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 31 Aug 2007 @ 23:31, by letecia. Economics, Financing, Banking
AlterNet featured an interview with Kevin Rozario about his recent book "The Culture of Calamity"
"Capitalism itself is a system of destruction and creation. You have to keep destroying the old in order to clear space for the new. Otherwise, it achieves stasis, and if it achieves stasis, it dies. It depends on constant expansion just to keep going. But again, to be very clear about this, not all Americans think this is a blessing. This is a process that can be extremely lucrative for businesses, but it's a process that can be extremely destructive for laborers. The benefits of disaster are very unevenly portioned and they go to those with power and influence rather than ordinary Americans."
View the full interview online at: [link]
Note: Kevin Rozario teaches courses in American popular culture and cultural theory. After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale in 1997, he taught at Oberlin and Wellesley before coming to Smith. Although trained as a historian, his interdisciplinary interests keep pulling him into such other fields as literary criticism, media studies, philosophy, economics, environmental history, gender studies, and cultural theory. From Smith College
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21 Jun 2007 @ 00:10, by anandavala. Economics, Financing, Banking
Before joining the conversation, please read and accept this Invitation to a Conversation.
This is a follow on article to the discussion on The
International Banking System in the subject Economics,
Financing, Banking.
All of the key flaws in the economic system are well known to any
who look beyond the web of deception that permeates mass culture -
the discussion here at NCN is similar to discussions happening all
over the globe, discussions that have been occurring throughout the
last century but to little avail. What do all these phenomena point
to? Is there some overarching paradigm in which they can all be made
sense of? Is it a matter of an elite wielding control or is it
something deeper? Is there something practical that can be done about
it?
Economics plays an important role in all of the key changes
happening in the world but aside from our traditional
rationalisations, what purpose does it really serve and what do the
many changes signify? From the perspective of system theory,
cybernetics and complexity theory the answers are startling!!!! More >
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26 May 2007 @ 16:32, by vaxen. Economics, Financing, Banking
MONEY & BANKS ….
THE HIDDEN TRUTH BEHIND GLOBAL DEBT .
1) What is money... how is it created and who creates it?
2) Why is almost everyone up to their eyeballs in debt... individuals, businesses and whole nations?
3) Why can’t we provide for our daily needs - homes, furnishings cars etc. without borrowing?
4) How much could prices fall and wages increase if businesses did not have to pay huge sums in interest payments which have to be added to the cost of goods and services they supply...?
5) How much could taxes be reduced and spending on public services such as health and education be increased if governments created money themselves instead of borrowing it at interest from private banks…?
"If you want to be the slaves of banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the banks create money…" Josiah Stamp, Governor of the Bank of England 1920. More >
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 28 Apr 2007 @ 17:45, by jhs. Economics, Financing, Banking
Antonio Gramsci died yesterday, 70 years ago, in Rome.
A post of Mino reminded me of that.
Gramsci realized already in the 30's of last century that the public meme are equally, if not more important, than the distribution of means of production and the memes of the 'historic process' and the 'economic determinism'.
He postulated that any class to survive must form its own 'historic bloc' via a cultural hegemony to survive the values impounded by the 'ruling class' on the masses.
To create an Internet space as an experiment to facilitate the vision of a new society, Flemming (and I) created the New Civilization Network in 1995, hosting the first server in my home in the Hollywood Hills. It was running Linux, which one could call a powerful expression of 'technological hegemony', as, in general, the Open Source movement.
We see the power of a new 'cultural hegemony' realized today, 60 years after his death, in the from of the Internet, and especially the BLOGs which have developed a power of its own, bypassing the manipulation via the controlled 'media'.
If he would live today, I am SURE, he would have one of the best BLOGs around.
I'll have a toast on him tonight :-) More >
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13 Apr 2007 @ 07:14, by vaxen. Economics, Financing, Banking
THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE
If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law: Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobediance, 1849
The stage is set. Cheney and Bush still see themselves as the deciders and their preemptive agenda is still in play. The timid Democrats are about to be sucked into funding the Iraq fiasco and thus setting the stage for being responsible for its consequences when Bush leaves office in 2009.
Even today we see that that the insurgency ( freedom Fighters ) have penetrated the Iraq Green Zone with a suicide bomber and that's not counting the 15 to 20 daily rocket attacks.The time for wishful thinking is over ~ we lost and we deserve to lose and be humiliated in the process of Bush & Cheney's illegal occupation and travesty of justice .
