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What Does it Mean to Support Industrial Capitalism in the 21st Century? [1]
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Date: 2023-03-21
A great cartoon that hits the nail on the head.
Modern industrial capitalism has survived by ruthlessly picking the pockets of the underdeveloped countries (aka known as the third world) so that it can provide enough of its own citizens with a decent and relatively stable standard of living. And by ignoring the fate of the billions throughout the planet and the poor within its own borders set apart by racial and divide and conquer strategies.
A Return to the Age of the Dinosaurs?
Jurassic Park Returns for Real?
Those days are coming to an end however, brought about by that same industrialized capitalist system. One which has pumped enough greenhouse gases to alter our atmosphere to levels comparable to the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. When there were no polar caps, North or South. And buried its head in the sand as to our future here on Earth.
Even after repeated killer heat waves in Europe and Russia, biblical-level floods and storms over the rest of the planet, and just this Winter record level precipitation in California leaving up to 15 feet of snow in the mountains, the world’s capitalist leaders remain mostly in denial. And the worst climate occurrences are yet to come.
No Shortage of Fascist Leaders
Industrial capitalism’s attitude toward global warming.
Our latest version of Adolph Hitler (we saw our own government take on that role in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s), V. Putin, has seen fit to start a massive terrorist war against Ukraine, with the rest of the Western world only too happy to finance mortal combat like the good old days of the not so cold, cold war.
Not that I don’t believe that aid to Ukraine is justified, but it also puts another nail in our planet’s coffin pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere from the exploding weapons of war.
No matter its past histories of setbacks and failures, socialism is the only potential solution for the planet’ survival. Sure, it’s a much harder system to implement, particularly because of the strength of patriarchal institutions and authoritarian values, which have gobbled up many past movements. Our entire world economy throughout history has been based on extreme exploitation of labor and resources, so it’s of little wonder that socialism faces an uphill battle.
The Biggest Lie Ever Told
Our planet’s fate may have already been sealed if we keep going the way we are. I’m reminded of one of the most bald-faced lies ever used to justify industrial capitalism:
Industrial capitalism is often accused of being the worst economic system, but when compared to the alternatives like socialism, it’s by far the best choice available.
Will the Earth become like Venus? Surface temperature 800 degrees.
Capitalism’s advocates often brag about the shameless wealth in their countries compared to the standard of living of countries in the third world, where poverty reigns supreme. What is conveniently ignored is the severity of environmentally destructive policies and low wage exploitation the capitalist countries have reigned down upon the third world. One of the more demonic schemes is to make sure a given country never diversifies their economy to benefit their own people. But produces only what we desire, cheaply and with little benefit to said country.
Another inherent developmental fault which drives the destructive nature of capitalism is the natural tendency of the rate of profit to shrink as a business grows, so management continues to seek a competitive profit rate by cutting anything that reduces profit, such as employees, worker benefits, tax obligations, maintenance costs, and adequate steps which reduce the toxic side effects manufacturing their product produces — the later resulting in global warming and today’s increasingly toxic world as well as our oceans.
Another Equally Big Lie
Capitalist proponents also are fond of what they call “free enterprise” (private ownership) equating it with democracy and freedom.
Yet the privately owned, profit driven media has largely exempted the Republican Party and their many capitalist supporters from putting their feet to the fire. And in this way largely fails to act as responsible source of information exposing Republican mega lie after mega lie and by omission the advocacy of a fascist dictatorship and a system of repression that an entire World War was fought over costing 60 or more million lives.
The roots of fascism and its soldiers may be typically found in the masses themselves, such as with many of the rank-and-file MAGA members. But its financial, organizational and political backing comes from within the capitalist system itself, which can be counted to back democracy only when control of government policy resides with them.
An Unpleasant Truth
The fracture lines in the American capitalist system gravitate towards dictatorship and fascism and emerge to abandon democracy when class and progressive movements arise and threaten to take power away from them.
It’s a simple fact that it is not in the class interests of capitalism to support a democratic government that is willing to share power with other classes. Those elements have been aligning with the Republican Party as they no longer trust the Democrats to do so. They even gravitate towards doing nothing about global warming.
Seems like the Democratic leadership may be among the last ones to realize this. The political polarization we now have has been developing rapidly since the days of President Obama. It has both shattered the two-party system and the former bipartisan arrangement under which both parties backed a rational application of the capitalist system. The only counter to the irrational MAGA mob are the rational progressive forces which turned out in 2020 for thousands of demos and protests and helped, at least temporarily, stop fascism in its tracks. Without such recognition and accommodation, fascism may yet prevail.
A Few Words on the Oil Producing Countries Silence
I don’t know enough about most European countries to comment on their priorities concerning global warming except to say most seem light years ahead of the oil producing nations. Which by itself doesn’t say much.
First, we melt, then we drown.
What I can say is that it won’t be long before much worse develops in terms of climate change. All previous estimates proved way short of the speed things are happening. It appears that the polar caps will be melting much quicker than anticipated, meaning our children will be living through an unprecedented crisis. A ten-foot rise in the world oceans will take out every world port in the world. New York, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Yokohama, Shenzhen, Saint Petersburg, New Orleans, Shanghai, Osaka, every one of them. Radical changes in climate, rain fall, and temperature will combine with trade by sea paralysis. Civilization as we know it will end, wars will break out over vanishing food supplies, mass starvation will overtake billions.
A Nightmare that can Come True
Our children’s New York in less than 50 years?
This is not a nightmare we will wake up from. And will only get worse. It’s time we start putting massive pressure on our own and other governments to commit to research measures and the energy changes needed to lessen the impact. No matter what we do, it will take generations to have a meaningful impact. Science and most governments have been certain about this for at least 50 or more years and was first theorized in 1824 before being proved in the 20th Century! Had we committed to a solution, things would not be as bad as they are today. We might have even discovered a way to clean the atmosphere of the excess greenhouse gasses.
Before the industrial age, scientists had been predicting the onset of the next ice age. Greenhouse gasses have not only halted that process, they have set our planet on a path towards human extinction. One day, if an alien race ever does manage to travel here, if not already, they will puzzle about why we didn’t act to save ourselves. Good question. I have no answers.
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