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We Can Blame Anybody But That Doesn't Change Anything

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We Can Blame Anybody But That Doesn't Change Anything

Unread postby athlete » Fri 12 Oct 2007, 22:41:38

I make changes by taking smalls steps like influencing my City Council and educating people on topics like this. I ride a bike to show that change is possible by taking small steps. I am even thinking of joining a charity event that helps others while getting our green message out: http://www.agentsofchange.ca/projects/r ... -the-ride/
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby americandream » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 05:43:15

Nothing of any significance was ever done in small steps. Humanity is in effect a colony, not a collection of individuals. The cult of individualism helps perpetuate the culture of powerlessness and consequently delays change that can only come through mass revolutionary impulses.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby ohanian » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 06:32:18

As for me...

I blame Canada


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzG7bBylRo
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby benrk » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 07:07:42

"Nothing of any significance was ever done in small steps."

Everything was started in small steps until it became a broad mass by the multitude of small individuals.
Change starts with YOU!
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby Ludi » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 10:40:01

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'N')othing of any significance was ever done in small steps. Humanity is in effect a colony, not a collection of individuals. The cult of individualism helps perpetuate the culture of powerlessness and consequently delays change that can only come through mass revolutionary impulses.



What now do you propose?


I'm serious. If individual action is useless, what now? Please be specific.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby wisconsin_cur » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 10:50:13

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'N')othing of any significance was ever done in small steps. Humanity is in effect a colony, not a collection of individuals. The cult of individualism helps perpetuate the culture of powerlessness and consequently delays change that can only come through mass revolutionary impulses.


Concerning the concept of individuality as tamed and marketed by the popular culture you are correct. Real individualism, individualism that rejects some, most, or all of the popular paradigm is, at the very least, locally powerful. We do have a herd mentality and perhaps the individual is merely the member of a smaller herd, the difference is academic. The smaller herd displays an alternative way of life. Doesn't matter if it is the Amish, McVeigh's militia, gang bangers, a hippie commune or what.

The decisions they make create a change for them. Those who want revolution want to impose their idea of a better future on the whole of humanity, they want to replace the dominant paradigm with their paradigm because it is "better."

The only dominant paradigm I care for is one that gives others space to live "the good life" as they see it for themselves. We are responsible only for ourselves. When we begin to make ourselves responsible for everyone else then we become the tyrants that hate.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby americandream » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 15:13:24

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'N')othing of any significance was ever done in small steps. Humanity is in effect a colony, not a collection of individuals. The cult of individualism helps perpetuate the culture of powerlessness and consequently delays change that can only come through mass revolutionary impulses.



What now do you propose?


I'm serious. If individual action is useless, what now? Please be specific.


You have ample evidence in history. You have ample choice in your country. The only idea that ever posed a serious threat to the power of the ruling elites was marxism. As an ideology, it is the only one that is capable of organising and motivating masses of individuals towards a collective end, it is the only idea that pierces the veil of eons of cultural conditioning by the elites and their minions, religion (whether they be Xtian or Islamic), and it is the only idea that the elites fear.

They have used all manner of ruses to discredit the idea variously by demonising it, slaughtering the vanguard of the global movement or in the case of China, exploiting this reformist tendency to undermine the global impulse.

However the idea remains alive and with it the fear of the elites. They know that you have the power!...it is only an idea away!
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby wisconsin_cur » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 15:27:53

that and the french revolution

oh and the islamic revolution, though I guess that had some marxist hues to it (just don't tell them that).

Maybe the Orange Revolution?

There are of course many events where the top was cut off to be replaced by a major-general or what not. I'm guessing that you would n't include that. It seems like the question is defined in Marxist terms (only a Marxist revolution would suffice to qualify).


India's expulsion of the brits?

the chinese nationalist dislocation of the empereor?

the american revolution ( alot of tories had to go north)?

how about the republican revolution... (a lot of the democratic party assumptions were cast aside and changed the course of the Clinton Presidency)?

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan?

The industrial revolution (new power bases dislocating the old)?

The enlightment (the movement of power from landed wealth to traders and tradesmen)?

Maybe I don't understand the statement?
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby americandream » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 15:46:29

Of all the ideas, only, I have to say, has marxism truly and dispassionately penetrated the convoluted journey of human history, the outcomes when certain factors prevail and the consequences when the elements of these factors contain contradictions (in capitalism, resource constraints). He identified the key players in capitalism and why each was positioned as they were. In the case of labour, he identifed them as the vanguard of the impulse for change simply because they have nothing to lose but their chains and yet are the core element of the human grouping, in sufficient numbers the bring about change in other words. Religion he identified not so much irrational, but duplicitious in as much as it promised pie in the sky in a bid to distract and stupify. Societial relationships such as the family he identified as malleable and isolated centres for the reinforcing of desired values including the sustainable production of labour resourcing.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby Ludi » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:04:36

No, actually I was asking YOU specifically what YOU propose, americandream.


"Look at history" is not an answer to the question


"What do you, american dream, propose to do?"
Last edited by Ludi on Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:14:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby EnergyUnlimited » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:09:14

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'T')he only idea that ever posed a serious threat to the power of the ruling elites was marxism.

