Well, they went and done it! I hope that all the Americans reading this are taking deep breaths, for have seen their last day of FREEDOM! You are all now waking up to Islamo-Marxist regime change! The United Socialist States of America… you had been warned 🙂
Well, they went and done it! I hope that all the Americans reading this are taking deep breaths, for have seen their last day of FREEDOM! You are all now waking up to Islamo-Marxist regime change! The United Socialist States of America… you had been warned 🙂
Unsurprisingly enough, the silly attacks on Obama as a “socialist” for suggesting that wealth distribution need up always go upwards did not work. If progressive taxation is socialism, then Adam Smith was a socialist! And I’m not sure how that works, being a Muslim AND a Marxist. What happens, do people shout out from the top of Mosques that “Religion is the Opium of the Masses”? Or that “economic crisis is caused by the increase of fixed capital in relation to variable capital, so causing the rate of profit to fall”?
Or should that be prophet? Because as everyone knows, capital is dependent on prophets….
I have to admit to being somewhat preplexed by McCain’s concession speech — how he asks his followers to work with an adminstration he and Pallin denounced as socialists and of “palling” around with terrorists. And what of the celebrations in the non-“real” parts of America? Are anti-American protests taking place around America?
But, then, trying to logically understand the rhetoric of the American rightwing is a waste of time. It is based on fear and saying anything to get votes.
I’ve taken a keen interest in US elections since the Bush Junta used 9/11 to push through its agenda. I was disappointed that Kerry was not elected in 2004 purely because I was unhappy to see some many Americans fooled by such, well, fools. I got a kick out of this — it restored much of my faith in humanity, for some reason. I know, it is about an election and people voting for the lesser of two evils and real change comes from below, but for some reason this guy just summed up why I’m taking an interest in this election far more than the 2000 one.
I suppose its a case of if people still vote McCain after 8 years of Bush and a collapsing economy then they really are extremely stupid. And I cannot see any case for anarchism being based on the average person being extremely stupid…
I’ve tried to express my ambiguity about the Obama result in my article on it. I will reiterate what should be common sense for libertarians — real change comes from below, that Obama is the face of the progressive (and saner) wing of the business party, and so on. But it is good to see people celebrating change, even if it is a change in politicians. Hope overcoming fear is inspiring, even if it is such limited change. It is, though, something to work on. And, of course, given the state of the anarchist movement )in American and elsewhere) we need to focus on where we are, not where we would like to be. Only by realistically looking at the social context we are in can we start to move towards our goals — such as a mass social movement rooted in direct action, solidarity and self-management.
Talking of the election, I took the Guardian American election quiz I got 50%. Not bad, given some of the questions and the fact I’m not American. And I loved this question:
Obama promised his daughters Sasha and Malia that the family would get what type of pet if they were to move into the White House?
1. dog
2. cat
3. pony
4. llama
I went for llama, as that would have been sooooo cool! Unfortunately, it was wrong. But how I wish it wasn’t: Vote Obama for a llama as first pet! Now, that IS change I can believe in…
A few links. I do like John Cusack as an actor, nice to know he has a brain in his head: No Currency Left to Buy the Big Lies.
Also, an interesting article here on economists and why they produce such nonsense: H.L. Mencken Explains Economists. I added the Kropotkin quotes, obviously.
The usual suspects in defending capitalism get a well deserved slap here They may be Keynesians, but their critiques of the ideologies of “free-market” capitalism (the FT, the Economist, etc) are good. Plus useful facts and figures, and a few obvious, but rarely expressed, statements on who is leading global growth (and it’s not neo-liberal regimes…)