10 thoughts on “Resistance Is Fertile: Your Money or Your Life or Your…”
And Communism has a better success rate?
Please exercise some restraint when trying to post youtube videos and stick with good ol’ fashioned LA Eastside news. Jesus Christ where are the editors around here?
Well wasn’t that a breath of fresh air? Honestly friends, after the adrenaline subsided I personally came to a quiet conclusion that the only way to avoid the inevitable cataclysm this clip portrays is to staunchly follow the road of MLK, Ghandi, and yes the Man from Galilee. Sorry I couldn’t come with anything more dramatic. Our collective gooses are cooked unless we embrace some inner peace, envision some good, and take a mountain of chill pills.
Capitalism already imploded CT, and during the last 10 years especially hard. It melted down and failed due to it’s own inherent avarice and instinct to devour itself and anything else that got in the way of profit, namely free enterprise and any responsibility to the consumers, stockholders, and workers it depends on.
Capitalism naturally morphed into Monopoly Capitalism and has outlived it’s own usefulness. Society’s around the globe are now searching and experimenting with alternative economic systems, will it be a return to smaller free enterprise, merchant based, economics that are protected by a nations tariffs and regulations? Or a heavily regulated industrial and agricultural economy financed by government like the European Democratic Socialist countries? Or maybe as China’s State authoritarian run economy?
The transition from a Monopoly Capitalist based govt like in the USA to something else is taking place now and is clearly a painful exercise with no light at the end of the tunnel yet.
Beware of the Robber Barons, Trickle Down Economics and the Powers That Be.
Que Viva La Revolucion !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fidel Castro for U.S. President/Dictator !!!!!!!
I watched The Baader-Meinhoff Complex last night, anybody see how that one ends?
I agree with Gustavo, but the problem is that it seems like it’s too late. Like Lady Gaga says, the apocalypse isn’t coming, it’s already here, we’re living it. It’s just about escalation and proximity now and figuring out how to respond to the violence (and, for me anyway, how to stay alive). The idea of everybody taking a chill pill is a beautiful one but not a new one; the hippies used to talk about distributing LSD-25 to everyone, then the state saw what a great idea this was and pulled a bait-and-switch, confiscated it all and handed out Prozac and Xanax and cable TV to the masses instead.
The ruling class is very well-prepared; putting out the idea that they wouldn’t prepare for the fall of capitalism, as this video does, is irresponsible, not to mention, easily refutable–just look around and pay attention to what’s been going on and it’s pretty crystal clear just how prepared they are to deal with what’s coming (and how UNprepared WE are in comparison). They’ve got all the guns, all the training, all the money and resources, all the information, all the legal system, all the politicians… and we’ve got all the numbed out, doped up, out of shape, flamin-hot-cheeto atrophied, depressed, fructose-infused, uninformed bodies and minds.
When you feel disempowered and helpless, videos like this can be exhilirating and exciting, kind of cathartic (interesting how it uses the movie preview genre, which on one level I think is good, we need to engage more effectively with pop culture forms). But this is not a movie; one of the fundamental ways capitalism maintains power is through spectacle (right, Debord?). Blurring the lines between reality and spectacle so that we don’t know who we are or what is “real” or what is our life or TV or digital mediation or 3-D avatar anymore.
The reality is that it’s going to get very ugly for a lot of people, already is, is just spreading now beyond the traditional boundaries of oppression. Capitalism is built to drive itself completely into the ground and take everything else with it, it’s a zero sum game. But even then, it will evolve and morph and re-emerge into some other coercive hierarchical mechanism to support the state (I think dox quixote’s list of alternatives are right on, but most likely contender is China’s model). Capitalism is just one symptom.
There are moments for fighting and more direct confrontation and resistance, but we really need to be smart about how we deal with this and the relatively brief time of our lives within it. Anybody see Fantastic Mr. Fox? I know the hardliners will probly say it’s reactionary and counter-revolutionary, but I thought it was pretty right on, that’s just me.
Right now it is about surviving, preparing for what’s coming, building community, getting healthy in all ways as much as we can, helping each other, being honest and sincere, figuring out new ways of doing things, learning how to love and be compassionate and in good relations with others, and addressing in ourselves and our communities the deeper illness and pathology of violence, domination, and hierarchy in all of us that gives rise to systems like capitalism in the first place, while we wait for it to collapse…into whatever comes next.
There is a great temptation to “hope” for change soon (for the liberals, the hope was in Obama; for the radicals, the hope is in mass uprising; for the christians, the hope is in the second coming; for many fighting la larga noche de los 500 años, the hope is 2012)–will the riots start this year? next summer? what will spark it? do I have fresh gas mask canisters? we love to kick this stuff around in anticipation–but I think we need to think long term–like, centuries, millennia. That’s how they think about it. This empire didn’t start after WWII, or with the conquest of the Americas, or even two thousand years ago in Rome. It has been grinding on for the good part of ten thousand years now. They envision ten thousand more. “But the planet can’t sustain this, we really are approaching apocalyptic times…” Yes, but all that means is that they will escalate their current, ongoing efforts to wipe out as much of the “undesirable” population as possible while continuing their search for exoplanets to escape to. I’m sure they have it figured out exactly how many ants they need to keep the colony buzzing, and how many they can exterminate. I have a feeling the goal is reduction by about half.
