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Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
Thu Dec 22, 2011, 03:18 PM Dec 2011

Capitalism is dead. But how many of us is it gonna take with it? Look to OWS for answers.

Last edited Thu Dec 22, 2011, 06:53 PM - Edit history (1)

The world economy as currently structured requires growth to sustain it. Capitalism has the same ethics as a cancer, and will just as surely kill its host if left unchecked. The host, of course, is the biosphere.

The species does NOT need growth to sustain it--either in population or in "productivity."

What we need is workable population control and a functional distribution system that ensures everyone has enough so they may live happy, self-fulfilling lives. If we have less attachment to useless, throwaway material possessions, we need to work less. If we have machines that absorb the work of production, then a major portion of the proceeds of that production ought to go to the people.

There is a path to a world in which everyone has the basics such as food, shelter, education and peace. People would not have to work as hard in this world. Everyone would have the time and opportunity to flourish as fully-functional humans. We just need wisdom to get there.

Unfortunately, the wise and fair-minded do not generally rise to power in this system, and perhaps not in any other.

The American Revolution was an attempt to build a more foolproof hierarchical system, based on a division of powers among 3 branches, those 3 branches themselves basing their authority on the consent of the governed.

But almost from the outset, the rich and powerful interests captured portions of the government and bent them to their own narrow purposes. Andrew Jackson & the smallpox blankets. Using cops & Guardsmen to bust strikes. Make up your own list. The point is that by now, the corruption is virtually complete.

So how can you build an incorruptible hierarchical system, one that is impervious to the toxic effects of money? The more I think about it, the more convinced become that you can't build such a system.

When I was a state employee, I used to say that the state's organizational chart consisted of a pyramid of boxes with names in them, each connected to the boxes below it by diodes. The system was designed to pass orders downward from the top, but not to allow any signals to arise into the system from below. It was a classic hierarchy. Shut up & do what you're told.

Nowhere was this hierarchical unidirectionality of communication made more clear than in the old Soviet Union. Right after the revolution, Lenin was faced with decisions about how to modernize his new nation in a hurry to elevate it from its quasi-feudal state. He thought about putting in a national telephone system. But he scrapped this plan. Instead, he wired the major cities for networks of loudspeakers--the ultimate one-way communication device.

Now, contrast any such hierarchical system with the system in place at an OWS General Assembly. In the GA, someone speaks and everybody gives immediate feedback on how they feel about what the speaker is saying.

Then there is the Human Mike. The "mic check" phenomenon is a very interesting one. One person's message is passed on to the crowd through the concerted, self-coordinated actions of those crowd members nearest the speaker. The speaker must have the consent of his "microphone" if he is to be heard. That's sure a bit different than Moscow, 1923. It's also different from any previous protest action in America. In the past, there were always defined leaders, whether Tom Hayden or MLK. Not this time. The power is distributed very differently.

The major difference between previous social actions and the present worldwide upheaval is the nearly universal access to the new social media. The 1% have their broadcast media, just as Lenin had his loudspeakers, and they have gotten very sophisticated in using these tools to shape public opinion. Classically, the public has had little capacity to respond. Oh, you could write a letter or make a phone call, but in general the public was limited to one-to-one communications, while the Mighty had one-to-many communication capability.

But the transpersonal environment is now very different than it has been at any time in the past. Each person has one-to-many capabilities. For example, I'm writing this in hopes that many more than one of my fellow-travelers will read it, and each of them will have the power to respond in kind, i.e. with one-to-many capabilities.

One way of looking at the massive one-to-many linkages among maybe 1 billion of us is that we have created a feedback mechanism unlike anything the world has yet seen. We are escaping the information filters that have always been imposed on us. We are making direct contact with each other around the world and sharing hour common humanity and our common concerns.

Learning occurs in the presence of feedback. Instant learning occurs in the presence of instant feedback. Learning means adaptability, constant change, constant updating of the information banks. No hierarchical system can coordinate an action as swift and graceful as a leaderless flock of birds suddenly executing a change in direction.

This is why I look to leaderless organizations such as OWS as experimental workshops for developing the new society.

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Capitalism is dead. But how many of us is it gonna take with it? Look to OWS for answers. (Original Post) Jackpine Radical Dec 2011 OP
Not only will it 'take' many, but they will cheer for their guy as we fall off the cliff. -eom Huey P. Long Dec 2011 #1
I'm only counting on Occupy these days. It's the only real message and attempt to educate I see out Sarah Ibarruri Dec 2011 #2
Shared: Facebook and Tweeted. Thanks and Happy Holidays to you! earcandle Dec 2011 #3
Thank you-- Jackpine Radical Dec 2011 #5
k&r Starry Messenger Dec 2011 #4
well said!!! FirstLight Dec 2011 #6
I think the availability of the socialo media create a whole new game, very different from anything Jackpine Radical Dec 2011 #11
Phew! I was afraid the crash had eaten this post. Starry Messenger Dec 2011 #7
It had. I reposted. Jackpine Radical Dec 2011 #8
Thank you for reposting! Starry Messenger Dec 2011 #13
Hear! Hear! Well said. JDPriestly Dec 2011 #9
Whose world? Zorra Dec 2011 #10
K R T F Fire Walk With Me Dec 2011 #12
What the hell. Kick for exposure......... socialist_n_TN Dec 2011 #14

Sarah Ibarruri

(21,043 posts)
2. I'm only counting on Occupy these days. It's the only real message and attempt to educate I see out
Thu Dec 22, 2011, 03:20 PM
Dec 2011

there. The only force to be contended with. The only reality.

FirstLight

(13,352 posts)
6. well said!!!
Thu Dec 22, 2011, 03:51 PM
Dec 2011

thanks for making the destinctions. Heirarchy is dead, i agree... instead we do need to look at natural systems and model ourselves as a society by those working systems.
I think of the Native American Circle .. no man was above or below, all were heard, children knew how to sit in circle and be respectful of the space and the community. Something called a 'talking stick' was passed as everyone spoke their piece. if you had a direct response to the person speaking, it was held until your time(because the answer or question would most likely be addressed as the group collectively spoke).
At the end of speaking, one would say "A-ho!" to mean "i am complete" and the group would echo "A-ho!" to mean "you have been heard"

i sincerely believe that we are coming back to a place of community, unity and tribe. OWS *is* a gamechanger

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
11. I think the availability of the socialo media create a whole new game, very different from anything
Thu Dec 22, 2011, 09:42 PM
Dec 2011

in the past.

There have been leaderless organizations before, and on a small scale they have functioned well, as with the case of some Native American communities. But I think what's happening now is of a different order entirely. The interactions & information interchange among Internet-equipped people begin to resemble the activity of a single, species-wide brain. We can't foresee the implications of all this; for one thing, the "brain" is in its infancy, and, for another, it's a sort of Gödel's Theorem proposition: no single one of us has sufficient complexity and information processing capacity to understand the whole.

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
8. It had. I reposted.
Thu Dec 22, 2011, 07:04 PM
Dec 2011

In the meantime I also posted it under a different title in the Socialist Progressives area.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
14. What the hell. Kick for exposure.........
Fri Dec 23, 2011, 01:10 AM
Dec 2011

THESE are the kinds of things we ALL need to be talking about. Good post Jack.

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