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Societal strife gives Marxism renewed clout
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We frequently hear from academics, including more than a few UW political science professors, that Marxism is dead. However, the British government may be having second thoughts. In a report forecasting political trends over the next 30 years, the British Ministry of Defense predicts, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx." The report argues that mounting personal debt and a failing retirement system may fuel disillusionment in capitalism, and "the world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest." A spectre is haunting the Ministry of Defense! Predictions aside, the ministry is correct that increasing inequality and the ongoing massacre in Iraq have caused many people to question our society and ask if there is an alternative. The International Socialist Organization will hold a meeting, "The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx," tonight at 7:30 in 1131 Humanities, to argue that Marxism holds the key to that alternative. The gist of the report's segment on Marxism summarizes what many recent college graduates in the United States already know: The American Dream is a hoax. According to studies at Northeastern University, two-thirds of our generation will have a lower standard of living than our parents did. In the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare, many middle-class workers are one hospital visit away from a mountain of debt. And for the first time in American history, our generation will be less educated than the previous. Of course, not everyone is doing so poorly. Between 2002 and 2004, the average CEO salary increased 25 percent, from $7.8 million to $9.6 million. Economics professors tell us that an individual's income is determined by how hard he or she works. I guess CEOs started working 25 percent harder in those two years. Karl Marx observed that throughout history there have always been haves and have-nots: "Freemen and slaves, patrician and plebian, lord and serf." He recognized capitalism as unique, that it was the first society in which poverty is not caused by a shortage of wealth, but by the way wealth is distributed. For example, today enough food is produced worldwide to provide everyone on Earth a 2,800-Calorie diet, and yet six million children die every year of malnutrition. Starvation is not caused by a lack of food, but because there is no profitability in distributing food to those who need it most. Marxism continues to inspire today because Marx proposed a system based on human need instead of on profit. Many non-Marxists will accept, or even admire, Marx's indictment of capitalism. However, Marx was not satisfied at pointing out what was wrong with society. Instead, he insisted on finding the best way to change it. Liberal commentators have dismissed Marx's vision of working-class revolution as too utopian. However, the strength of Marx's ideas lies in the fact that Marx was not a daydreamer, cooking up elaborate blueprints of a perfect society. Marx started his political career as a liberal, editing a radical German newspaper and trying to fend off government censorship. He developed his ideas by trying to change German society, and discovered that capitalism would only tolerate certain changes, and none too many. Marx's ideas remain relevant because people are still trying to change society, and like Marx, they are discovering that capitalism is resistant to the changes they want. Two weeks ago, 100 UW students stormed Sen. Herb Kohl's office, most honestly believing that their senator would agree to meet with them to discuss how to end the war. When Mr. Kohl's staff threatened to arrest us, after we had endured a night of abuse from the security guards, many people were shocked. One activist wrote, "I haven't been this disillusioned in a while, not since I almost joined the Marines and believed the administration about the WMDs. I was angry and betrayed when I found out they were lying, but here was my senator — my Democratic senator — who had gone against us and used his police and his guards on us." In the process of struggle, illusions in our "democracy" get roughed up by reality. It is this disillusionment that makes people into radicals. Today, many people in the United States (and the United Kingdom, if you can believe the Ministry of Defense) are realizing their country is not the country they learned about in school. For these people, Marxism is worth considering, but not because of Marx's genius. Marxism's strength lies in that it is a theory developed by people struggling to make real the lives capitalism promised them. If you are such a person, you should join us at the ISO's meeting tonight. The last words of "The Communist Manifesto" ring true today: "The workers of the world have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." Paul Pryse (pryse@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in journalism. He is also a member of the International Socialist Organization.
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Why do you hate America? - Germain Q. Stemme
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Hi!
If folks can’t easily see that capitalism is a giant pyramid scheme (see symbol on back of USA dollar bill)… and see JUST HOW INFESTED with inequality and servitude it is, then they are just plain blind. We don’t need to DISTRIBUTE the wealth…. just kill wealth. “Economy” is a cancerous tumor… and needs to be removed from the planet. Remove pricetags, money, entitles of ownership, and demandings (bills/invoices/timecards)… and there won’t BE any such thing as wealth… there’ll JUST be equality and happiness. Share everything. The term “competition” is the opposite-of “cooperation”, and competition is NOT healthy, and never was. We all can see the results of the capitalist tug-o-war over Earth resources. Its about to kill the planet. Socialism will work, as soon as some nation EVER gets it installed all the way, and stops making luxuries…. and only makes necessities and mankind-helping tools. I wonder how many members of the Free Marketeers… are FORCE INs. Most of them, I bet. They try to force me to join… daily…. thru felony extortion. (Want a roof? Want food? Better join!)