One light I see is that underlying all this appearance of rationality and objectivity is insanity and irrationality. They literally are crazy, sociopathic, and psychotic. The problem is that the only thing you can really do with psychotics/sociopaths is isolate or banish them from general society. But when the sociopaths are the ones running and defining the terms of general society, well, then, you start to see why we’re all more than a little bit crazy [rightwingers insert requisite easy-shot “crazy ranter” dismissal here].
The good news is, ten years ago, I remember that when people would talk about stuff like this, they were immediately ignored and dismissed as just totally crazy leftwing conspiracy ranters. Now, I have the feeling that while the hardline ostriches among us still choose to stand around with their heads up each other’s asses, a lot of this stuff is starting to make a little more sense and sound a little less crazy to a lot more people. What that will translate to? Who knows.
Most of this footage is from abroad, which makes me think of the effects that globalization have had on the world economy. Wasn’t the American business world’s justification for globalization and outsourcing that it would bring opportunity to places that didn’t have it? Seems to me the world is saying thanks but no thanks to the crumbs American businesses are offering for working 12 hour days. They act is if people from around the world don’t know that they’re being paid a fraction of the American minimum wage and thus being used. And, these are the ones fortunate enough to have these crap jobs. The rest are on the street. So, we’re taking man power in other countries that can be used to build their own exportable products by dangling our 3 hot meals and a dorm room with free wi fi over their head, while ruining our own economy by decimating the labor unions that have been the backbone of the American middle class since the New Deal.
Anyone ever notice that the only living wage jobs available today for people without college degrees and/or connections are in law enforcement and military, or private companies contracted by either of the two?
RM
January 9th, 2010 | 2:02 pm
“Like Lady Gaga says, the apocalypse isn’t coming, it’s already here, we’re living it.”
…………
Yeh, I remember. That was in “Disco Stick”.
“Jesus Christ where are the editors around here?”
Editors? We don’t need no stinkin’ editors! If you want safe, boring re-hashed news may I suggest another blog with a suspiciously similar name? 🙂
That preview looks interesting. I sure hope it gets televised.
And Communism has a better success rate?
Please exercise some restraint when trying to post youtube videos and stick with good ol’ fashioned LA Eastside news. Jesus Christ where are the editors around here?
Well wasn’t that a breath of fresh air? Honestly friends, after the adrenaline subsided I personally came to a quiet conclusion that the only way to avoid the inevitable cataclysm this clip portrays is to staunchly follow the road of MLK, Ghandi, and yes the Man from Galilee. Sorry I couldn’t come with anything more dramatic. Our collective gooses are cooked unless we embrace some inner peace, envision some good, and take a mountain of chill pills.
Capitalism already imploded CT, and during the last 10 years especially hard. It melted down and failed due to it’s own inherent avarice and instinct to devour itself and anything else that got in the way of profit, namely free enterprise and any responsibility to the consumers, stockholders, and workers it depends on.
Capitalism naturally morphed into Monopoly Capitalism and has outlived it’s own usefulness. Society’s around the globe are now searching and experimenting with alternative economic systems, will it be a return to smaller free enterprise, merchant based, economics that are protected by a nations tariffs and regulations? Or a heavily regulated industrial and agricultural economy financed by government like the European Democratic Socialist countries? Or maybe as China’s State authoritarian run economy?
The transition from a Monopoly Capitalist based govt like in the USA to something else is taking place now and is clearly a painful exercise with no light at the end of the tunnel yet.
Beware of the Robber Barons, Trickle Down Economics and the Powers That Be.
Que Viva La Revolucion !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fidel Castro for U.S. President/Dictator !!!!!!!
I watched The Baader-Meinhoff Complex last night, anybody see how that one ends?
I agree with Gustavo, but the problem is that it seems like it’s too late. Like Lady Gaga says, the apocalypse isn’t coming, it’s already here, we’re living it. It’s just about escalation and proximity now and figuring out how to respond to the violence (and, for me anyway, how to stay alive). The idea of everybody taking a chill pill is a beautiful one but not a new one; the hippies used to talk about distributing LSD-25 to everyone, then the state saw what a great idea this was and pulled a bait-and-switch, confiscated it all and handed out Prozac and Xanax and cable TV to the masses instead.
The ruling class is very well-prepared; putting out the idea that they wouldn’t prepare for the fall of capitalism, as this video does, is irresponsible, not to mention, easily refutable–just look around and pay attention to what’s been going on and it’s pretty crystal clear just how prepared they are to deal with what’s coming (and how UNprepared WE are in comparison). They’ve got all the guns, all the training, all the money and resources, all the information, all the legal system, all the politicians… and we’ve got all the numbed out, doped up, out of shape, flamin-hot-cheeto atrophied, depressed, fructose-infused, uninformed bodies and minds.