Since we lack a national leader who will speak for the people's agenda ~ I call on Britain's George Galloway who proclaims to the British people " If George Bush bombs Iran, we should bring this country to a standstill. "
Even Lee Iococca, at 82 years old, is fed up with this Administration ~ [link]
" Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding ... This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out ! "
Yes, it's almost time for civil disobediance ~ for we are, indeed, the agents of injustice in Iraq and perhaps in short time Iran and if Congress won't act by cutting off funding or even impeachment hearings ~ we must act even if it means breaking the law . It is our duty ! More >
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6 Apr 2007 @ 04:40, by a-d. Economics, Financing, Banking
http://www.denverpost.com/foreclosures
FORECLOSERS in America. TWO and a HALF MILLION this year!
I suggest you guys just click on the link and read it all from there. It looks too complicated for me to try to post! More >
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7 Aug 2006 @ 16:30, by armos. Economics, Financing, Banking
On August, 2, 2006 has started the project of creation of Power of the Sunlight as " patrimonial place " of the Absolut-Versions of the New Civilization which can be named the Absolut-Civilization, the Civilization of Spirit, the Civilization of Harmony - Freedom - Efficiency, the Civilization of the Open Society, the Open Civilization. To members NCN, probably, it will be interesting to observe of how this process is carried out, as we to ourselves see civilization prospects that we are going to do that by 2015 results of our initiative were felt on all Planet. This article} contains the most general structure of our approach to start civilization process More >
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4 Aug 2006 @ 15:20, by shreepal. Economics, Financing, Banking
Capitalism is bad because this society intentionally inflates human beings’ desires in a calculated manner by resorting to advertisements etc. and ensures provision of means to satisfy them. This is nothing but gearing the society to the ideal of sensual enjoyment. Enjoying sensual pleasure is not the end-destination of life on its evolutionary path. In pursuit of its avowed objective of inflating desires and satisfying them, Capitalism resorts to the economic mechanism of earning profit – generating capital -, buying human work – the priceless exertion of life on matter -, selling product of that work at a premium and again earning profit – a vicious circle. To ensure the safe and smooth play of this mechanism, Capitalism evolves capitalist democracy and market culture. In turn, it gives birth to economic exploitation, dazzling wealth and abject poverty, societal injustice and repression. There is no way to escape these inevitable and unfortunate socio-economic byproducts in Capitalism. Capitalism brings about degeneration in human beings and their culture and Mankind is bound to reject Capitalism sooner or later.
Socialism, and its refined form – Communism - , is also a bad social system. This society in order to create abundance of material comforts for its citizens resorts to social engineering wherein chains are put on its citizens’ mind’s creativity. Socialism is comparatively better than Capitalism on the count that it ensures the provision of means to meet the essential needs and legitimate desires of its citizens. But the evil part of this system is that in order to ensure economic justice it creates the dictatorship of a few people – who are almost always merely ordinary human beings in all respects and controlled by their petty desires and animal instincts – over the vast number of common people. And, this dictatorship encompasses every sphere of human activity - the most agonizing part among them being the human mind and its creativity. In order to eliminate any chance of opposition that may eventually turn into challenge to the social system, this system as of necessity can not and does not permit human mind’s free thinking lest it may have remote semblance of incongruity with the established norms. It is slavery of thoughts and mind.
There is need of a social system better than Capitalism and Socialism that may allow the freedom of thought and mind to its citizens but at the same time impose on them the discipline of the light of higher consciousness. The discipline of higher light cannot be imposed on the society by enacting laws. Such a discipline is possible only when there is a majority of those people who have accomplished the higher light in their consciousness. If there are no people in that society who have experienced higher light of consciousness and the discipline is sought to be imposed by laws and rules, then such society would be reduced to that of religious priests, fathers and mullahs. The society and the state of religious priests, fathers and mullahs is not better than Socialism; it is worse than even Capitalism. More >
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 3 Aug 2006 @ 20:16, by i2i. Economics, Financing, Banking
The above topic is an expansion on Koravya's comment about the International Banking System (from the following post) open to all who are interested in following through on that issue.
