osan
Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
- Messages
- 16,866
I think I have have previously made this point, and if so I apologize in advance.
One of the great errors made regarding capitalism, mostly by the ignoramuses and the morally bereft of the so-called "left", is that they speak about it as if it were a political creature - a scheme, and arrangement like, say, socialism. It is not.
Not unlike a hammer or a screwdriver, capitalism is a tool. It is a means of getting things done. It is not a political architecture in any way or to any degree.
I would add that every nation on the planet is capitalist. Soviet Russia was capitalist. Red China is capitalist. Vietnam, capitalist. North and South Koreas, you guessed it. When one understands what defines capitalism, the truth of this assertion becomes abundantly clear.
And just as with a hammer, I can use it to build that much needed addition to my neighbor's house, or I can use it to stove in his skull so I can have my way with his daughter. The tool is neutral because it is lifeless. So it is with capitalism. The Americans and the Soviets used capitalism to build vast arsenals representing one of the grandest and most obscene wastes of human effort in all our history. It has also been used to bring life saving phamaceuticals to the world and presumably to allow a handful of men to prance about upon the surface of the moon.
The tool of capitalism was used to enable to manufacture of my daily carry sidearm, a tool itself and equally neutral in nature. I can use it to rob Poca Valley Bank - which would not please the tellers with whom I am well familiar - or to save the life of a woman about to be raped in some dark alley on the Eville™ west side of Charleston WV at 2 AM. Same tool, widely differing results.
It is high time the world popped its head from its sphincter and got right with God with respect to its understanding of capitalism. I for one an full up with the endless torrents of intolerable ignorance spewing from certain quarters, mostly the "left". I'd suggest beating them with iron bars, but the courts seem to frown on this, though for reasons that escape me, so we are limited to words. Let them be good words. Correct words. Let us cut the crap with these errant attachments that paint the good in a very bad light.
One of the great errors made regarding capitalism, mostly by the ignoramuses and the morally bereft of the so-called "left", is that they speak about it as if it were a political creature - a scheme, and arrangement like, say, socialism. It is not.
Not unlike a hammer or a screwdriver, capitalism is a tool. It is a means of getting things done. It is not a political architecture in any way or to any degree.
I would add that every nation on the planet is capitalist. Soviet Russia was capitalist. Red China is capitalist. Vietnam, capitalist. North and South Koreas, you guessed it. When one understands what defines capitalism, the truth of this assertion becomes abundantly clear.
And just as with a hammer, I can use it to build that much needed addition to my neighbor's house, or I can use it to stove in his skull so I can have my way with his daughter. The tool is neutral because it is lifeless. So it is with capitalism. The Americans and the Soviets used capitalism to build vast arsenals representing one of the grandest and most obscene wastes of human effort in all our history. It has also been used to bring life saving phamaceuticals to the world and presumably to allow a handful of men to prance about upon the surface of the moon.
The tool of capitalism was used to enable to manufacture of my daily carry sidearm, a tool itself and equally neutral in nature. I can use it to rob Poca Valley Bank - which would not please the tellers with whom I am well familiar - or to save the life of a woman about to be raped in some dark alley on the Eville™ west side of Charleston WV at 2 AM. Same tool, widely differing results.
It is high time the world popped its head from its sphincter and got right with God with respect to its understanding of capitalism. I for one an full up with the endless torrents of intolerable ignorance spewing from certain quarters, mostly the "left". I'd suggest beating them with iron bars, but the courts seem to frown on this, though for reasons that escape me, so we are limited to words. Let them be good words. Correct words. Let us cut the crap with these errant attachments that paint the good in a very bad light.
