And who wants to "rise to the top of corporate life?" What kind of life is that? It isn't in support of life, it is death, dealing death, killing dreams, choking the life out of everything with lies and scams and greed and exploitation. It is the top of a death dealing culture in which from the aloof and cruel viewpoint of cheerleaders like Brooks and whoever this idiot Stephens is, you have no right to live whatsoever unless you serve or support corporate interests. Of course, for most of us - the ones not at or near the top - the the only way to do that is to offer your mental and physical time and labor at the lowest going possible rate. This pittance for most of us, we are told, is set fairly by the miraculous workings of something we all need to worship, The Market. The Market is a wonderful thing, but it also wants most of us to be poor, competing in a nonstop war of all against all for resources that are hoarded away from us in bank accounts like Jeff Bezos's. The Market says make that part in a country where the people are so poor and desperate to live that they will make the part for $2.00 a day. That is a miracle, isn't it? Corporate capitalism is a winner take all game where money is everything, and you must have a larger and larger amount if it every year to keep up with the ever increasing bills and prices. But, pay attention folks, because this is the trick which keeps us subservient and humble to the owners and bosses: if you need money and you don't have any, the only way to get it is from those who have it. Note that those who have it are generally not sharing, and that they dole it out - as little as possible - for good behavior only. That is the rub, the deal, the life. Being the CEO of a corporation is not being at the top of anything that is valuable to human life at all. That job performs the task of guaranteeing that the vast majority of lives lived will have their potential reduced to the vanishing point, ruined by increasing desperation as everything continues daily to tilt and shift to the top, to the "models" and heroes of sick fucks like Bret Stephens and David Brooks.
To not belong in that system is a tough life. With Trump and open fascism, a LOT of people are going to "not belong" in a much more visible way very soon. What will happen to them? Deportation for a start, for those who qualify, and then of course the "enemies within." I will be one, no doubt. Am one. Not pleasant to contemplate, but I'd rather be detested (or worse) than acquiesce.
Three lines of dialogue from the film Ben Hur come back to me fairly often, with some shuddering at the thought...
Note Mayor Adams in second row. Total dirtbag and former NYPD. Trump has I think consistently won Staten Island where a lot of NYPD cops and brass live.....like in that longtime CBS show "Blue Bloods."
The Daniel Penny ruling turned my stomach. As does the genocide of Palestinians, the sanctions the USA and its lap dogs impose on millions world wide, the Empire.
Even the xmas music on Spotify can't stop me from boring constantly mindful of how shitty 2024 was and its continuation into 2025.
Thanks Paul for your voice hope it stays loud and clear into 2025 and beyond.
Hopefully I will put up some alternative XMas music before Xmas or soon thereafter.The celebrations feel stomach-turning against the backdrop of the US-Israel Crucifixion of Gaza and Israel's assaults on Lebanon and the West Bank.
No doubt it will take years for Mangione’s case to weave its way through the courts. Most likely no further word will be heard from him until that has happened. In the interim the backstory of how he decided to carry out his actions against Brian Thompson will probably not be known. Meanwhile, spin doctors like Brooks and Stephens will put forth a tale that capitalists criminals are the victims. What we do know from his online posts and the fact that he was his prestigious schools valedictorian, is that this is an extremely brilliant young man who took an extreme action against an individual who he felt had it coming. Who doesn’t want to know the entirety of events and the history? I sure do.
I myself said I was surprised such an event hadn't taken place sooner given (a) what is widely known about the late CEO's industry's mass murderous impact in hastening the deaths of many people and (b) the insanely widespread availability of weapons in the USA. Even affluent people can get hit hard by the wild west medical costs in this country.
The US has more guns than people, which is appalling. But if enough Mangiones decided to do the right thing, your country would be in a unique position to spearhead a revolution, with worldwide repercussions.
Bang,bang, bang! How many do you reckon is required? A thousand? Ten thousand? Any intellectual preparation and ideological work required in the making of this shooter revolution?
Of course intellectual and ideological preparation, but the US has more guns than Portugal had carnations. I wish we could throw a revolution like a party, but Fidel didn’t take Moncada with mojitos. The whole Luigimania comes from a collective lightbulb moment, a ‘what if?’ for the younger generations.
Well, no pacifism here. I maintain that "the US left" (whatever that means in 2024) can grant the right no monopoly on what is permitted by the US Second Amendment.
