I just feel things are going the wrong way.

With advances in technology including renewable energy and automation, the world could easily work towards sustainability and and idealistic society. It would only take those in power being willing to utilize their position for the betterment of mankind and progress of humanity as whole, rather than hoarding riches and power for themselves.

We can argue all day about the ills of a society that cares about its people and the merits of capitalism, but in the end, the USA is not the number one nation in the world. It hasn't been in a long time, and won't ever be such again unless we get our collective heads out of our asses and realize that profit is not the only thing that matters.

This isn't about denying entrepreneurship or closing down mom and pop shops, it's about rising up against entrenched corruption in the biggest industries. It's about multi billion dollar companies pocketing more and more of the money while the USA is slowly becoming lower and lower concerning quality of life. It's about breaking up the corrupt banks that we as the people were forced to bail out after they commited their plot to fall, but claim to be so big that it would hurt us more than them.

Why do so many people fight against this progress? Why does anyone believe in some inherent right to be corrupt and earn as much money as one can - at the expense of the health of others, the privacy of others, the livelihood of others? Why aren't life, liberty, and happiness held far, far above the pursuit of profit for a small percentage of the nation?

Again - if you're on here, I'm not targeting you, nor likely anyone you know. If your name is Jeff Bezos and you happen to own Amazon, that's one thing - otherwise, you're simply stupid if you talk about not wanting to give your money up, or pay for others lives. That's not what most economically progressive people are talking about.

Anyways. Just a rant.

There's money in them there capitalist corporations.

a reply to: deadlyhope


Economically Progressive People is an Oxymoron.


Just like Nationalism has had it's definition changed to fit the Progressive agenda, Progressive and it's meaning as a positive has also been bastardized to mean something it does not.

a reply to: seeker1963

I was just being lazy.

What I meant was that the nation's with the highest quality of life - Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, and such have a much more socialistic take when it comes to taking care of the average citizen. Breaking a limb doesn't cause a lifetime of debt, for instance... Yet they have plenty of capitalism as far as private business ownership goes.

Not sure we've found a word to describe what the actual greatest nations on earth practice.

a reply to: deadlyhope

It's sad, but it's all about MONEY MONEY MOooooNEEEEEY

There are so many natural medicinal cures, but people just love pills pills pills.
I don't blame pharmaceutical companies. People love medicine, that is why it exists.
So many of the drugs out there have worse side effects than the symptoms but people still take them,
it makes no sense!

a reply to: deadlyhope

At some point in the past year or so, I've come to the realization (not just the knowledge, but the realization) that everyone in society is partially responsible for the state in which society exists. Blame the rich and the politicians all you want. Ultimately we buy products from them, we elect them, we sustain them. If its change you want, start with yourself. Learn to be satisfied with what you have. Live as an example for others to see. Take up your cross.

Try reading "Altered Carbon" by Richard K Morgan.

Its near future narrative involves a bunch of immortal billionaires who control everything.

I was going pin up an Amazon link for the book but thought better of it

a reply to: deadlyhope

The things you are talking about are not a priority of mine. I value personal liberty and all of that 'progress' you talk about costs people rights and the ability to provide a life for themselves that they want to live. What gives you the power to tell other people how they can live their life? I fight against any authoritarian power and that includes most people with their personal agendas to tell me and others how we have to prioritize our lives and what we need to care about.

Make whatever schemes you want, but at the end of the day just leave me and mine alone. I don't want to deal with your plans and need to tell others what is important and what is not.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I second that awesome message.

We could change the world if we wanted to by simply changing our desires.

But I have a feeling the powers that be do not wish us to gain self sufficiency, especially in our food supply. They want us to depend on them for everything. They want to provide us with all of the answers that will give them more power and control.

Sorry, never mind. I should really leave the subject alone.

a reply to: ClovenSky

THEY want us to depend on them for everything because WE have shown them a desire for total dependence. WE are without excuse.

a reply to: deadlyhope

I just feel things are going the wrong way.

Enjoy it while you can! We're stareing Facism right in the face.

I think that technology, specifically production/creation and communication tech, really change up the discussion from where it was even a couple of decades ago.

It enables decentralized structures that can operate as if they were centralized, for better or worse.

I think to truly realize the full potential, its going to require major changes in perspective in a lot of levels of society. That type of immense change is generally something that happens over generations. But, technology has progressed so fast that a single generation sees multiple events of world changing tools go from non-existant to ubiquitous. We just don't really know how to make the most of the tools at our disposal.

It would probably be a critical time in any civilization, where the tools created start to outpace the ability to really adapt to them..

Corruption, greed, etc. are always a problem too. So, for any massive shift to take place, we would have to create a system that benefits those parts of society as much, or more than, how things are now. That's a tall order. Though, I do think its possible.

Otherwise, we just keep using our tools as we always have: to supplement what we already do, and have been doing for a long time. It amplifies our ability to do things, good or bad, and at a certain point it would seem that could go very, very badly.

a reply to: deadlyhope

It seems pretty simple to me. Don't buy from them. Don't participate in Amazon or any of the the oligarchs' giant corporations. Use those mom and pop shops rather than Wal-Mart or the Big Box stores. Use your local bank rather than a multinational one. Shop your local charity shops for items to be found there rather than going to a big box store.

And most importantly---live within your means. Yeah, it takes a bit of time each month to sit down and figure out a budget and a bit of self discipline to follow it but it isn't an impossible task---just addition and subtraction. It's not college level stuff---I learned this when I was twelve years old and opened my first checking account.

If you don't like those entrenched corrupt corporations---refuse to buy from them. AND---don't buy their stock for your portfolio.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Ultimately we buy products from them, we elect them, we sustain them.

Needed to be repeated.

a reply to: Metallicus

Oh metallicus, how very libertarian of you to just take the "everyone should leave everyone alone" route

That's not happening.

We constantly kill people in third world nations for profit and power.

Corporations constantly collude with the government for profit and power, and vice versa.

I can agree with your "leave me alone" attitude - I wouldn't agree the government or corporations leave us alone in any way, though.

a reply to: deadlyhope

From one of my favorite books of all time, "Power and Technology" by David Kipnis:

"In the words of Jose Ortega y Gasset: "Technology provides men the leisure to realize their true potential" This, then, is the promise of technology: a material world of plenty and a spiritual world in which we have the leisure to realize our highest potentials and the freedom to contemplate God."

"Yet in nagging counterpoint to this optimism about the beneficent world of plenty provided by unlimited power is the suspicion that technology has another face. There is a world in which the freedom to choose and to control evens has been subtly altered so that there is less choice and less control. This is the world of "megatechnics," to use Lewis Mumford's apt phrasing, in which technology concentrates power and reduces individual choice."

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: deadlyhope

The things you are talking about are not a priority of mine. I value personal liberty and all of that 'progress' you talk about costs people rights and the ability to provide a life for themselves that they want to live. What gives you the power to tell other people how they can live their life? I fight against any authoritarian power and that includes most people with their personal agendas to tell me and others how we have to prioritize our lives and what we need to care about.

Make whatever schemes you want, but at the end of the day just leave me and mine alone. I don't want to deal with your plans and need to tell others what is important and what is not.

As an anarchist, you must hate the Constitution and laws in general.

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
a reply to: ClovenSky

THEY want us to depend on them for everything because WE have shown them a desire for total dependence. WE are without excuse.

Actually, our minds are programmed with false desires:



The only way to defend yourself from the brain washing is to be aware of its existence.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

You’ve been spending some time in the Gulag? Eh?