In 1949 Albert Einstein published a staggeringly brilliant paper titled, "Why Socialism?"
Here, let me give you a teaser:
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
-So good it's hurts. The man was prescient. Did you notice the phrase, "oligarchy of private capital"? Later on, he remarks that capitalism is "the predatory phase of human evolution".
Here, let me give you a teaser:
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
-So good it's hurts. The man was prescient. Did you notice the phrase, "oligarchy of private capital"? Later on, he remarks that capitalism is "the predatory phase of human evolution".
Relatives, lets stop preying on ourselves, shall we?
Its time to evolve. We can love ourselves, or we can prey on ourselves, but we can't do both.
It's not that competition is bad - competition is a good thing, it just needs to be placed within a greater context of cooperation. Sports teams compete, but losing teams still get to go home to their families and put food on the table. Not so with losing countries... Capitalism is ruthless competition, telling us that we must exploit, or be exploited. We must be predators, or be prey. Capitalism demands that we dominate or be dominated. The capitalist compulsion to dominate out of fear correlates eerily with the patriarchal need to dominate out of fear... Yang expands, yin contracts, so how does yang learn to contract? It doesn't - it burns out...
Capitalism is burning out, in lockstep with the Renaissance of the divine feminine. What remains when the dust settles will be competitive, and cooperative, because it's all of us or none of us.
Capitalism is burning out, in lockstep with the Renaissance of the divine feminine. What remains when the dust settles will be competitive, and cooperative, because it's all of us or none of us.
Give capitalism a safety net to protect the vulnerable, and you get free market socialism.
Socialism is thus healthy competition. Competition is healthy in the context of greater cooperation. No sports team has ever tried to starve their opponents into submission - because both sides are motivated to actually play the game, by agreed upon rules, allowing their opponents to live another day. Sports teams are trying to win, but they aren't trying to eliminate their competition. The "oligarchy of private capital", on the other hand, is in the habit of eliminating competition, whether it's on Main Street or Iraq...
The whole reason unions got invented in the first place was because capitalists were trying to starve workers into submission, right? Take a slave wage, and like it, or your starving neighbor will replace you... Competition without cooperation leads to domination, exploitation, violence, and revolution. A genuine safety net keeps our survival instincts from overreacting, thus eliminating the need to dominate, exploit, violate, and rebel. A safety net is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism.
This is known as ethics. Capitalism + ethics = socialism. Pretty simple, really.
I know, I know, everyone is shouting, "Venezuela! The Deep State! Death to central planning!"
And you're right. Einstein talks about it in his paper. It's no secret that central planning is the evil that infests socialism, but hey, central planning is the end result of capitalism too. Remember the 'oligarchy of private capital'? The only difference is that in socialism the corrupt state does the planning, whereas in capitalism the corrupt oligarchs bribe and blackmail the corrupt state into doing it. Same same, and not much different. Anyone noticed oligarchs manipulating free markets lately? Any monopolies selling fake news and censoring the truth? Capitalism leads to an anticompetitive, oppressive corporate state, same as socialism...
The real challenge is how to create and maintain a decentralized planning network. Anyone have any ideas? Oh, wait - you're reading this via the world's premiere decentralized planning network - the Internet. Decentralized, cybernetic, free-market socialism - it's what's for dinner. let's call it socialnetworkism, shall we?
The whole reason unions got invented in the first place was because capitalists were trying to starve workers into submission, right? Take a slave wage, and like it, or your starving neighbor will replace you... Competition without cooperation leads to domination, exploitation, violence, and revolution. A genuine safety net keeps our survival instincts from overreacting, thus eliminating the need to dominate, exploit, violate, and rebel. A safety net is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism.
This is known as ethics. Capitalism + ethics = socialism. Pretty simple, really.
I know, I know, everyone is shouting, "Venezuela! The Deep State! Death to central planning!"
And you're right. Einstein talks about it in his paper. It's no secret that central planning is the evil that infests socialism, but hey, central planning is the end result of capitalism too. Remember the 'oligarchy of private capital'? The only difference is that in socialism the corrupt state does the planning, whereas in capitalism the corrupt oligarchs bribe and blackmail the corrupt state into doing it. Same same, and not much different. Anyone noticed oligarchs manipulating free markets lately? Any monopolies selling fake news and censoring the truth? Capitalism leads to an anticompetitive, oppressive corporate state, same as socialism...
The real challenge is how to create and maintain a decentralized planning network. Anyone have any ideas? Oh, wait - you're reading this via the world's premiere decentralized planning network - the Internet. Decentralized, cybernetic, free-market socialism - it's what's for dinner. let's call it socialnetworkism, shall we?
Socialism is capitalism, with a safety net to protect the vulnerable and a salary cap to prevent the billionaire oligarchs of private capital (and their pet corporations) from hijacking sovereign republics.
Capitalism = winner take all. Losers forced to rebel. Zero sum game.
Communism = loser take all. Winners forced to rebel. Zero sum game.
Socialism = winner take most, loser left with plenty. No one is forced to rebel, parity is maintained, and healthy competition continues indefinitely. Non-zero sum game.
Socialism is the path of sustainability- our only way forward into a sustainable future.
The new age has begun. Lend a hand, we've got a lot to accomplish-
Socialism is the path of sustainability- our only way forward into a sustainable future.
The new age has begun. Lend a hand, we've got a lot to accomplish-