More >
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30 Jul 2006 @ 08:09, by shreepal. Economics, Financing, Banking
Marx has admitted that he stumbled upon the concept of dialectics, on which his entire philosophy is founded, while he was a student of Hegelian Philosophy of History. He claimed that with Hegel this Dialectics was standing on its head and he simply made it stand on its feet. Hegel maintained that it is the Idea, the Spirit, that is real and there is conflict between two irreconcilable contradictions elements inherent in this Idea. This conflict is between thesis and antithesis, and their conflict is resolved by emerging synthesis. Out of this conflict, this contradiction, human history is evolved. Therefore, the history, with all its evolved institutions, is merely an unfolding of the Idea. Marx says that he retained the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis as propounded by Hegel but made the historical conditions the real thing and the Idea a reflection of these material conditions in human mind, in his thoughts and culture. Hegelian invention was an accidental discovery by Marx and its correction was his genius. He also very frankly admitted that principles of capital working he discovered from the study of British economy and the revolutionary element he learnt from the French revolutionary Communes. It was his brilliant mind that integrated these three diverse elements into a harmonious philosophic edifice that logically explained human history, economics and culture, and gave hope to the exploited millions of salvation in impending Socialist and thereafter Communist society.
What are dialectical principles?
Engles says:
Outlines of the General Plan (for the application of dialectics to Nature): (1 )... (2).... (3) Dialectics as the science of universal inter-connection. Main laws: transformation of quantity and quality - mutual penetration of polar opposites and transformation into each other when carried to extremes - development through contradiction or negation of the negation - spiral form of development.
He further says:
And indeed they (laws of dialectics) can be reduced in the main to three: The law of the transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa; The law of the interpenetration of opposites; The law of the negation of the negation.
The founders of Marxism claimed that the dialectical process was a universal one, governing from material natural phenomena to the evolution of human society.
F. Angles says:
We are not concerned here with writing a handbook of dialectics, but only with showing that the dialectical laws are real laws of development of nature, and therefore are valid also for theoretical natural science.
Therefore, it was claimed that the predictions made by the application of these laws were accurate and scientific. By applying these "laws" to capitalist society, prediction was made that this society would transform, as of necessity under the natural process, into Socialist society and this view of Socialism was dubbed as scientific Socialism. It was claimed that in due course of time, when old habits of capitalist mentality die under the new social system, Socialism would transform into Communism and state would wither away. It was explained that in socialist society "each would work according to his capacity and get according to his work" while in communist society "each would work according to his capacity and get according to his needs."
'Dialectics' as conceived by Hegel and applied to 'material world' by Karl Marx is a 'mental construct' and it has all the limitations, which mind has.
When dialectics is applied to material world in general and history of mankind in particular, dialectician is faced with the problem of irreconcilable nature, that is, how to reconcile the 'human will' with the 'dialectical determinism'. To reconcile the irreconcilable 'will and determinism', it was proposed by F. Endless and K. Marx that dialectical principles operate in the 'general' way and not in 'specific individual' instances.
When this explanation is applied to social history of mankind, the time scale of operation of dialectics is extended to centuries, if not millenniums. In this situation, though the past (of human history) seems to be explained by dialectics in logical manner, the future changes predicted by dialectics may not be verifiable in decades or centuries.
The dialectical model has a peculiar component of spiral form of its (evolutionary) movement. When dialectics is applied to human history, it predicts that the 'primitive Communism', or the first stage of social evolution of history, would be repeated at higher level of the 'spiral' in the form of "scientific Communism'. Marx pointed out that in primitive Communism, there is 'direct' struggle of people with nature as there are two contradictory classes (nature and mankind), that there are no social class conflicts there and that owing to this absence of social class-conflicts there is no 'wastage' of human energy in the form of social class conflicts.
Likewise, in the 'modern' or 'scientific Communism' also there would be 'direct' struggle of people with nature as there are no two social conflicting classes and no wastage of human energy.
Then, how the 'modem Communism' would progress further in the dialectical terms? How the 'modern Communism' would become the 'thesis' and would give birth to the 'two contradictory' elements inherent in it? Would the 'modem Communism' embark on a new uncharted course of evolutionary life history? Would the 'direct' struggle of people with nature effect the very constitution of mankind, or in other words, would it change the human race into a new and higher race?
These are profound questions that are thrown open by the dialectics, if that be the working mechanism of nature.
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