To the effect of replacing those elites with some marksist ones, even more oppressive then those replaced.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby wisconsin_cur » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:15:46

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'N')o, actually I was asking YOU specifically what YOU propose, americandream.


"Look at history" is not an answer to the question


"What do you, american dream, propose to do?"

(edited for Ludi - TheTurtle)


:o did anyone ever tell you that you are awfully gad dang cute when you are angry Ludi :o
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby Ludi » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:22:31

Oh man, you quoted me before I edited.


Durn. :oops:


Anyways, gotta go move some more dirt or something....


Enjoy your revolutions. :)
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby TheTurtle » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:41:10

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'O')h man, you quoted me before I edited.


Durn. :oops:


Taken care of for you, Ludi. :)
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” (Ted Perry)
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby americandream » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:44:02

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'N')o, actually I was asking YOU specifically what YOU propose, americandream.


"Look at history" is not an answer to the question


"What do you, american dream, propose to do?"


Personally, and I shall keep this brief and leave you to draw your own conclusions, I am actively engaged politically for change (and there are groups and sites that reflect a more scientific approach to the issue of history, heres a link to one....

http://www.wsws.org/

...what I do not do is bourgeoisie greenism which I view as bourgeoisie tendencies by the back door, I do not take the MSM as factual nor do I get drawn into this firefight between the elites of the West and Midde East.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby americandream » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 16:53:28

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'T')he only idea that ever posed a serious threat to the power of the ruling elites was marxism.

To the effect of replacing those elites with some marksist ones, even more oppressive then those replaced.


Lol...as I said, well conditioned! Remember, you are dealing here with absolute conditioning..to the point where the IDEA is demonised, along with its early tentative outcomes...the baby out with the bathwater syndrome.

However, we are talking here of solutions to an insurmountable problem....operating a failing system. The fact that capitalist elites are the way they are is not so much a matter of their being intrinsically malign...they are simply a result of the way we have, as a species organised ourselves. Now, the time is arriving for us to examine that organisation. What DO WE WANT?

A collectivised society based around the stewardship of our resources;

Business as usual

Mad Max

Remove yourself from the personalities. Whilst they may be repulsive and that is a natural response, they are as much a product of a system as you and I, being as we are members of the class of non-capital owners.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby Ludi » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 17:55:57

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'P')ersonally, and I shall keep this brief and leave you to draw your own conclusions, I am actively engaged politically for change (and there are groups and sites that reflect a more scientific approach to the issue of history, heres a link to one....


Thanks for the vagueish response.....I guess it's the best you can do.......
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby Ludi » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 17:57:12

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', ' ')being as we are members of the class of non-capital owners.



Really? You don't own any means of production?


What a strange way to live..... 8O
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby americandream » Sat 13 Oct 2007, 23:24:19

History is dispassionate....we will either survive or perish....this discussion is all about that. Whether I own capital, am an ardent advocate of my cause or drink green beer on Paddy's Day is irrelevant to the discussion...in fact who I am is not the issue, what is is whether individually we can act to a the degree sufficient to trigger change in what I assume we all believe is a crisis of increasingly terminal proportions involving the system we have devised or whether efforts should be increasingly of a collective nature. Clearly if you advocate the former, it would be useful if you could explain why minus the personal diatribes.
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Re: WE CAN BLAME ANYBODY BUT THAT DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING

Unread postby Concerned » Sun 14 Oct 2007, 06:14:04

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', 'P')ersonally, and I shall keep this brief and leave you to draw your own conclusions, I am actively engaged politically for change (and there are groups and sites that reflect a more scientific approach to the issue of history, heres a link to one....


Thanks for the vagueish response.....I guess it's the best you can do.......


I don't think it's vague. Depends on how far and wide you have read and what you believe.

Progress and Poverty. Henry George
Debunking Economics. S. Keen
Economic Democracy J. W. Smith (very good and free on the web)
Manufacturing Consent, Necessary Illusions. Noam Chomsky
A peoples History of the United States Howard Zinn
The New Rulers of the World. John Pilger
Rogue State. W. Blum
Globalization and it's Discontents. Joseph Stiglitz
When corporations rule the world. Korten
The case against the global Economy. J Mander, E Goldsmith
Growth Fetish. Clive Hamilton
Plague Species. Reg Morris
Bury my heart at wounded knee. Dee Brown
Final Empire. W.M. H. Kotke (also free on the web, England enclosure laws, people forced to use money)
Revolutionary Empire, The rise of English speaking nations. Angus Calder
Europe. Norman Davies
The Great Transformation. Karl Polanyi
Capitalism and Freedom. Milton Friedman
Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand
The road to serfdom. F Hayek
Free to choose. Milton Friedman

Many others also too many internet articles to mention.

I hope there is a genuine mass movement global workers struggle to lift the yoke of the oppressors the 2% that own 80% of the worlds wealth.

This time if it truly happens on a global scale, workers might be able to prevent authoritarian rule of their lives. The biggest impediment is the human desire to breed. As Reg Morris postulates our genes are in full control for bloom and die-off scenario.

Also watch the video "The Money Masters" some interesting quotes from Lenin about not being able to control the financial system.

Our No 1. Problem is growing human population.
Our No 2. Problem is infinite growth based economic system.
"Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box."
-Italian Proverb
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