My blood begins to boil when I see the NYTimes duo of Stephens and Brooks, two pro-Israeli and so pro-genociders under the thumb of the zionist lobbies. I"m certainly not for extermination of company executives but can give some creedence to the gutteral hatetred many Americans feel about the insurance industry. I recently was denied compensation for an outpatient visit, without explanation, and even though I have private (expensive) healthcare coverage. When I read about what's coming into office on January 20th, I know many of those who voted for Trump will have late regrets, and some of the characters he has nominated for important offices will have the freedom to destroy what is left for middle and poorer American citizens. As the Queen of Hearts said, off with their heads, and we may hear echoes of that within the next 6 months.
It is what class you serve, not what class we are from. Extremely important, so thank you for this, Paul . So then , what class should we serve?
your answer is essentially serve “the people “. But The people “ is a multiclass conglomeration, ranging from lumpenproletariat/ to small capitalist. certainly not a class to serve.
In modern society,, the working class has the crucial role that we sell our capacity for labor for wages and generate capitalist profit.
To gain our freedom from this wage slavery means that we need to eliminate capitalism and replace it with working class power. Certainly no easy task, for sure.
I join other Marxists and communists in calling the transitional socialist state the dictatorship of the proletariat. You must know that Marx said the emancipation of the proletariat was also the emancipation of humanity. The revolution will have multiple sparks and will not simply emerge from the progression of proletarian class struggle.
Marx wrote in Capital that capitalism brings “Accumulation of wealth at one pole of society [that] is therefore at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, and mental degradation at the opposite pole.” As true in our time as in his.
Paul, your commentary and writing are my first exposure to Marxism. Haven’t read any of his works, was surprised he lived in Germany and England and died there. Not owning property and buried in some sort of every man’s cemetery. Hope I remember that right. Thought he lived in Russia and was there for the Bolshevik revolution. Could this be your calling? The terms from his writings, philosophy and period are a non starter for today’s current world. Most people, me included, don’t know what his labels for the working and wealthy ruling class mean. I had to look them up. You are a gifted academic and writer. Perhaps time to break from 150 year old Marxist terminology and speak to today’s people. Everyone knows who workers are and who the wealthy capitals are. Maybe just call “em rich fucks. Marx speaks to today’s world. The terminology is over the average Americans head. But the concepts he iterated are as valid today, if not more so. Marxism has been maligned. The poor and uneducated think it’s bad. Thank you Fox News capitalists! Time to speak to the people. Carl would agree. No?
I might work up a book about and against the system -- one that will try to avoid the pitfalls of high falutin erudite and academic like language many people don't understand. But we can't let go of the scientific insights in Marx and the better strands in Marxist thought and writing and sometimes science involves really digging into hard stuff to get beneath the surface of events, no? There's a tension between the risk of writing at too high a level of abstraction and the risk of "dumbing down" (wrong phrase but best I have this morning) so as to be understood...finding the happy medium can be tricky.
That's why The Manifesto has held up all these years. It's the brilliant synthesis of rabble rousing and erudite reasoning!
So many great examples of revolutionary development leading to freeing oneself from class background impediments. Fidel had the greatest influence on my young mind. An exemplary life well lived!
As to the early demise of killer CEO's, I'll give a nod to Clarence Darrow), saying "I've never killed a man, but I've read some obituaries with great pleasure".
The Manifesto is pretty damn readable for beginners. I also like Engels, Socialism Scientific and Utopian for an introduction to Marxist thought and writing and revolution.
You raise an important question. My own thoughts: Marxism is a world essential science. Words matter, they mean something. The masses are intelligent, don't insult them with baby talk. Should we change the language of physics, find other words for mass, acceleration, and force? But then the books on the fundamentals would be using different terminology than books of today. Babel. How will people learn the truth? e can start by telling them the truth. With out baby talk. Those are my own thoughts, others may disagree.
The masses may or may not be intelligent. They bought into Fox News. My point was not to “baby talk” or talk down to people. I admitted I have not read Marx’s writings. I was referring to terminology not in use today. Words such as bourgeoisie and proletariat. Paul and perhaps yourself may be highly educated. Was Marx’s intention to preach or enlighten academia or influence society to better and more fairly represent the masses?
Living on the street without proper diet, no place to rest or keep your stuff, constantly trying to find a bathroom, feeling shame for your status, not showering, no healthcare, feeling worthless, to name but a few of the many reasons they act like they do - How would YOU act under these circumstances ? In many places in this god-forsaken country being homeless is essentially a crime - these people are NOT valued as we spend our wealth bombing innocent people in Gaza and funding the Ukraine conflict rather than care for those among us that are suffering. It is beyond shameful how we treat those in need.