When you feel disempowered and helpless, videos like this can be exhilirating and exciting, kind of cathartic (interesting how it uses the movie preview genre, which on one level I think is good, we need to engage more effectively with pop culture forms). But this is not a movie; one of the fundamental ways capitalism maintains power is through spectacle (right, Debord?). Blurring the lines between reality and spectacle so that we don’t know who we are or what is “real” or what is our life or TV or digital mediation or 3-D avatar anymore.
The reality is that it’s going to get very ugly for a lot of people, already is, is just spreading now beyond the traditional boundaries of oppression. Capitalism is built to drive itself completely into the ground and take everything else with it, it’s a zero sum game. But even then, it will evolve and morph and re-emerge into some other coercive hierarchical mechanism to support the state (I think dox quixote’s list of alternatives are right on, but most likely contender is China’s model). Capitalism is just one symptom.
There are moments for fighting and more direct confrontation and resistance, but we really need to be smart about how we deal with this and the relatively brief time of our lives within it. Anybody see Fantastic Mr. Fox? I know the hardliners will probly say it’s reactionary and counter-revolutionary, but I thought it was pretty right on, that’s just me.
Right now it is about surviving, preparing for what’s coming, building community, getting healthy in all ways as much as we can, helping each other, being honest and sincere, figuring out new ways of doing things, learning how to love and be compassionate and in good relations with others, and addressing in ourselves and our communities the deeper illness and pathology of violence, domination, and hierarchy in all of us that gives rise to systems like capitalism in the first place, while we wait for it to collapse…into whatever comes next.
There is a great temptation to “hope” for change soon (for the liberals, the hope was in Obama; for the radicals, the hope is in mass uprising; for the christians, the hope is in the second coming; for many fighting la larga noche de los 500 años, the hope is 2012)–will the riots start this year? next summer? what will spark it? do I have fresh gas mask canisters? we love to kick this stuff around in anticipation–but I think we need to think long term–like, centuries, millennia. That’s how they think about it. This empire didn’t start after WWII, or with the conquest of the Americas, or even two thousand years ago in Rome. It has been grinding on for the good part of ten thousand years now. They envision ten thousand more. “But the planet can’t sustain this, we really are approaching apocalyptic times…” Yes, but all that means is that they will escalate their current, ongoing efforts to wipe out as much of the “undesirable” population as possible while continuing their search for exoplanets to escape to. I’m sure they have it figured out exactly how many ants they need to keep the colony buzzing, and how many they can exterminate. I have a feeling the goal is reduction by about half.
One light I see is that underlying all this appearance of rationality and objectivity is insanity and irrationality. They literally are crazy, sociopathic, and psychotic. The problem is that the only thing you can really do with psychotics/sociopaths is isolate or banish them from general society. But when the sociopaths are the ones running and defining the terms of general society, well, then, you start to see why we’re all more than a little bit crazy [rightwingers insert requisite easy-shot “crazy ranter” dismissal here].
The good news is, ten years ago, I remember that when people would talk about stuff like this, they were immediately ignored and dismissed as just totally crazy leftwing conspiracy ranters. Now, I have the feeling that while the hardline ostriches among us still choose to stand around with their heads up each other’s asses, a lot of this stuff is starting to make a little more sense and sound a little less crazy to a lot more people. What that will translate to? Who knows.
Most of this footage is from abroad, which makes me think of the effects that globalization have had on the world economy. Wasn’t the American business world’s justification for globalization and outsourcing that it would bring opportunity to places that didn’t have it? Seems to me the world is saying thanks but no thanks to the crumbs American businesses are offering for working 12 hour days. They act is if people from around the world don’t know that they’re being paid a fraction of the American minimum wage and thus being used. And, these are the ones fortunate enough to have these crap jobs. The rest are on the street. So, we’re taking man power in other countries that can be used to build their own exportable products by dangling our 3 hot meals and a dorm room with free wi fi over their head, while ruining our own economy by decimating the labor unions that have been the backbone of the American middle class since the New Deal.
Anyone ever notice that the only living wage jobs available today for people without college degrees and/or connections are in law enforcement and military, or private companies contracted by either of the two?
RM
January 9th, 2010 | 2:02 pm
“Like Lady Gaga says, the apocalypse isn’t coming, it’s already here, we’re living it.”
…………
Yeh, I remember. That was in “Disco Stick”.
“Jesus Christ where are the editors around here?”
Editors? We don’t need no stinkin’ editors! If you want safe, boring re-hashed news may I suggest another blog with a suspiciously similar name? 🙂
That preview looks interesting. I sure hope it gets televised.
“[Capitalism] it’s a zero sum game”
-really? how so?