Does Capitalism Have a Persecution Complex?

[less lee]

Monday, October 17, 2011

Does Capitalism Have a Persecution Complex?

Here in the United States, you sleep in a bed that you bought from a capitalist furniture store. You wear sleepwear that was manufactured by capitalists. You eat breakfast that consists of food you bought from a capitalist market. You turn on the T.V. set and hear and see commercials. You drive in a capitalist-made car that contains a radio that broadcasts capitalist ads. On the road, you see billboards that advertise capitalist products. You go to work so you can pay for all this capitalist-generated stuff.
Now, if you listen to all crackpots on the right, Liberal government is taking over. Big Government? The only evidence I see of government are traffic signs and the occasional traffic cop hiding beneath a capitalist billboard. Occasionally, I’ll see U.S. Marines at one of these gigantic, mega stores, looking to buy some C.D.s to enjoy during their hard-earned leave, with their taxpayer-derived pittances. Yeah, the commies are taking over. That is why I’m still paying a mortgage and my cell phone bill is coming with the mail. I think all the private schools are still open.
Capitalism in the USA is more pervasive than oxygen. The only ways you can get away from it is by going to a natural park, prison, church, or state university. But, even universities are not immune to capitalism. In the student union lounge, there’s a candy machine.
So what’s all this fuss about a big, Liberal government threat? Fear keeps the capitalist machine turning. Scaring Americans, particularly the white protestant middle class, yields big profits. Fear is a great motivator for people to consume. Fear about Latino illegal aliens was a big one for a while. But since all the jobs have been outsourced, illegal aliens are no longer coming here. What happened to the Minutemen?
Fear about Islam is becoming more obsolete than videocassette tapes. The only Americans worried about Islam are the religious right’s small community. The corporate state is now trying to kick up public opinion because of this Syrian Diplomat incident committed by some alleged Iranian assassins. The U.S. imperialists want that Iranian oil.
For centuries now, kings and the aristocracy have worried about the security of their empires. They instigated race riots and useless bloody wars for their own selfish greed and to protect their empires.
Here in the U.S., we have bad capitalists and good capitalists. An example of a good capitalist is Bill Gates. He is a classic American businessman who has a product the entire universe wants. He treats his work force fairly well and he doesn’t rip-off his customers. He’s a philanthropist, in that his company has been giving computers to poor countries for years. You never hear of him complaining about paying taxes.
Now, the Koch brothers, on the other hand, are bad capitalists. They would be thrilled to reinstate slavery again. They believe that only WASP rich men should run the world’s economy. They claim to be libertarians when they are really fascists. They are NOT very bright. They’ll spend billions of dollars on anti-tax the rich propaganda. If they’d just pay their taxes and shut their mouths, they’d be even wealthier. I would hate to see these dummies run the world. But alas, they almost do.
Right wing propaganda is full of exaggerations and hyperbole. They’ll take a news story and twist and strangle it until it’s an alarmist piece of shit! Billionaires write the talking points that are repeated on Fox News and Radio.
How many times must I repeat myself?! Socialists, communists, and Anarchists want to abolish capitalism. Liberals want to regulate it, but not control it. Activists want to stop capitalist exploitation, not abolish capitalism. However, right wing propagandists lie and lie about liberals’ political intentions. They conflate the left’s multi-faceted agenda into one monolithic conspiracy. A lot of the right’s followers are too feeble to comprehend the nuances of political science. A right-winger would accuse me of being an elitist (left wing terminology), all because I accuse some right-wingers of being stupid. Well--they are! The current, international “Occupy” movement is killing the right’s “Tea Party” movement. Once again, the Kochs have lost billions of dollars funding the “Tea Party.” It lasted only two years! The Occupy movement sprung out of spontaneous combustion; the Tea Party was orchestrated by some right wing think tank. The latter, in turn, will claim that the Occupy movement was created by George Soros.
Of course Americans will not buy it, as they are too busy buying products made in Red China.

A folk song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI2-MnBxz54

[PETRUS]

1. A few comments

You left out a major encroachment of private, for profit interests into our public universities - the deliberate de-funding of education (previously accomplished with public money), which was replaced by the rentiers in the lending business.

Also, I don't think Bill Gates is a very good example. From economist Dean Baker:

"The computer guru of Greenspan's world is Bill Gates, a man who got far richer than Steve Jobs. Gates' secret was not making great products -- the only ones praising his creativity at his funeral will be people on his payroll -- but rather in gaining control of markets. In other decades, the anti-competitive practices he pursued to win Microsoft a near monopoly in the computer market might have landed him behind bars. But in the age of Greenspan they made him the richest person in the world."

You are right that liberals seek to regulate capitalism while leftists seek to replace it. And you are right that certain factions (who are well-represented in the media) deliberately conflate these groups and this is a mistaken point of view.

Those same factions, along with many liberals, wrongly (deliberately?) conflate capitalism with markets and entrepreneurship, not to mention the ideas of freedom and democracy. That is also a mistaken point of view.

To distinguish between "good capitalists" and "bad capitalists" is to miss the point. Capitalism is a system that promotes the concentration of wealth and power. That creates a situation that is profoundly anti-democratic and ripe for abuse. The historical record indicates that attempts to regulate capitalism will be circumvented and eventually undone. In the US today, there is an abundance of food, medicine, educators, and housing, but a severe crisis of distribution. That is the predictable outcome of a capitalist system.

[Demeter]

2. Capitalism Acknowledges No Limits

Not even the 24 hour day, the law of gravity, nor the rule of law.

Without limits, Capitalism adopted a Persecution fetish. It sought to persecute anyone and anything that got in its way, while complaining of persecution against the corporations.