I read Vox's blog all the time, and I try to refrain from linking there because so much of my thought is already a result of reading his work. In short, while I proudly consider myself a member of the Ilk, I'm not--trying to be--a Vox clone. But on the heals of Paul's lamentable showing in N.H., Vox wrote some important words which merit a link:
Today's snowball's chance is no different than yesterday's. Rationally, you know it. Spiritually, you know it. Emotionally, you know it. This doesn't make your defiance pointless or worthless, to the contrary, it makes it all the more important. When you resist the elite's siren call to serfdom, you are not battling for your country, that fate was settled long ago. You are battling for your soul and for your mind. That's not only a battle well worth fighting, it's one that no one else can fight for you...
Only you can enslave your thoughts, and despair and bitterness are forms of slavery in themselves.
I'll try to keep this one in mind. Meanwhile, the Revolution continues.
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8 comments:
That exactly describes how we on the left-left think and have thought for decades. Paul is experiencing the same chuckles and sneers we endure day in and day out for speaking truth to power.Paul simply points out what anyone who dares open a book would find, that the US has acted a an imperialist power ("blame America first"). Unfortunately he stops his analysis there instead of linking imperialism to capitalism.The Ultimate Taboo. one you and Vox could break as well.
"Only you can enslave your thoughts, and despair and bitterness are forms of slavery in themselves."
Oh, that is not singular to any ideological trough, or so it seems. The trick is to not find fulfillment with or in that, but to consume other real substantiative goods while using those from the quote sparingly and as is actually needed (which it can be). What one consumes, one becomes, and consuming that which allows one or a group, to capitalize on what is good, useful, right, and beneficial is the way. Otherwise the person or group who languishes in despair is akin to the anorexic, ideologically and very probably mechanically.
There is a reason for socialists and communists to be in the dumps. I honestly wish I could help them, but you cannot save what has no self-worth, does not want one, and cannot and will not see beyond that. There are reasons that is so, but it is like untying a very complicated knot, though one which will attempt to bedevil the helper. I am not sure if those politics are a necessary evil, like the lemmings syndrome for humans, or just all that can be to those who cannot see and are not called. They, if anything, are the root of my discontent as the reverse is true.
Though, as a strong believer in capitalism, I understand a few things. Capitalism is not a man made creature, notion, or function. It is, in secular or religious terms, actually a natural and normal way of things. It is what everything from amoebas to humans do without a thought, we try to gain resources, use those resources, and do so with the least fuss, cost, or danger. However, like all things natural, as men who are supposed to strive to arise above the natural order, we must moderate our taste for more, to some degree. I realize too, socialism is a natural expression, though of risen (above beasts) man's Godless nature, or more, risen man's nature as if there was no God, god-lite, 0 gram god, whatever. Theologically speaking, and only it seems within my understandings, communism and socialism are the nature of evil (evil being Godlessness). Still, all three (two really, as communists and socialists are just bickering parent and child, as religion and science are) are natural functions and will never quite be quitted until there are no choices left. Oh, though all are natural, the difference between capitalism and the other(s) is that it does not exclude God. In this way, politics is, mostly, a metaphor regarding philosophy, and on in to practical living. Choose, or vote if you will, wisely.
I'm just mumbling. Have a good day.
Oh, I really bungled this, so I redid the last quarter of the third (now) from the last paragraph a bit. Sorry about that.
Unfortunately he stops his analysis there instead of linking imperialism to capitalism.The Ultimate Taboo. one you and Vox could break as well.
I don't think the two are inextricably tied. The United States has always been capitalist, but it has not always been imperialist. Right now, we are less capitalistic than ever, and yet we are at our most imperialistic.
There's definitely a connection between the two, but the stronger link appears to be between Big Government and imperialism. Thoughts?
As always, on these issues, the left will need incontrovertible functional proof before believing any such connection exists. In other words, they will wait until after the UN runs the world to begin attending to that notion. I, on the other hand, have no such needs.
Called an imperial nation, at times however, does allow for temptation in my heart. Much as being alone with a beautiful woman might stir such unattractive thoughts of another yet similar nature. We truly have the power to do pretty much what we please. That we, and I, have shown constraint, while being vilified (especially by those who have proven weak in the face of such situations, every time) causes no small disdain.
No worries, I think it is their job to try and create us in their image so as to wash their hands of their own guilt by saying, see, even the righteous fall. This is one of the hydra's many deadly heads, others being it's actual activist and "revolutionary" tactics. No, I will keep my will in my pocket, and I believe very much that my government is doing so (if also slapping down petty thugs who cannot or will not, who also have intentions of such toward our people). I think walking our own road, if pro-actively, is the wise way.
Still, I almost wish the world could see just what an imperial US really means. Or, even see the future of the world in an EU expanded to UN format. Despair would be... Well, the despair in socio-communist hearts would know fruition. We would know hell. We would all be North Korean.
I would call what we did to the Native Americans imperialism. We still hold their "lands" (read: reservations) in "trust". So the U.S. Gov't is the trustee huh, sounds suspicious to me. After the indians we issued the Monroe doctrine, which said that Latin America is our back yard. Seems self-explanatory so I won't go there.
In the abstract, I suppose capitalism doesn't have to be inextricably linked to imperialism, but in the U.S. it seems to have been; as capitalism scours the earth for new markets, the result is globalization, exploitation, and many times a resultant imperialism.
John,
It's a fair point, but throughout history, when a people conquers another, the former usually enslave the latter, unless of course they simply slaughter them.
Was the treatment of the American Indians justifiable? In general, no. But this linking of imperialism to capitalism seems tenuous, given the ubiquity of the former and the relative recent appearance of the latter.
To prove that capitalism and imperialism are linked, you'd have to establish some sort of link between non-capitalism and a relative lack of imperialism.
Otherwise you're simply saying that human beings tend to be imperialistic, which is true, but doesn't really have anything to do with capitalism.
Wiser,
There is no legitimate way of disproving the obvious link between capitalism and modern imperialism. One must either be willfully blind or dishonest to deny it. And those of you who do so remind me of those that deny the overwhelming proof of climate change and evolution. Furthermore, choosing to ignore the link is tantamount to criminal complicity with the crimes committed for the sake of profit.
Capitalism is the endless accumulation of wealth, period! It must grow or die. It needs markets! It must expand.
Imperialism can be understood as the forceful extension of authority by territorial (including territories beyond the geographic, and physical to include emotional and psychological) conquest establishing economic, political, cultural, social, emotional, mental, physical domination. The new global empire is capitalism (not the U.S.)itself. This empire extends/seeps into every public and private space. Everything becomes commodifiable, usurpable, dominable and exploitable by the capitalist empire. Just think for a moment of all of the human and non-human nature that has commodified, privitized then exploited. Life has become patentable.
So what are the limits of imperial capitalism? Finite resources? Genuine democracy?
Sorry Wiser and Co., but there is no excuse, nor defense for Capitalism. It is inhumane, unsustainable and undemocratic.
On another note, have you seen this? It's got me thinking about your Ron Paul. :o)
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