Night of the Living ComCap Debate....

[Velociryx]

Just in case anybody wanted to continue....

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

That's because you believe your entire self-worth is based on your income and wealth. You won't be able to handle it.

How you could possibly believe this after reading what I wrote is beyond me, Kid.

If my self worth was based on material posessions, I'd take what you gave me and make the most of it. That I am not, given the statement above, would be "irrational."

Why would I risk life and limb if I could simply take the handout?

-=Vel=-

[Skanky Burns]

"It is the thread that never ends..."

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

My guess is that Vel motivations come from a sense of pride. (Damn you and your deadly sins Satan )

It plays into my theory that man has a burning desire to leave his mark on the world in order to establish the sense of immortality.

[Velociryx]

Careful here thats the same line of thinking that got everyone in a lather before only we were talking about communism. The example of China, USSR etc. kept being brought up only to be dismissed as improper implementation and not true communism.

Og, I couldn't have said it better myself! Surely after all those test runs, *somebody* musta implemented communism correctly.

But of course, they don't wanna hear that, so it MUST not be true.

As to the other.... There's gotta be SOME reason I keep writing those books, cos it's not for the money!

-=Vel=-

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I think its Satan has you in his clutches personally .

[Velociryx]

Musta been that "fight like hellspawn" comment that done it....

-=Vel=-

[ravagon]

Bother!

Ming closed the thread just as I was posting my highly philosophical comparison between faith in 'ideal' communism and the manifesto and faith in an Islamic fundamentalist system and 'god'.

Also gone are my points on human evolution, replacing humankind with a race of rather boring robots who didn't do very much and a fundamental answer to life the universe and everything.
In short, it would have ended the whole debate forever.
Now its lost forever in the metaphysical aether - never to come forth again ...
And its all Mings fault.

Don't ya just hate it when that happens?

[Velociryx]

Seriously, I don't think Kid, or any of the guys arguing for the communist side are bad guys....not in the least!

I do, however, think that the paradigm they are arguing for is short-sighted, and does not take the nature of the naked ape into consideration.

We're killer apes.

That's what we do. (Well, one of the things we do, and the very FIRST thing we learned to do)

And we're good at it. We're so good at it that we either subjugated or destroyed everything in our path (domestication of certain animals we could bend to our will, utter destruction of competitors).

We were, in our earliest days, in some ways ill-equipped for the job of the hunter. The natural hunters of the world had all the advantages, it seemed. Keen senses of vision, smell, or hearing. Massive claws. Sharp teeth. Speed. Agility. They beat us in every physical category.

But we were the tricksters. The thinkers. The anglers. We had bigger brains and put them to good use, making simple tools and crude weapons. Adopting tactics from the animals we subjugated (wolf-pack tactics) to bring down much larger and more able prey.

We learned and adapted....and what's more...we took and killed.

Any, and everything that got in our way that could not be readily subjugated.

And now, with our picket fences and cutlery, we think ourselve so different....so much more refined (air conditioning and ice cubes will do that to any self respecting naked ape), but as Og said before, you strip that away, and we're still killer apes.

Sure, our advances have made it possible to do other stuff. Art, phiolosphy, science....and we're good at that too! Our big brains just keep right on churning.

But there is a sense of the primal inside. Lessons from our past not forgotten, and anybody tries to encroach on me and mine, they'll deal first with the artist, the civilized man....the diplomat.

And failing that, they'lll deal with the killer ape.

Every time.

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Sorry Rav....but we have a whoooole new playground now!

-=Vel=-

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by ravagon
Bother!

Ming closed the thread just as I was posting my highly philosophical comparison between faith in 'ideal' communism and the manifesto and faith in an Islamic fundamentalist system and 'god'.

Also gone are my points on human evolution, replacing humankind with a race of rather boring robots who didn't do very much and a fundamental answer to life the universe and everything.
In short, it would have ended the whole debate forever.
Now its lost forever in the metaphysical aether - never to come forth again ...
And its all Mings fault.

Don't ya just hate it when that happens?

.

Where were you earlier. That was the third thread. If you have something new to add that would be great. Suprizingly we covered a lot of ground in those three threads without going over the same stuff over and over again. It was much more than I expected and I enjoyed it very much.

[Velociryx]

Same, Kid....truly.

-=Vel=-

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Same, Kid....truly.

-=Vel=-

You're alright. I'm glad you believe in the safety net. There is some hope for you. Too bad there is no hope for the safety net.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

OMG,

You believe the revolution will come (as far fetched as that may be) yet the safety net won't.

Good thing your not setting the lines at Vegas.

[Velociryx]

See, I'm firmly convinced that capitalism is strong enough to save itself from the impending doom that the communist crowd sees on the horizon.

Capitalism has been "in the field and working" so to speak, and has been reinventing itself on a continuous basis in light of a changing world (and has Marx to thank for a great many changes made to what we call the "capitalist system" today.

I think the trend will continue, primarily because it does not deny human nature and our desire to compete, it's a SAFER means of competition than warfare (call it "stylized warfare" or something), and is the most efficient resource allocater that we have seen so far (and constantly improving--JIT inventory systems being proof of that in action).

I see absolutely no reason why the capitalist system cannot be tweaked sufficiently from the inside -- ie, without destroying it-- to make it function as we want it to.

Yes, capitalism brings with it stratification levels of income. There will be "richer" and "poorer" but as I have said before, there's no reason why the poorest of the poor must be relegated to not having life's basic necessities.

We can preserve the advantages inherent in competition, provide a robust enough safety net for those who are disadvantaged, and preserve the rewards for innovation.

And on that note, I'm going to bed!

-=Vel=-