socialism, capitalism and democracy...

These concepts have been rattling around in my brain a lot these last few days. And they present me with a dilemma. The dilemma first came to my notice about twenty years ago and then seemed to go away. Now it is back. And this time it won't let me go.

The problem is that socialism and capitalism appear to be mutually exclusive concepts. To build a socialist system, capitalism must be dismantled. To build a capitalist system, socialism must be dismantled.

Big business sees socialism as it's mortal enemy, and looking at Big Business global strategies in the last 50-odd years, we see that indeed Big Business has become the mortal enemy of socialism.

What has this got to do with democracy? Well, for all the waffle we've heard about the sacredness of democracy, the centre of Big Business, the U.S., has time and again subverted, or tried to subvert, the democratic processes throughout the world whenever and wherever that process looked like producing a socialistic government. In fact, in so aggressively trying to prevent it, the U.S. is behaving exactly like a totalitarian regime.

The U.S., because of it's subversion by Big Business, has no intention of allowing democracy to work if that democracy is not capitalistic in nature. So, I'll say it again, for emphasis: The U.S., for all its ranting about democracy, is actually totalitarian in nature. "You can have any government you want, as long as it's capitalistic."

And vice versa. Socialist (or communist) systems have generally been totalitarian in nature, again, because they see the forces of capitalism as their mortal enemy.

So where does that leave democracy? Well, now that Big Business thinks globally, it's the end of the road for socialism, I'm afraid. They own the world's largest and most powerful military machine. Their priorities are sacrosanct. The future of their shareholders, and therefore all you super-funded persons as well, depends on it.

So who would vote for socialism these days? Superannuation is compulsory, so your retirement nest-egg is tied to Big Business. Your government has made sure of it because the men in dark suits from the World Bank have told it to.

So only the poorest, the most disenfranchised, can afford to think about socialism. But the poor and the disenfranchised are not only ignored, they are blamed, they are despised and they are exploited. Yet without them, Big Business goes bust. The new age of greed and dependence on Big Business has made sure that the vast majority have no time for socialism.

Democracy? Yeah, sure, as long as you vote for what's best for Big Business, because that's who owns your politicians, your military and your law-enfocement. And you wouldn't have it any other way, would you?

I give up. I'm sick of being negative and the only positives I can see are trivial and superficial by comparison. I guess my depression's got me again. I don't know when I'll post again...