[americandream]

The answer is a simple one. Removal of the rationale that:

1 Gives rise to the self over the common, and;

2 The elevation of the private to the point that none of the institutions of civil society are capable of serving the commons.

Inculcate the perception of the supremacy of the self over the collective, and it should come as no surprise that the idea will mature to its natural state, an utter breakdown of the collective and failure of its function in serving the self. One of capitalism's contradictions is that in seeking to be free, the self becomes unfree or alienated as the mechanisms for freedom eventually shackle the individual in a constant quest for that which epitomises freedom in this context, surplus. Whether it be the surplus from one's own labour or the surplus from ones investment. One in effect assumes that characteristics of Buddha's hungry ghosts. Always searching, never requited.

Even though America's roots lie in the revolutionary idea of applying the collective in the perfection of the self, that idea has been about-faced to the point that the Constitution can no longer effectively function. The intent of the Constitution is for a vigilent citizenry (the collective), to ensure that the driving principles of the American Republic are not usurped by the sort of individualism that led to the outright injustice the colonisers fled Britain for. The root cause is economy. An economy previously centred around small scale entrepreneurship has naturally matured to full scale corporatist cronyism.

The private economic model CANNOT serve the intent of the political model enshrined in the Constitution. A principled set of ideas underpinned with economic individualism MUST, as a function of the elevation of the self above the common, degenerate into an utter breakdown of the common. On the other hand, a collectivised society, underpinned by rational and scientific constitutionalism (of the intentof the Amercian Constitution) can free the individual to achieve his or her individual perfection, IMHO. Inherent in an collectivised model of economy are a variety of functions which lend themselves to mature societies devoted to ends such as cultural elevation and resource and demographic equilibrium. This is not to say that collectivisation is not subject to faults. However, on the spectrum of sustainable modernity, collectivisation based on the sorts of principles enshrined in the Constitution is closer to the sustainable end.

Can we engineer this? I don't think we can. As long as there is a surplus premium, capitalism will work to extract it and adapt. Hence the fall of China and the USSR along with the non-aligned nations. We see evidence of this worldwide as all countries move to embrace the American economic model. This is even the case with fuedal Islam where the impulse for new vehicles of wealth creation will overwhelm feudal Islamic economic principles and we will witness what will in effect be Islam's Reformation as the laws on usury and debt are scrapped in favour of the ones adopted earlier by a Reformist Christianity.

However, as the private assumes its ascendency worldwide, so will its contradictions give rise to even greater paroxysms of boom and bust and the gradual devaluation and pauperisation of the worker/consumer. This will be accompanied by a gradual rise of a truly global political consciousness based around an objective understanding of economy, not the voodoo preached by religions and other wayward forces. Which is why I am less concerned about the forces of reaction such as Fascism or Islam (although one can never be 100% certain).

The impulse for labour deflation will be overwhelming, as it will be driven by resourcing scarcity and the resulting costs. Islam will be in its Reformist mode at this stage and will essentially have given rise to agnostic forces which MUST accompany such revisions. MUST. Fascism itself being a child of economic modernity of the corporate variant, will as well be unaffordable.

Which will naturally see the expression of ideas appropriate to the dynamics of late capitalism. Widespread labour disaffection and alienation on the back of an increasingly devalued labour and a general sense of the culpability of the private in the mismanagement of the commons. From this will naturally flow the forms and mechanisms necessary to halt and reverse this trend of distorted resource allocation.

This MUSt and WILL be an organic process. Just as was our evolution from the nomadic to the agrarian. These processes are self evident as they take effect. There will be no debate over the rights or wrongs of what is appropriate, the facade of bourgeoisie freedom will lie in complete tatters. This will be a fight for the wresting of the management of this planet from the incompetent. It will be accompanied by terminal convolutions in capital, where risk takes panicked flight to safety and labour is essentially the last stronghold of surplus for the wealthy.

They will weave the rope that hangs them.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'F')ascism and its twin, feudalism, are the last retreats of privilege, at a time of significant and potentially transformational attack. The fact that both these forms have elements of rough populism, (a crude parochialism in the former utilising nostalgic atavistism and blunt corporatism in the latter overlaid with a substanceless socialism) simply testifies to their opportinistic intent. In effect, they are forms of dictatorship of privilege in much the same way that labour's transitional state, communism, is equally dictatorial.

Ascendency, whether it be by privilege or the commons does not come free and involves some element of duress and compulsion.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', '
')
They will weave the rope that hangs them.

[Tanada]

Here is the online test by the Center for American Progress, how do you rate?

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/ ... _quiz.html

Chime on in!

[Cid_Yama]

333/400

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'H')ere is the online test by the Center for American Progress, how do you rate?



Chime on in!

[efarmer]

290 for me. I just wish it would have been a bowling game.

