WC 1M Post Challenge - You Ready?!

[N_LaRUE]

Careful there. Might get called a communist. But no, seriously, it seems that anything you say against capitalism, people instantly label you as a communist.
If you have just a little bit of sense for scale of things, it'd be pretty much clear to you that money doesn't just fall from sky and the world can't continuously keep growing in a sense that our consumerism has no limits. Just like all the bubbles before this one will pop sooner or later.

I might be the only one, but to me it's ridiculous that a world's pretty much falling apart just because of few months of REDUCES work and productivity.

That's a huge flaw in the design.

It's due to the main issue that economies and most businesses are built on consumers.

You take consumers away and everything goes poof!

Which tells you everything that's wrong about the current systems.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Capitalism isn't the problem. Consumerism is the problem.

Both are currently the issue. Growth driven capitalism based on satisfying consumer 'needs' is the issue.

You can have a different capitalism but current systems don't favour those. For capitalism to be for good rather than the current destruction of our planet and resources it needs to change from the growth model.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Communism isn't the problem. Socialism is the problem.

Actually neither of those are the problem.

Those regimes which are considered communist are dictatorships hidden as communist regimes.

There is no country that has been purely socialist or communist.

 

[Rose640]

Capitalism isn't the problem. Consumerism is the problem.

Potato-potato. They go hand in hand.

 

[Rose640]

I'm leaning towards something new on the technology side. My default options (upgraded concert experience, game experience) are not available and I don't think I want to wait 5-6 months to celebrate this. I'll have to think about what makes sense for me.

Is a small gathering for a barbecue a viable option? I don't think there are many things to choose from now. Not that I can think of.

But I'm sure there's going to be a ton of concerts after things get sorted good enough.

 

[N_LaRUE]

So fourth contact by a recruiter.

This one was interesting but they wanted someone permanent.

Good thing about it was working from home most of the time.

 

[Rose640]

So I've never seen a communist country before. I'm taking classical Marx communism. By those definitions, no one ever made it to communism, everyone who's tried has been stuck on socialism. Last time I checked, the USSR has the word socialists in the name. But hey, it's not right for me to say the correct thing.

That would be correct. No one has ever reached the state of communism. At best, they were inching towards it, but were missing many key factors to make the transition from socialism.

Honestly, I don't think communism is achievable. Marx used to criticise previous socialist philosophers for wanting a 'utopia', but I can't see how his idea of a communist country isn't a sort of a utopia by itself.

 

[Rose640]

Communism isn't the problem. Socialism is the problem.

I think Germany and Sweden would disagree.

 

[Rose640]

It's due to the main issue that economies and most businesses are built on consumers.

You take consumers away and everything goes poof!

Which tells you everything that's wrong about the current systems.

And then they artificially create a higher demand by destroying those very products.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Wish you wouldn't call him my cousin...

Wish you would stop resisting the systematic desensitization of being included the inside joke...

 

[N_LaRUE]

Wish you would stop resisting the systematic desensitization of being included the inside joke...

Yes I get that but still...

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Looking forward to the holiday weekend. Really the two days of no work as I took Friday off. Need a rest from all this stuff. What some time on a beach undisturbed wouldn't do...

 

[fatclue_98]

Communism isn't the problem. Socialism is the problem.

They’re both flawed because they take away the most important element of a person’s DNA - ambition. I’m from a communist country and believe me, Fidel was no more communist than Jeff Bezos. He felt betrayed by the US and took that whole “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” s**t to new levels, but I digress.

Everything has to be looked at in the context of the times. What was happening to farmers, and workers in general, at the time Marx wrote Das Kapital could be construed as slave labor. In the US there were Chinese “coolies” building all the railroads. You think they had a beef?

I’m not defending any position, I’m just pointing out historical fact that needs to be viewed from a different lens than what’s happening today. There are parallels, but it’s not the deciding factor.

 

[raycpl]

meanwhile... May's security patch arrived to the Nokia8.1.. updated
rebooted... up and running again.

 

[libra89]

Is a small gathering for a barbecue a viable option? I don't think there are many things to choose from now. Not that I can think of.

But I'm sure there's going to be a ton of concerts after things get sorted good enough.

Thank you for that suggestion. It's an idea but one that can only come to life if my sis's family decides to come, but I don't see that right now. Aside from that, social distancing and gatherings are not allowed in my area at this time. We are still under the stay at home order.