Sick stuff there, caps. God is watching. Here, take a look at yourselves, capitalists…
www.winternet.com/~wingnut/img/capitalism7.jpg
Now read about yourselves…
www.winternet.com/~wingnut/text/capitalism.htm
You’re on the wrong path, caps.
Wingnut Anti-Capitalist Real-Christian Minneapolis MaStars - Mothers Against Stuff That Ain’t Right
IP hash: d1e55e52
“Germain”, why don’t you get a job? Or make up your mind on your middle name? Idiot.
IP hash: b307b9f9
Why does the BH keep printing editorials from ISO?
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Going Marxist is way too extreme. I say let’s just go with blue state secession. Capitalism is not dead…yet. It wouldn’t bother me a bit if we were to break away and be our own country. We should give secession a try before resorting to something extreme. And it would fun.
We could start by keeping our federal tax dollars to ourselves. Just pay our federal taxes to our home states instead of the IRS. Then we declare our independence. Next we adopt our own constitution; the US Constitution will do fine-with some minor modifications of course.
Sound like a plan?
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You know, there was a Marxist experiment on a pretty grand scale for about 75 years. The Soviet Union pretty much screwed over all their people. It turns out that Marx forgot about human nature — socialism doesn’t work because there are always going to be some lazy, selfish people who try to game the system and ruin things for everyone else, and there will always be some crazy, power hungry megalomaniacs who oppress the people far more than any capitalist.
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People starving while enough food is being produced? Tell me, how many people starved in Russia?
If I lived in a communist society, I wouldn’t bother going to college and getting a good job because the government would only give me a small amout of money to spend. There is a reason why America is the leader in technological development. Capitalism leads to competition, which leads to improvement. Why would IBM, Ford, or any “evil” company bother to spend billions of dollars on R&D to produce something better if there were no profit to be made in it?
A Marxist idea would work if our level of technology were that of the middle ages. Nobody bothers to innovate because there is no motivation for it. You just work to fullfil the current Five Year Plan of X amount of grain and Y amount of beef.
History has shown that such a system doesn’t work. If you think it does, then move to Russia. Me, I’m an active member of the NRA and you’ll have your commie revolution over my dead body.
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I want to say that my last comment was not meant as a threat. The group has the right to express their political views in a legal and peaceful manner. What I meant was that I would rather be dead than be a communist. I mean no harm or violence against anyone. I appologize.
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“how many people starved in Russia?”
MILIONS
Stalin used harsh methods to drag his backward nation into the 20th century. Under Stalin, the state managed all resources, including its people, with a heavy hand. Overnight, Russia’s farmers became laborers on huge state farms. This measure was known as collectivization. Those who protested were shot or put in prison. Soviet farm output dropped drastically. Many people starved to death. Some sources estimate that more than 14 million people were starved or murdered.
A few years later, Stalin unleashed a three-year reign of terror called the “Great Purge.” (Purge means cleansing or flushing out.) Many Communist Party members were arrested. They were charged with treason. Most ranking members of the military were suddenly executed. The purge spread to Russian citizens in general. Millions of people were seized and tortured. It is estimated that 20 million people died. They were shot outright or died in the harsh prison/slave labor system known as the Gulag. As WWII loomed, Russia was a nation in crisis.
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UKRAINE, “the breadbasket of Europe” is a land famous for its fertile black earth and its golden wheat. Yet, over seventy years ago seven million Ukrainians starved to death although no natural catastrophe had visited the land. The people starved while the Soviet Union exported butter and grain. While Moscow banqueted, Ukraine hungered.
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9:35a: to start, selfish individualism is taught to us since we are children. It’s an absolute lie that humans are inherently greedy and lazy.
9:35b: Look at Cuba, they have more college-educated individuals than they know what to do with. Their main export at the moment (due to the blockade) is doctors.
And don’t worry about the threat. It’s been implied for 200 years— Haymarket, Sacco and Vanzetti, Franco, Pinochet’s coup… being a leftist (a real one, not a liberal Dem) is damn near a death sentence. On the other hand, you’d probably defecate in your pants if there was a revolution. You’re clearly not in Iraq stopping insurgents “over your dead body.” Put your money where your mouth is, or else don’t make hot air threats.
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China doesn’t seem to agree.
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“Economics professors tell us that an individual's income is determined by how hard he or she works.”
No they wont. I’m really getting sick of ISO randomly making up arguments to support their own.
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“It’s an absolute lie that humans are inherently greedy and lazy.”
Right, just like the apes, it’s share and share alike - just ask a low status ape how much ass he’s gettin.