[Cid_Yama]

What is Progressivism?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')rogressivism is the specifically American development of liberal populism that seeks social and economic justice above all else, most specifically with reference to the obstacles posed to social and economic justice by large corporations and banks. Though Progressives strongly support civil liberties, the "progress" in Progressivism lies, most fundamentally, with ensuring, as the American pledge to the flag puts it, "justice for all". Because of this core concern, Progressives have advocated governance "of the people, by the people, for the people", the phrase "the people" here standing in sharpest contrast to governance by the corporation, or rather its principle owners and beneficiaries.

[americandream]

Problem is, these liberals have a habit of ending up in the pockets of the corporations. Sentimental nonsense such as social justice and the other meaningless nostrums of liberal capitalists obscures the fact that equity is not a case of being nice. Equity in thought and action is rationally a superior means of ordering our lives as a species constrained within the limits of a finite planet and subject to particular complications as a species adept at using tools and engineering its environment of an order unique on this plant.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', '[')b]What is Progressivism?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')rogressivism is the specifically American development of liberal populism that seeks social and economic justice above all else, most specifically with reference to the obstacles posed to social and economic justice by large corporations and banks. Though Progressives strongly support civil liberties, the "progress" in Progressivism lies, most fundamentally, with ensuring, as the American pledge to the flag puts it, "justice for all". Because of this core concern, Progressives have advocated governance "of the people, by the people, for the people", the phrase "the people" here standing in sharpest contrast to governance by the corporation, or rather its principle owners and beneficiaries.

[Cid_Yama]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'P')roblem is, these liberals have a habit of ending up in the pockets of the corporations.

[americandream]

Cid

Every so-called progressive I have met to date (as well as a few socialists) who have had a taste of the champagne lifestyle have been utterly corrupted as in done an about face in everything bar empty rhetoric.

The way we order society has nothing whatsoever to do with liberal jiggery pokery and everything to do with understanding its wherewithal from the point of sheer logic as a species. In acting out of logical interest, we will find that equity and natural justice flow as naturally as does water down a gradient.

For example, short sighted foreign policies have a habit of breeding lagging effects such as regional and global turmoil as well as demographic pressures. Lesson. It pays to follow a foreign policy regime that does not give rise to these outcomes even though the gain is not immediately evident.

[Cid_Yama]

Wrong. Check out Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Alan Grayson. There are many others but these are the first to come to mind.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is the largest caucus within the Democratic caucus in the United States Congress with 83 declared members, and works to advance progressive issues and positions.

The CPC was founded in 1991 and now has more than 80 members. The Caucus is co-chaired by Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). Of the 20 standing committees of the House, 10 are chaired by members of the CPC.

The CPC's founding statement of purpose states that it was "organized around the principles of social and economic justice, a non-discriminatory society, and national priorities which represent the interests of all people, not just the wealthy and powerful".

According to its website, the CPC advocates "universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare," fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into labor unions and engage in collective bargaining, the abolition of significant portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the legalization of same-sex marriage, strict campaign finance reform laws, a complete pullout from the war in Iraq, a crackdown on corporate welfare and influence, an increase in income tax rates on upper-middle and upper class households, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government.

[americandream]

Any idea that is motivated by sentiment or charity is as strong as the next bribe. Any idea founded on reason, is unwavering, and will only yield before a more convincing idea.

Progressive ideas founded on reason abhor contradiction. Personal gain, however, must ultimately taint all but steely reason.

What was it that Oscar Wilde said about sentiment:

The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism - are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all this. The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man's intelligence; and, as I pointed out some time ago in an article on the function of criticism, it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. Accordingly, with admirable, though misdirected intentions, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease......................But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim.

[Cid_Yama]

And you and Oscar Wilde are wrong. There really are spiritual people in the world. There really are people who care and work towards the betterment of all humanity.

I pity you, that you live in a world where, in your mind, such do not exist.

[americandream]

I am not a spiritual person. I am of the view that the universe is neutral and utterly dispassionate as to the plight of humankind. However, I do believe that in understanding one's reality, one understands, intimately, the interrelatedness of all humankind.

In fact I would argue that sentiment and compassion (as with greed and self-interest) merely create fase divisions where there aren't any.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cid_Yama', 'A')nd you and Oscar Wilde are wrong. There really are spiritual people in the world. There really are people who care and work towards the betterment of all humanity.

I pity you, that you live in a world where, in your mind, such do not exist.

[Cid_Yama]

I was right in my first sentiment. I pity you. You live in a cold sterile world where compassion has no place and life ends at death.

[Pretorian]

I live in a similar place as well ( well, not so sterile though). Its called Earth, you might want to visit us one day.

[Cid_Yama]

We already know how screwed up you are, Pretorian. And I have no pity for you at all.