 

[raycpl]

My CMO habit include watching a movie a day, but I out did myself by binge watching the two seasons of Kingdom in two days. Zombies in old Korea...
Also watched, is Shin Godzilla. I like the style.. depictions of human response is really humorous. Godzilla still looks like rubbery, but in a good way.
Next will be Geoffrey Reggio trilogy. I have watch Koyaanisqatsi years ago and it'll be interesting to revisit. I have yet to see the other two. The Glass soundtracks should be awesome...

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Yes I get that but still...

Gotta ruffle your Jimmy's periodically...gets dull in these parts when I don't...

 

[MSFTisMIA]

They’re both flawed because they take away the most important element of a person’s DNA - ambition. I’m from a communist country and believe me, Fidel was no more communist than Jeff Bezos. He felt betrayed by the US and took that whole “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” s**t to new levels, but I digress.

Everything has to be looked at in the context of the times. What was happening to farmers, and workers in general, at the time Marx wrote Das Kapital could be construed as slave labor. In the US there were Chinese “coolies” building all the railroads. You think they had a beef?

I’m not defending any position, I’m just pointing out historical fact that needs to be viewed from a different lens than what’s happening today. There are parallels, but it’s not the deciding factor.

The system of indentured servitude was initial testbed for what evolved into chattel slavery. At its economic base, in those days as one of the early white destitute or imprisoned people forced into Australia to see how feasible it was, if you lived through it there were two choices:

1) Leave scot free, and with improved economics
2) Go for another round to do #1 in an even better understanding

When it evolved into chattel slavery, the option to leave free was removed. The dying part was always there, it's just the brown folk had more ways to die than just overwork and poor nutrition not matter how "compliant" we were.

I bring this up to say that there really is no difference in making the statement I made about communism vs the statement Chuck made about capitalism. Of course I wasn't defending a position - Marx wrote his theory given the context he was in. Doesn't mean any application can been close to his ideal, nor could his theory been practically executed to his ideal. As long as we live in a situation where chasing power is a thing, all forms of government will try to put lipstick on a pig and sell us alternative facts of Mike Bloomberg's two terms as mayor or Obama's three terms as president.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Long day at work, so soapbox time for the next two posts.

I wanted to be an archeologist as a kid. Indiana Jones was decent to watch, but a privileged man running around pilfering other culture's heirlooms wasn't the appeal for me. Just was interested in making sure history was preserved. Read a lot and used to push my history teachers, one of which said "never take what you read as gospel, it's one person's record of the events - not the whole story". That and the video below were my first true introductions to critical thinking.

Zahi Hawass was my favorite archeologist growing up. Of course his legacy is complicated...as is the legacy of every human. There were parts of his sale pitch I liked and that kept me curious. But that dream died when I realized that if Libra thought her career pool was small and specialized, where I'm from its small, specialized and with 25% of the resources.

It's why if I thought a high school subject, it would be history.

https://youtu.be/oBpKk9DQR3A

 

[MSFTisMIA]

So in grad school we had a guy, I'll call him Jacob to protect his identity. So old Jacob was one of those second career folks - Jewish lawyer late in years wanting to do a career change to social work. As he was an older guy who was also well read, he could be a bit of a steamroller in class and go on and on if permitted. One of my favorite courses was called Diversity and Oppression. Here's the official course summary:

"Introduces a range of diverse populations by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and physical differences. Additionally, it examines the role, function, and effects of oppression in society as it relates to social and economic justice. Assumptions underlying theory and research methodologies from which basic constructs of human behavior are drawn will be examined to understand how power and other dynamics manage and sustain oppression at the individual and institutional levels. Also of interest is how oppression affects service delivery at micro and macro levels, particularly social policies and strategic planning which drive the shape of services."

What was cool about this as when I took it, the professor was the student liason. So he would give more rope to the discussions getting rough and tumble and using a ton of contemporary cultural references.

Why the essay? Well we got into a roughouse about trauma one lecture. Jacob didn't back down as he dipped into his cultural reference of the Holocaust. Now, we had like 2 people who looked like Laura in the whole class of 25, with everyone else looking like Libra or Mr. Clue. So went Jacob went in, some of the more militant brown folk took him to task about chattel slavery.

What did little old me say? That we were having a Richard swinging contest on trauma that was working as intended for our imperial masters to maintain control. So why can't we respect the events of someone else's traumatic experience and focus on the common feelings we have as being traumatized groups and heal that way?

Perspective is important indeed.