See this article, which offers another choice to the capitalistic Ubers that have coopted tech which can be used from another, healthier perspective. See it for many more details than the following short excerpts:
"Uber signifies a new era in tech entrepreneurship. Its leaders express
an explicit ideology of domination and limitless, global ambition. In
fact, the global tech sector may be one of the most powerful stateless
actors on the world stage today. And Death Star platforms are the tech
sector’s avant garde. [...] They wrap themselves in the cloak of technological progress, free market
inevitability, and even common good. As a result, cities allow them to
break their laws with surprising frequency (Uber and Airbnb are simply
illegal in most cities). Weak city governments either drink the Kool-Aid
or struggle to contain them."
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Response to Camosy
Joseph Camosy had two interesting posts in the anti-capitalism thread referenced in the last post, starting with this one. My response:
I see exactly the sort of people's movement arising from the bottom led by the likes of Sanders' and Warren's top-down leadership as fulfilling Lukac's requirements. Sanders gives voice and direction to an already emerging people's resistance to oligarchy.
I see exactly the sort of people's movement arising from the bottom led by the likes of Sanders' and Warren's top-down leadership as fulfilling Lukac's requirements. Sanders gives voice and direction to an already emerging people's resistance to oligarchy.
Three scenarios for the future of capitalism
Thanks to Bruce Kunkel
for feeding me this blog entry, Three Scenarios for the Future of Capitalism. Therein he discusses many of the scenarios we've already
discussed in the FB IPS anti-capitalism thread, like Rifkin, P2P, the neo-Commons and what
remnants of capitalism will likely remain in a post-capitalist era.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Myers-Briggs Halloween
Here's a funny take on what each type will dress up as for Halloween. I've vacilated between these types and they're all accurate.
ISTJ: Stays at home. Turns off all the lights. Does not leave candy bowl on porch. Repeatedly mutters, “Damn kids.”
INTJ: Decides to stay sober so they can be productive tomorrow. Accidentally eats six weed brownies.
INTP: Dresses up as their mathematician idol. Impatiently explains their costume to those who ask and is met with blank stares. Becomes increasingly disappointed with the physical world. Goes home early.
ISTJ: Stays at home. Turns off all the lights. Does not leave candy bowl on porch. Repeatedly mutters, “Damn kids.”
INTJ: Decides to stay sober so they can be productive tomorrow. Accidentally eats six weed brownies.
INTP: Dresses up as their mathematician idol. Impatiently explains their costume to those who ask and is met with blank stares. Becomes increasingly disappointed with the physical world. Goes home early.
Obama on wimpy Republican candidates
He laughs at their tough talk about Putin while they cry like babies about moderator questions.
President Obama skewers GOP Candidates - Can't... by ewillies
President Obama skewers GOP Candidates - Can't... by ewillies
Review of Inventing the Future
by Steven Shivaro at this link. Excerpts:
"Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams [...] pick up the tools of capitalist modernity, and detour them to liberatory ends. [...] They argue for a future-oriented left politics, 'at ease with a modernity of abstraction, complexity, globality, and technology.' They suggest that we should seek, not to restrain, but rather to 'unleash latent productive forces.'"
"The authors start the book by offering a (mostly) comradely critique of the left’s recent predilection for 'horizontalist' modes of organization, for privileging local concerns over global ones, for avoiding any explicit list of demands, and for direct democracy and spontaneous direct action. [...] But Srnicek and Williams argue that these tactics 'do not scale.' They may work well enough in particular instances, but they are not of much help when it comes to building a larger and longer-enduring oppositional movement, one that could actually work towards changing our basic conditions of life. [...] Local and horizontal political tactics are incomplete in themselves; they need to be supplemented by more global, or universal, modes of action and concern."
"Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams [...] pick up the tools of capitalist modernity, and detour them to liberatory ends. [...] They argue for a future-oriented left politics, 'at ease with a modernity of abstraction, complexity, globality, and technology.' They suggest that we should seek, not to restrain, but rather to 'unleash latent productive forces.'"
"The authors start the book by offering a (mostly) comradely critique of the left’s recent predilection for 'horizontalist' modes of organization, for privileging local concerns over global ones, for avoiding any explicit list of demands, and for direct democracy and spontaneous direct action. [...] But Srnicek and Williams argue that these tactics 'do not scale.' They may work well enough in particular instances, but they are not of much help when it comes to building a larger and longer-enduring oppositional movement, one that could actually work towards changing our basic conditions of life. [...] Local and horizontal political tactics are incomplete in themselves; they need to be supplemented by more global, or universal, modes of action and concern."
Eric Peirce on capitalism
Some comments from Eric in this FB IPS forum post:
"The people that are arguing most noisily against 'anti-capitalism' in this thread (one of whom is absurdly 'anti-green' in arguing against 'anti-capitalism' on the basis that 'integral' should never be 'anti', which is an anti-'anti' position!!) do not appear to be able to have much grasp on the pragmatics necessary to think about real social change (thus, their assertion of being 'holistic' is absurd), rather it is an exercise in theoretical intellectual masturbation."
"No one would object if there was a real snowball's chance in hell of capitalism 'reforming' itself. The large mass of brainwashing and social conditioning that is 'pro-capitalist' makes the likelihood of that minimal. [...] Capitalism is rooted in a pattern of culture that has existed for 1,000s of years, and requires slavery of one form or another, peasantry of one form or another, and a class of intellectuals that will bend over backward until the end of time justifying such practices with the most convoluted, shameful thinking imaginable."
"As if that wasn't bad enough, Ken Wilber reveals an astonishing level of incompetence in stating that democracy is 'bad for integral.'"
"The people that are arguing most noisily against 'anti-capitalism' in this thread (one of whom is absurdly 'anti-green' in arguing against 'anti-capitalism' on the basis that 'integral' should never be 'anti', which is an anti-'anti' position!!) do not appear to be able to have much grasp on the pragmatics necessary to think about real social change (thus, their assertion of being 'holistic' is absurd), rather it is an exercise in theoretical intellectual masturbation."
"No one would object if there was a real snowball's chance in hell of capitalism 'reforming' itself. The large mass of brainwashing and social conditioning that is 'pro-capitalist' makes the likelihood of that minimal. [...] Capitalism is rooted in a pattern of culture that has existed for 1,000s of years, and requires slavery of one form or another, peasantry of one form or another, and a class of intellectuals that will bend over backward until the end of time justifying such practices with the most convoluted, shameful thinking imaginable."
"As if that wasn't bad enough, Ken Wilber reveals an astonishing level of incompetence in stating that democracy is 'bad for integral.'"
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