Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are plenty of evil people in the world. I stopped to think the government is our enemy. The real enemy is the people who wish to enslave others, and there are plenty of them.
I don't typically use the term "evil", but I agree with part of what you are saying....the government isn't inherently "evil" as you'd say, when the Leviathan stays adequately in check, it is very beneficial.
The problem is that collectivists, such as Marxists and other socialists wish to seize the power of government in order to shackle and enslave the people in the name of "the greater good".
... you need scary imaginary monsters to have something to animate you. This is how insurrections like January 6th get started.
Our government is not your enemy, and it is no threat to you, except in your wild imaginations.
The government can definitely be the enemy of the people mandating or making laws that hurt people . It is so easy for the democrats to control our border but they have opened it up. Their power is not taking in consideration that most Americans do NOT want opened borders.
It was texted to me today that a Christian college had to allow biological men into shared bedrooms and showers in the women's dormitories.. It is a Christian college mind you. A federal judge refused to bypass the new rules of the Biden administration. This is from the government of Biden.
Stuff like this is the reason I sometimes doubt the First Amendment. Freedom of speech is the most dangerous thing in the world.
Whoever made this video has to be the evil of our world.
Listen to this gem, "[The capitalist] factories and systems are so efficient that we can give everybody a car, a house, access to a decent school. That's what so enraged Marx... Few actually need to work because the modern economy is so productive. Rather than seeing this need for not to work as freedom ... we should redistribute the wealth of the massive corporations that make so much surplus money and give to everyone."
I highlighted the most wonderful parts for you. In essence, slavery for others, and freedom for me. That's communism, ladies and gentlemen.
Edited to add this part: "Men and women should have the permanent option to enjoy leisure." Wow!!!!
Last edited by lifeexplorer; 05-25-2021 at 11:08 AM..
I don't typically use the term "evil", but I agree with part of what you are saying....the government isn't inherently "evil" as you'd say, when the Leviathan stays adequately in check, it is very beneficial.
The problem is that collectivists, such as Marxists and other socialists wish to seize the power of government in order to shackle and enslave the people in the name of "the greater good".
How would you describe them? These people are more than happy with slaughtering millions so that they can get other people's properties.
I highlighted the most wonderful parts for you. In essence, slavery for others, and freedom for me.
His observations were correct, but his ideas are often nonsensical. For instance, there is a glaring contradiction between "Work gives life meaning" and "We shouldn't have to work". But the alienation of labor is a major problem in capitalism.
Everything we do is to some extent a job. There are people right now who get paid to comment on political forums. So in a way you're doing work right now. Spending hours and hours, days and days. But it doesn't feel like work because you enjoy it.
I often joke that, prior to civilization, your job was what many people now do for fun(hunting and fishing). So what is fun? Why are some things fun and some things aren't? Even things that require massive amounts time, effort, research, etc. And why do we enjoy these "hobbies" and "sports"(among other things) which are obviously a massive waste of time and resources.
I play this video game where you go out and kill monsters, level up, collect gold, find better gear, etc. And people often want me to help them do whatever, but I don't want to because it is a "waste of my time". It never occurs to me that playing the game itself is a waste of time. So why doesn't it feel like a waste of time?
As for leisure. Who has more leisure, modern man or primitive hunter-gatherers? You would think modern man would have far more, since he has all these labor-saving machines which do most of the work for him. But the exact opposite is true. Primitive people did very little work. And what work they did, they found enjoyable. They could take pride in it, because what they did was a product of themselves. In the modern world, the work you do has nothing to do with you, your creativity, your choices, whatever. The only thing you can take pride in is making money.
And what is the money really for? People will say "a better life". But what does that really mean? Wouldn't a better life be a happier life? But are we happier than our hunter-gatherer ancestors? What makes a life worth living? Cell phones? Cable TV?
The concerns of people like Karl Marx are echoed in many others. Alexis De Tocqueville was concerned that capitalism made people put money before everything. That money becomes the value of a man. It turns people into commodities and ultimately makes them less free, more afraid, more conformist, more dependent, etc.
Is that true? Is this the best time in history to be alive? Why then are so many people depressed, on drugs, and suicidal?