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“failing retirement system”
Retirement is from socialism idea - not capitalism.
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“It’s an absolute lie that humans are inherently greedy and lazy.”
That’s not what the literature in psychology says. But there I go citing data, which is clearly trumped by your opinion. Shame on me!
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“That’s not what the literature in psychology says. But there I go citing data, which is clearly trumped by your opinion. Shame on me!”
Does the literature say that greed and sloth are caused by nature or nurture? Research in Sociology and Anthropology would say that only recently, post-modernity, have societies become individualistic.
Obviously individualism should be protected, because only with the sum of all of our aptitudes can society truly flourish. Yet I think we can all agree that we have become so individualistic that the basic bonds of solidarity that form a stable society are breaking, yet at the same time we aren’t able to build on our individual strengths. The logic of competition creates a culture of survivalism, us against them, that ultimately will lead to ruptures.
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You know, 1:38 pm, generally when one claims to have cited data it’s expected that that data has been produced, and not merely that vague references to its existence have been made. I think the burden of proof is on those who would ascribe broad and severe psychological tendencies to humanity as a whole—not those who hold that human nature is largely a contingent phenomenon.
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WTF???? You want proof that humans are inherently greedy and lazy?
You been keeping up with any current events? Ever read any history? Look around a bit.
Next thing you’ll want proof that the sun comes up in the east.
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Get off the Badger Herald comment board and start a revolution! Take to the streets and let your voices be heard! You have been oppressed for too long by the vicious UW-Madison! Meet at the library mall! We will march to the Capitol! We will make noise! The WORLD will hear us!!!! w00t w00t w00t
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4:41, I have yet to join this debate, but if there is one thing I have learned in law school, it’s this: The use of big words means someone is BSing. So based on your statement, you’re just as full of it as anyone else.
IP hash: 7c35366a
To 7:43pm:
You’re just saying that because your overall evaluation incongruent with three hypotheses: (1) that lower-percentile latency is not as important as a methodology’s traditional complexity when maximizing average complexity; (2) that behavior is fundamentally different in flux divergent paradigms; and finally (3) that evaluative architectures no longer impact performance. An astute reader would now infer that for obvious reasons, you have intentionally neglected to explore the full implications of aforementioned contingent phenomena. - Germain Q. Stemme
IP hash: e1a69fc8
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a philosophy student, 7:43, it’s that people who formulate absurd conditionals like “If someone uses multiple syllable words, then he/she is making things up” are invariably philistines.
IP hash: fd7165f6
Marxism - Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, China - look at the millions of people trying to get into these countries. Look at the flow of Marxist Americans moving to these countries to live their dreams.
Mr. Pryse, are your university professors living “each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” Do your professors live the humble life, walk to work, live in concrete apartment buildings with the basics needed for daily life. Do your Marxist professors strive for raises and recognition? How well do they live up to what they preach and teach. They call themselves Marxists, challenge them on what they teach you. Are they living the Marxist life? How many would voluntarily leave the land of capitalism for a life in Cube or North Korea. Not one of them, because they are hypocrites.
As for you Mr. Pryse, do you work for a living? Or do you attend college on someone else’s largess? I assume that if you actually have a paying job, that as a Marxist, you would never expect to be pay more than the minimum so that others may live better. I would assume that you would never ask for a raise or strive to do more than the minimum in any job you perform.
Living life as a Marxist-just ask the millions that have died or lived the gulag life. Bet they would live to repeat the experience.
You fail to have the most basic understanding of human nature. Societies thrive with competition and innovation. Without the freedom to innovate and create, societies stagnate and the citizens suffer.
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Where’s Sen. McCarthy when you need him? - Germain E. Stemme
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Is “Germain E. Stemme” a pseudonym for Ann Coulter? Or are you just an extremely unsubtle troll?
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“Next thing you’ll want proof that the sun comes up in the east.”
No they won’t. They think the sun stays in the same place all the time, but there’s a little man who sometimes covers it up with a curtain.
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first of all… Russia, North korea, cuba, etc. are not marxist countries. If any of you money loving capitalists have acctually read the writings of marx and engles you would realize that the reason places like North korea have not worked out, is the society is not set up to what marx wrote of. Marx never wrote of having leaders who would starve their own people just so they can control them, or spy on your citzens because your a little paranoid. These so called “Marxist” countries have no resembelence to what karl marx acctually wrote of. Its not becaue the system cant work it is because of the leaders. If you set up a equal society where we work togther towards one goal without a facist leader then there is nothing to stop the vision of Karl marx from becoming reality.
and whoever wrote that going marxist was to extreme and that braking away from the us would make more sense, Please write becasue that is absurd.