And who wants to "rise to the top of corporate life?" What kind of life is that? It isn't in support of life, it is death, dealing death, killing dreams, choking the life out of everything with lies and scams and greed and exploitation. It is the top of a death dealing culture in which from the aloof and cruel viewpoint of cheerleaders like Brooks and whoever this idiot Stephens is, you have no right to live whatsoever unless you serve or support corporate interests. Of course, for most of us - the ones not at or near the top - the the only way to do that is to offer your mental and physical time and labor at the lowest going possible rate. This pittance for most of us, we are told, is set fairly by the miraculous workings of something we all need to worship, The Market. The Market is a wonderful thing, but it also wants most of us to be poor, competing in a nonstop war of all against all for resources that are hoarded away from us in bank accounts like Jeff Bezos's. The Market says make that part in a country where the people are so poor and desperate to live that they will make the part for $2.00 a day. That is a miracle, isn't it? Corporate capitalism is a winner take all game where money is everything, and you must have a larger and larger amount if it every year to keep up with the ever increasing bills and prices. But, pay attention folks, because this is the trick which keeps us subservient and humble to the owners and bosses: if you need money and you don't have any, the only way to get it is from those who have it. Note that those who have it are generally not sharing, and that they dole it out - as little as possible - for good behavior only. That is the rub, the deal, the life. Being the CEO of a corporation is not being at the top of anything that is valuable to human life at all. That job performs the task of guaranteeing that the vast majority of lives lived will have their potential reduced to the vanishing point, ruined by increasing desperation as everything continues daily to tilt and shift to the top, to the "models" and heroes of sick fucks like Bret Stephens and David Brooks.
Right on! think this phrase is key: "competing in a nonstop war of all against all."
To not belong in that system is a tough life. With Trump and open fascism, a LOT of people are going to "not belong" in a much more visible way very soon. What will happen to them? Deportation for a start, for those who qualify, and then of course the "enemies within." I will be one, no doubt. Am one. Not pleasant to contemplate, but I'd rather be detested (or worse) than acquiesce.
Three lines of dialogue from the film Ben Hur come back to me fairly often, with some shuddering at the thought...
-What have you in common
with the troublemaking rabble?
-They're my people. I'm one of them.
-Be wise, Judah.
It's a Roman world. If you want to
live in it, you must become part of it.
Do you think there are sufficient armed to the teeth prisoner escorts in the photo?
Note Mayor Adams in second row. Total dirtbag and former NYPD. Trump has I think consistently won Staten Island where a lot of NYPD cops and brass live.....like in that longtime CBS show "Blue Bloods."
The Daniel Penny ruling turned my stomach. As does the genocide of Palestinians, the sanctions the USA and its lap dogs impose on millions world wide, the Empire.
Even the xmas music on Spotify can't stop me from boring constantly mindful of how shitty 2024 was and its continuation into 2025.
Thanks Paul for your voice hope it stays loud and clear into 2025 and beyond.
Hopefully I will put up some alternative XMas music before Xmas or soon thereafter.The celebrations feel stomach-turning against the backdrop of the US-Israel Crucifixion of Gaza and Israel's assaults on Lebanon and the West Bank.
No doubt it will take years for Mangione’s case to weave its way through the courts. Most likely no further word will be heard from him until that has happened. In the interim the backstory of how he decided to carry out his actions against Brian Thompson will probably not be known. Meanwhile, spin doctors like Brooks and Stephens will put forth a tale that capitalists criminals are the victims. What we do know from his online posts and the fact that he was his prestigious schools valedictorian, is that this is an extremely brilliant young man who took an extreme action against an individual who he felt had it coming. Who doesn’t want to know the entirety of events and the history? I sure do.
I myself said I was surprised such an event hadn't taken place sooner given (a) what is widely known about the late CEO's industry's mass murderous impact in hastening the deaths of many people and (b) the insanely widespread availability of weapons in the USA. Even affluent people can get hit hard by the wild west medical costs in this country.
The US has more guns than people, which is appalling. But if enough Mangiones decided to do the right thing, your country would be in a unique position to spearhead a revolution, with worldwide repercussions.
Bang,bang, bang! How many do you reckon is required? A thousand? Ten thousand? Any intellectual preparation and ideological work required in the making of this shooter revolution?
Of course intellectual and ideological preparation, but the US has more guns than Portugal had carnations. I wish we could throw a revolution like a party, but Fidel didn’t take Moncada with mojitos. The whole Luigimania comes from a collective lightbulb moment, a ‘what if?’ for the younger generations.
Well, no pacifism here. I maintain that "the US left" (whatever that means in 2024) can grant the right no monopoly on what is permitted by the US Second Amendment.
