Just as ascent to Christian Heaven
(where eternal life might turn out to be
eternal longing to escape)
depended on Good Works, Faith and Obedience,
so Capitalist Utopia depends on the Work Ethic,
Ambition, the profit/status motive and Obedience.
However, as Karl Marx observed, the inbuilt greed
of capitalism produces ever more mechanisation
to save labour costs, so that there are fewer and fewer
workers and secretaries, more and more 'unemployment'.
Thus the work ethic will evaporate, and the system
(but probably not the class system) will rot away
for lack of motivation.
7 comments:
Señor Auban,
This is off the topic but maybe it isn´t. Have you ever of the Bilderberg Club? Take care.Raúl
It's one of several (often overlapping - or do I mean criss-crossing ?) Axes of Evil...
But I would say that, wouldn't I ? It was founded by dodgy characters such as Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and the then Chairman of the Unilever mega-corporation, with input from the CIA. The goal obviously was Globalisation on US/UK/Western European terms.
Here is part of the Wikipedia entry:
"The group's original goal of promoting Atlanticism, of strengthening US-European relations and preventing another world war has grown; the Bilderberg Group's theme is to "bolster a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe", according to Andrew Kakabadse.[3] In 2001, Denis Healey, a Bilderberg group founder and, a steering committee member for 30 years, said: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing."[8]"
Señor Auban,
Thanks for your reply. I wonder if one world government is attainable. Denis Healy is a very honest man. Killing people and rendering millons homeless. We are just a bunch of cattle to him and his friends. Take care. Raúl
If a "one world government" were possible, the wrong people would set it up and run it. In any case, the more remote a government is, the worse (and most corrupt) it is. Switzerland is a very small country with the most democratic system yet devised - a federal system. Jacques Delors of the EU had the right idea when he talked of "Europe of the Regions" in which national governments would dimninish in favour of local ones which had their say in Brussels.
In the Irish Republic, until recently (and maybe even now) if you wanted to see your Representative, you generally just walked to his house at a suitable time. That was very democratic, though it could also lead to corruption (brown envelopes) - and in any case Ireland was until the 1970s strangled by the Catholic Church.
On the other hand, there has been a (relatively|) "good Dictator", namely Tito, who held a diverse country together, built up its economy, and led the "Third World" group of countries during the Cold War.
Señor Auban,
Switzerland is a democratic country but its banks for a long time were recipient of tons of gold coming from the victims of the Holocaust in Europe. Not to mention the money that came from dictators, drug smuggling,corruption,etc,etc. A tax haven is Switzerland but everyone knows. Take care. Raul
For a long time the Swiss Confederation felt threatened, first by France (who grabbed its neighbour Savoy) then Austria, then Germany. It had very few natural resources. It was like the Jews in Europe, you might say - and the only way it could survive as capitalism invaded the whole of Europe was by its banking and hotel/sanatorium industry. Switzerland was on high alert during WW2 - and indeed Hitler had a plan to invade it, and then go and rescue Italy. The Swiss had plans to blow up the passes into and out of the country to the south and east - which of course was something the Danes could not do when the Germans invaded so as to capture Norway and its resources.
Ireland and Sweden were also neutral during WW2. Hugo Boss supplied SS uniforms. The Irish supplied a pathetic Irish Brigade - and steadfastly refused to let the British open an embassy in Dublin. Of course individual soldiers joined the British Army, and went to and from the Irish Republic - but had to change into civilian clothes on board the boats or before they crossed the border from Northern Ireland.
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