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Distopije i utopije (u filmu, knjizevnosti, filozofiji i stvarnom zivotu)


noskich

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“Unless we realize that the present market society, structured around the brutally competitive imperative of “grow or die,” is a thoroughly impersonal, self-operating mechanism, we will falsely tend to blame technology as such or population growth as such for environmental problems. We will ignore their root causes, such as trade for profit, industrial expansion, and the identification of “progress” with corporate self-interest. In short, we will tend to focus on the symptoms of a grim social pathology rather than on the pathology itself, and our efforts will be directed toward limited goals whose attainment is more cosmetic than curative.”
― Murray Bookchin

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Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit

 by David Graeber

 

Asecret question hovers over us, a sense of disappointment, a broken promise we were given as children about what our adult world was supposed to be like. I am referring not to the standard false promises that children are always given (about how the world is fair, or how those who work hard shall be rewarded), but to a particular generational promise—given to those who were children in the fifties, sixties, seventies, or eighties—one that was never quite articulated as a promise but rather as a set of assumptions about what our adult world would be like. And since it was never quite promised, now that it has failed to come true, we’re left confused: indignant, but at the same time, embarrassed at our own indignation, ashamed we were ever so silly to believe our elders to begin with.

 

Where, in short, are the flying cars? Where are the force fields, tractor beams, teleportation pods, antigravity sleds, tricorders, immortality drugs, colonies on Mars, and all the other technological wonders any child growing up in the mid-to-late twentieth century assumed would exist by now? Even those inventions that seemed ready to emerge—like cloning or cryogenics—ended up betraying their lofty promises. What happened to them?

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on-why-we-need-to-end-campaign-contribut

 

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organised political society.

This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights…

Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an army of unemployed almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job.

Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers' goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence.

Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions.

Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals.. This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism.

Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion.

A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child.

The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual.

The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening?

How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?

Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition…"

~Albert Einstein,
Monthly Review (May 1949)

Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein
http://www.exponentialimprovement.com/cms/einsteinsoc.shtml

Edited by noskich
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http://pescanik.net/dont-take-it-personal/

 

Koje su to demokratske slobode ostavljene onoj velikoj većini ljudi koja nema novaca da plati advokata, zubara, liječnika, da školuje djecu, ili da im uopće pruži krov nad glavom? Demokracija je danas termin koji pokriva mnoge stvari: praksu bespoštedne kapitalističke eksploatacije, neslobodne medije, medijsku maniplulaciju, cenzuru korporativnog kapitalizma, proizvodnju laži, moderno ropstvo… 

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http://pescanik.net/dont-take-it-personal/

 

Koje su to demokratske slobode ostavljene onoj velikoj većini ljudi koja nema novaca da plati advokata, zubara, liječnika, da školuje djecu, ili da im uopće pruži krov nad glavom? Demokracija je danas termin koji pokriva mnoge stvari: praksu bespoštedne kapitalističke eksploatacije, neslobodne medije, medijsku maniplulaciju, cenzuru korporativnog kapitalizma, proizvodnju laži, moderno ropstvo… 

TLN, Zaiskali ste - eto vam ga!!!

 

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