well get a few free doctor visits tacked on the bill, right?". the feeling sort of evolved and took a new form, and it really helped me sort of come to terms with internal conflicts i had. i still consider myself "libertarian", but it's like how the fuck would i turn this country into a libertarian paradise? the answer: it's probably impossible. in a new world where i had a blank slate, i could envision ronpaultopia being possible. but - we're here now in this place so you gotta throw this entire constructed ideology out the window and work with what we got.
it's interesting because as you might guess i am a sort of fanboy for richard nixon (because as an anarchist he was the only politician i respected - he was 100% aware of the power he truly wielded and didn't really hide it) but the more i read about him, it seems he also had a similar worldview and so i found a name or label for this feeling i have, and it's called Pragmatism. though he was a republican he wouldn't hesitate to push legislation seen as liberal, as long as he considered it beneficial. anyways that's sort of a model i can admire, he didn't care about ideology or politics when it came to making alot of decisions, and we the people actually benefit quite a bit from some of the things he accomplished but isn't really remembered for.
"greed" is not an inherent property of capitalism, capitalism is just sort of a label we put on a force we observe, the force being that weird magical thing that causes people to interact and create connections, physical and social. it's value-free, like gravity. you can't very well say "fuck gravity" and write an anti-gravity manifesto because you are ditzy and fall down alot. likewise it would be dumb to be like super-pro gravity and talk about how gravity is awesome all the time. that's basically how i see capitalism now.
corporations, however - they are entities that are legally bound to exploit capitalism and create profits and grow endlessly while putting as much as the cost of it on the taxpayer and the environment. i think if the distinction was made between business and straight up corporatism, you'd have alot of republicans willing to pay attention to shady things like halliburton and diebold and even fuckin' walmart.
the_paul it's weird because i get a similar yet opposite feeling about the perception of obama/bush - you must live somewhere that leans left and well i'm from louisiana so it's all bumper stickers of george bush saying "miss me yet??" and obama-bashing. i'd like to poke around for a study that removes confirmation bias, and tallies the actual amount of pro-obama/anti-obama writing published and compare it to pro/anti bush writing.
it's weird because in the past few years of my life this weird feeling started to creep up on me - at first it was almost a purely passive aggressive thing, like a resigned acceptance of our doomed future. like when the healthcare bill was passed i was like "fuck it - if we're dropping trillions on guns, bombs, war, subsidies for israel -and- their enemies, africa, corn, and tax breaks for every company ever - i might as well get a few free doctor visits tacked on the bill, right?". the feeling sort of evolved and took a new form, and it really helped me sort of come to terms with internal conflicts i had. i still consider myself "libertarian", but it's like how the fuck would i turn this country into a libertarian paradise? the answer: it's probably impossible. in a new world where i had a blank slate, i could envision ronpaultopia being possible. but - we're here now in this place so you gotta throw this entire constructed ideology out the window and work with what we got.
it's interesting because as you might guess i am a sort of fanboy for richard nixon (because as an anarchist he was the only politician i respected - he was 100% aware of the power he truly wielded and didn't really hide it) but the more i read about him, it seems he also had a similar worldview and so i found a name or label for this feeling i have, and it's called Pragmatism. though he was a republican he wouldn't hesitate to push legislation seen as liberal, as long as he considered it beneficial. anyways that's sort of a model i can admire, he didn't care about ideology or politics when it came to making alot of decisions, and we the people actually benefit quite a bit from some of the things he accomplished but isn't really remembered for.
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