Marxism and contemporary society.

[Dracon II]

Originally posted by Agathon
I've always thought that the welfare state was dramatically unstable. It's being dismantled as we speak all so that baby boomers can get tax cuts.

If it's simply grafted on to a market economy then it is very unstable. The sort of lower middle class reactionism that Horse was talking about is almost always directed at some aspect of the welfare state... thanks in part to ACA and the Shock Jocks...

[Ted Striker]

What was so outrageous about that was that the ultra poor were attacked during most of the 1990s. This was possible because they are easy targets with no political power to defend themselves.

But when you really look at it, the program called, "welfare" in the US was a drop in the bucket of the entire welfare system, which is composed primarily of social security and unemployment benefits, two benefits that are politically impossible to touch.

Those Shock Jocks made me think of that stupid urban legend about black welfare mothers having another kid just so they could cash in on another welfare check. Ridiculous. And punitive.

Bush is going to try Social Security reform, but I don't see it happening. I think that it is going to be pushed into the national dialog the way universal healthcare was during Clinton's term.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Ted Striker

Those Shock Jocks made me think of that stupid urban legend about black welfare mothers having another kid just so they could cash in on another welfare check.

We have that urban myth here too

[Saras]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse

Anyone interested in European politics or history should read it. Millions of people died for it.

And more have died because of it.

[Alexander's Horse]

equally true

[jsorense]

[Dracon II]

*cough*thebible*cough*

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris


Believe in what? Marx's works are based on rational arguments. You're free to read them and criticize.

Yes, but so were Aquinas's. Just because something is based upon "rational arguments" doesn't mean it's true or that it's going to work, it just means that you swallowed the assumptions that made the argument "rational". You believe that the "class struggle" is paramount, that history is driven by economic conditions, that "capitalism" is a necessary evil on the way to the perfect "classless society." These are necessary assumptions that you first must swallow in order to believe in Communism.

Especially as it has proven itself to not work in the real world. Now that requires a leap of faith!

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Kidicious


I know you have no real idea what Marxism is, but this statement is so bizarre that I wonder if you even know what religion is.

Well, what does Communism and Christianity have in common?

1. Both promise a Utopian tomorrow: heaven vs. the classless society.
2. Both act as a moral and temporal force upon millions (or billions).
3. Both have laid the theoretical foundations for a vast amount of increasingly grandiose (but rational!) poppycock and bull****.
4. Both have acted detrimentally and positively towards billions of people.
5. Both claim to be for the "people", the oppressed, the meek that are to inherit the Earth. See #1.
6. Both get hijacked by the rich, the powerful, the controlling, even the sadistic. See #5, #1.
7. Both were founded by a theoretician (or theologian, as Jesus would be more accurately described), but then were firmly established by leaders of great States: Jesus had his Constantine, Marx had his Lenin.
8. Large swaths of the globe are completely unaware of the ideological and theological issues that torment Communists and Christians. Couldn't give a ****, really.
9. Both are growing increasingly irrelevant to the modern sections of our civilization.


And on and on, even down to the coincidental fact that both movements were founded by Jews.

Yeah, it's a religion.

[Kuciwalker]

Stop insulting Buddhism by putting it in the same category as Communism

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by jsorense
Well two comments here, Comrade Guevara was encouraged to leave Cuba because he was a pain in the ass

This is completely false.

[pchang]

Marxism is for people who can't do math.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Dracon II
Can anyone point me in the direction of some contemporary souces of radical PE theory?

Try looking up stuff by Ellen Meiksins Wood, Paul Sweezey, Baran, Monthly Review, Left Business Observer, and Ernst Mandel.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by pchang
Marxism is for people who can't do math.

[pchang]

Gross oversimplification of society into "classes" so the math of analysis is much easier. However, this causes the model to be faulty and ignores many 2nd order and 3rd order terms that are necessary to correctly model dynamic environments.