Robustly post-modern, post-Brexit, post-BS, Trump-era, alt-left, anti-Imperialist, anti-Neoliberalist, anti-Zionist, pro-peeps worldwide. Fierce irreverance from an Old Leftist and all the Fake News that's not fit to print.
No Zionist wankers, no alt-right and no snowflakes, please!
I was trained to be a Marine Engineer, to man ships and participate in global commerce. Yet there were very few jobs for "Americans" in this field, and most had to be "protected" by government set-asides (aka - The Jones Act). All my life I've experienced the "problem of globalization"... that jobs go to the cheapest source unless "protected" by legislation or tariff.
And once the jobs are protected, it's necessary to prevent the concentration of wealth... special tax rates for capital gains, corporations, etc. THAT is where we are failing. We need to get ownership and control in the hands of the "middle" classes. Yes, we NEED "classes". Intelligence is not equally distributed amongst the general population. So allowances must be made to ensure that all "classes" have numbers and standards below which they must legislatively NOT be allowed to fall.
“…man never regards what he possesses as so much his own, as what he does; and the labourer who tends a garden is perhaps in a truer sense its owner, than the listless voluptuary who enjoys its fruits…In view of this consideration, it seems as if all peasants and craftsman might be elevated into artists; that is, men who love their labour for its own sake, improve it by their own plastic genius and inventive skill, and thereby cultivate their intellect, ennoble their character, and exalt and refine their pleasures. And so humanity would be ennobled by the very things which now, though beautiful in themselves, so often serve to degrade it…But, still, freedom is undoubtedly the indispensable condition, without which even the pursuits most congenial to individual human nature, can never succeed in producing such salutary influences. Whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness…
…we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is.”
Chomsky has nailed the problem. It's in solutions where he, like most on the Left, stumble.
ReplyDeleteI was trained to be a Marine Engineer, to man ships and participate in global commerce. Yet there were very few jobs for "Americans" in this field, and most had to be "protected" by government set-asides (aka - The Jones Act). All my life I've experienced the "problem of globalization"... that jobs go to the cheapest source unless "protected" by legislation or tariff.
ReplyDeleteAnd once the jobs are protected, it's necessary to prevent the concentration of wealth... special tax rates for capital gains, corporations, etc. THAT is where we are failing. We need to get ownership and control in the hands of the "middle" classes. Yes, we NEED "classes". Intelligence is not equally distributed amongst the general population. So allowances must be made to ensure that all "classes" have numbers and standards below which they must legislatively NOT be allowed to fall.
"Wage Labour is Slavery" was a Republican slogan. Time to bring it back.
ReplyDelete“…man never regards what he possesses as so much his own, as what he does; and the labourer who tends a garden is perhaps in a truer sense its owner, than the listless voluptuary who enjoys its fruits…In view of this consideration, it seems as if all peasants and craftsman might be elevated into artists; that is, men who love their labour for its own sake, improve it by their own plastic genius and inventive skill, and thereby cultivate their intellect, ennoble their character, and exalt and refine their pleasures. And so humanity would be ennobled by the very things which now, though beautiful in themselves, so often serve to degrade it…But, still, freedom is undoubtedly the indispensable condition, without which even the pursuits most congenial to individual human nature, can never succeed in producing such salutary influences. Whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness…
ReplyDelete…we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is.”
― Wilhelm von Humboldt
Wage slavery is alienated labour.
ReplyDeleteIt's in solutions where he, like most on the Left, stumble. Hmmm... may the best man win!
ReplyDelete