My blood begins to boil when I see the NYTimes duo of Stephens and Brooks, two pro-Israeli and so pro-genociders under the thumb of the zionist lobbies. I"m certainly not for extermination of company executives but can give some creedence to the gutteral hatetred many Americans feel about the insurance industry. I recently was denied compensation for an outpatient visit, without explanation, and even though I have private (expensive) healthcare coverage. When I read about what's coming into office on January 20th, I know many of those who voted for Trump will have late regrets, and some of the characters he has nominated for important offices will have the freedom to destroy what is left for middle and poorer American citizens. As the Queen of Hearts said, off with their heads, and we may hear echoes of that within the next 6 months.
Well, no "pathology of pacifism" (Ward Churchill's phrase) here!
Well said.
It is what class you serve, not what class we are from. Extremely important, so thank you for this, Paul . So then , what class should we serve?
your answer is essentially serve “the people “. But The people “ is a multiclass conglomeration, ranging from lumpenproletariat/ to small capitalist. certainly not a class to serve.
In modern society,, the working class has the crucial role that we sell our capacity for labor for wages and generate capitalist profit.
To gain our freedom from this wage slavery means that we need to eliminate capitalism and replace it with working class power. Certainly no easy task, for sure.
I join other Marxists and communists in calling the transitional socialist state the dictatorship of the proletariat. You must know that Marx said the emancipation of the proletariat was also the emancipation of humanity. The revolution will have multiple sparks and will not simply emerge from the progression of proletarian class struggle.
Why do we have so many severely damaged and often very crazy acting homeless?
Marx wrote in Capital that capitalism brings “Accumulation of wealth at one pole of society [that] is therefore at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, and mental degradation at the opposite pole.” As true in our time as in his.
Paul, your commentary and writing are my first exposure to Marxism. Haven’t read any of his works, was surprised he lived in Germany and England and died there. Not owning property and buried in some sort of every man’s cemetery. Hope I remember that right. Thought he lived in Russia and was there for the Bolshevik revolution. Could this be your calling? The terms from his writings, philosophy and period are a non starter for today’s current world. Most people, me included, don’t know what his labels for the working and wealthy ruling class mean. I had to look them up. You are a gifted academic and writer. Perhaps time to break from 150 year old Marxist terminology and speak to today’s people. Everyone knows who workers are and who the wealthy capitals are. Maybe just call “em rich fucks. Marx speaks to today’s world. The terminology is over the average Americans head. But the concepts he iterated are as valid today, if not more so. Marxism has been maligned. The poor and uneducated think it’s bad. Thank you Fox News capitalists! Time to speak to the people. Carl would agree. No?
I might work up a book about and against the system -- one that will try to avoid the pitfalls of high falutin erudite and academic like language many people don't understand. But we can't let go of the scientific insights in Marx and the better strands in Marxist thought and writing and sometimes science involves really digging into hard stuff to get beneath the surface of events, no? There's a tension between the risk of writing at too high a level of abstraction and the risk of "dumbing down" (wrong phrase but best I have this morning) so as to be understood...finding the happy medium can be tricky.
That's why The Manifesto has held up all these years. It's the brilliant synthesis of rabble rousing and erudite reasoning!
So many great examples of revolutionary development leading to freeing oneself from class background impediments. Fidel had the greatest influence on my young mind. An exemplary life well lived!
As to the early demise of killer CEO's, I'll give a nod to Clarence Darrow), saying "I've never killed a man, but I've read some obituaries with great pleasure".
The Manifesto is pretty damn readable for beginners. I also like Engels, Socialism Scientific and Utopian for an introduction to Marxist thought and writing and revolution.
You raise an important question. My own thoughts: Marxism is a world essential science. Words matter, they mean something. The masses are intelligent, don't insult them with baby talk. Should we change the language of physics, find other words for mass, acceleration, and force? But then the books on the fundamentals would be using different terminology than books of today. Babel. How will people learn the truth? e can start by telling them the truth. With out baby talk. Those are my own thoughts, others may disagree.
The masses may or may not be intelligent. They bought into Fox News. My point was not to “baby talk” or talk down to people. I admitted I have not read Marx’s writings. I was referring to terminology not in use today. Words such as bourgeoisie and proletariat. Paul and perhaps yourself may be highly educated. Was Marx’s intention to preach or enlighten academia or influence society to better and more fairly represent the masses?
Living on the street without proper diet, no place to rest or keep your stuff, constantly trying to find a bathroom, feeling shame for your status, not showering, no healthcare, feeling worthless, to name but a few of the many reasons they act like they do - How would YOU act under these circumstances ? In many places in this god-forsaken country being homeless is essentially a crime - these people are NOT valued as we spend our wealth bombing innocent people in Gaza and funding the Ukraine conflict rather than care for those among us that are suffering. It is beyond shameful how we treat those in need.