Nothing in this blog can be believed. If you think that anything in this blog is true or factual, you'll need to verify it from another source. Do you understand? No? Then read it again, and repeat this process, until you understand that you cannot sue me for anything you read here. Also, having been sucked into taking part in the mass-murder of more than 3 million Vietnamese people on behalf of U.S. Big Business "interests", I'm as mad as a cut snake (and broke) so it might be a bit silly to try to sue me anyway...

Sunday, February 11, 2007

are democracy and capitalism incompatible?

posted by The Editor at 10:33 PM

5 Comments:

Blogger Davoh said...

no. (long story though)

February 12, 2007 2:11 AM  
Blogger Davoh said...

oh bugga, missed the IN-compatible bit.. yes.

February 12, 2007 2:14 AM  
Blogger GreenSmile said...

I could argue that the jury is still out on this one. Certainly capitalism is in the lineup of suspects for who corrupted our democracy. The form of goverment we have in the US just now hardly lives up to the term because so many other interests beside voters, as individuals, have influence. corporations and church groups and AIPAC all circulate cash and lobbiests CONSTANTLY among legislators who are only guaranteed to be listening to us voters for the month or two prior to elections. But by that criteria, religion is not compatible with democracy [always have been baffled by european political parties with names like "christian democrats"] and that realiztion is codified in our much abused and ignored first amendment. We have no such protection from concentrated wealth, personal or corporate, influencing government and in fact, with PAC monies and a million ways for big money to pick and choose what candidates voters will even hear from, yes I'd agree that "money" is not compatible with democracy. and capitalism is mostly about money as a force and an interest unto itself.
Money is almost personified because it is so goddamned interchangable with power and security...things we naked apes, if not lovingly brought up, never can get enough of. to some folk there is nothing so hypnotic as a small mountain of $100 bills.

But my point is that Americas promise of democracy, though now broken and seldom kept, is not theoretically out of reach...we'd just need a very bloody revlolution in which it was set in stone that NOTHING but the popular vote counted and NO effing money was allowed to be spent by financial interests...federal funds, all shared even by giving out a charge card as the only way to buy ads, hire pollsters etc. That would take a bloody revolution and blood here refers to stuff spilled from wounds, not mere explitive.
As far as the part of the question that concerns whether of not we have a democracy and how it absence disposes us to unwanted war...I certainly agree with the essay because I said as much my self lately


BTW,Gerry I HATE your %^#$&$@# blogging tool It put me through more identity checks and they'd give Osama Bin Laden's twin if he tried to get on a plane with a ticking package at Heathrow. What are your settings anyway?


oh, wait a min...thats my blogging tool too!

February 12, 2007 7:32 AM  
Blogger The Editor said...

G'day, Davo !!! :-)

GS, "Certainly capitalism is in the lineup of suspects for who corrupted our democracy."

In the line up? [splutters] It's the f*#king major suspect! But even the word "capitalism" no longer suffices to describe what "free enterprise" has morphed into. "The systematic corruption and control of the entire planet" would be a far more apt way of putting it, GS.

The WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, are all now actively drafting the legislation of most countries in the "free world" (oxymoron alert).

That's like letting the crooks run the courts and the police. It's like letting the inmates run the asylum.

And what of the two party system both here and in the US? BOTH parties are blindly in the thrall of capitalism. They cannot even conceive the notion of opposing or properly controlling it, let alone fostering and nurturing an alternative to this monster.

Economists? Hah! They're the high priests of the Church Of The Almighty Dollar. They will never EVER think outside the square.

Now there's an idea... A T-shirt depicting a square dollar coin and the words "Think outside the square"...

And the people? Well, what do you expect from a system which lets Big Money control education and the media? No wonder the people have no idea that they're being buttf*cked by The Big Buck. (Or maybe that's how they want it...)

I dunno...

February 13, 2007 6:45 AM  
Blogger The Editor said...

Also, GS, I don't undertand what you want me to tell you about my blog's settings. I have comments set up so that "Anonymous" cannot comment. This just means that people who wish to comment must register an ID with Blogger. That ID can be fictitious of course. It keeps out spam and tends to deter the peanut gallery, which is how I like it. Those for whom this is too much hard work probably haven't anything worthwhile to say anyway... ;-)

February 13, 2007 6:57 AM  

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