Edit: "This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employed they are best contented. For on the Days they worked they were good-natured and cheerful; and with the consciousness of having done a good Days work they spent the Evenings jollily; but on the idle Days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their Pork, the Bread, and in continual ill-humor." - Benjamin Franklin
I've noticed this phenomenon in myself. There is no greater feeling than a hard day's work. But only if that work feels like it was worth doing. When you do something worth doing, you feel good, you feel happy, you're laughing and joking, you sleep great at night. But when you do something that doesn't feel worth doing, it is drudgery and misery.
But what is worth doing? And in what ways might the modern world strip meaning from our work?
Someone on 4chan the other day said, "I have to go to work so I can function in a world I don't want to live in."
Last edited by Redshadowz; 05-25-2021 at 02:54 PM..
1) That capitalism "alienates labor"... Before capitalism, people produced goods which they sold for a "price". After capitalism people only sold their labor for wages. To illustrate the problem, you have to imagine working on an assembly line where your job consisted only in turning a few bolts, over and over and over again, for 8 hours a day. Compare that to building a car, or a house, or a boat all completely yourself. Or imagine primitive peoples hollowing out a log to make a boat, or making spears or bows or arrows or blowguns or a house/tepee, it isn't the same feeling as selling your labor for wages.
In capitalist countries, people tend to have hobbies which are where they pour their creative energy. This is because their own ideas and creativity are absent in the work they do. Their labor is someone else's creativity which they are paid to repeatedly mimic.
2) That modern labor is insecure... You could lose your job tomorrow. Your entire field could become obsolete. And then what? He didn't mention this, but I will. In the pursuit of work, people often have to travel great distances, leaving their homes and families behind. Capitalism tends to create "individualism" because it necessarily destroys community, scatters people to the winds, and surrounds us all with strangers.
3) That capitalism leads to massive inequality. The more capitalist we become, the more unequal. But economically this is the deal. Large corporations are more efficient than small businesses. Thus the centralization of labor and resources into fewer and fewer hands is necessary. People complain that Walmart has killed "mom and pops", but it did so because it could offer more goods at a cheaper price. This kills what Marx called the "petty bourgeoisie" and creates a class of workers, and a class of capitalists, who with their vast wealth control the government and its institutions.
As Engels wrote... "Manufacture, on a small scale, created the middle-class; on a large scale, it created the working-class, and raised the elect of the middle-class to the throne." - Friedrich Engels, 1844
4) That capitalism is unstable. The economy could completely crash tomorrow, assets could become worthless. One of the problems with capitalism is that it requires consumption. Most of the crises in capitalism come from people not buying enough stuff. Which is why economists are constantly worried about "consumer confidence". And why George Bush after 9/11 reminded us that it is our "patriotic duty to consume". If we stop buying junk from Walmart, the terrorists win.
5) That capitalism turns marriage and relationships into a business. People marrying purely for economic gain. In that sense, capitalism turns us all into prostitutes, selling ourselves for money.
"The devout and politically free inhabitant of New England is a kind of Laocoön who makes not the least effort to escape from the serpents which are crushing him. Mammon is his idol which he adores not only with his lips but with the whole force of his body and mind. In his view the world is no more than a Stock Exchange, and he is convinced that he has no other destiny here below than to become richer than his neighbor. Trade has seized upon all his thoughts, and he has no other recreation than to exchange objects. When he travels he carries, so to speak, his goods and his counter on his back and talks only of interest and profit. If he loses sight of his own business for an instant it is only in order to pry into the business of his competitors. Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of (materialism) over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade, and the bankrupt trader deals in the Gospel just as the Gospel preacher who has become rich goes in for business deals." - Karl Marx
How would you describe them? These people are more than happy with slaughtering millions so that they can get other people's properties.
I prefer words like unethical, wrong, bad.... that kind of thing.
Most of these people who do these things are just dumb enough to think their actions that kill millions are for the greater good.... so they see themselves as the heroes in their story, something all villains do.
This is why i say that I've never met an intelligent AND informed Marxist, communist, socialist.... whatever you want to call them. Being those things requires you to either be a moron, be completely naive and ignorant, or all of the above.
I prefer words like unethical, wrong, bad.... that kind of thing.
Most of these people who do these things are just dumb enough to think their actions that kill millions are for the greater good.... so they see themselves as the heroes in their story, something all villains do.
What kind of people would think killing millions for the greater good is a grand idea?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
