: : I like Fassbinder because he dosen't try to force his ideas and plot revolution like others who have posted here. He just lays his thoughts out, and in his unbiased way shows the absurdity of them.I like what you have to say too sammy, don't get me wrong. I would never in a million years silence your views....I do however beleive that your vision of utopia is not mine, and I do not find it compelling. This is not becuase I would choose to live in a standard of overpriviledge, but because I think that the fragmentation of people based on culture, language, and history will not be overcome by such a grand ideal....it has been thought of before and will not work....you can not talk about a system that is that large and complex that will run itself on morality and fairness...these concepts differ in every part of the world, there is no consenses......your thoughts are nice to hear, and if we lived in a land where control and communication made it possible to amass support for such an ideal...then perhaps...Yet you do not....and although you may spend many years developing these ideas, you will ulimately find that the sheer differences among people are too great and diverse to satisfy your dream....the only way to do this, would be control.....it is nice to think about us all wanting the same, and looking out for each other....yet the responsibilities are not there.....look in the middle east, africa, india, china, indonesia...you can talk about this in terms of big dollars running the show, but this is more that all of that.....it is ingrained in individuals not only based on capitalist ideology...but rooted in religion and historical context that makes your dream of consenses unworkable......unfortunatly, you are not living in reality. You have run into the same problem that many philosophers have encountered for a thousand years, that it requires a fundamental change in human nature....that is the harsh reality.
: Be specific, Mike. Which thought did you find "absurd"? No one will learn anything if you say "all of them," unless you go over some statement point by point.
: : Of course you'll work for yourself free of charge. But are you(pl.) willing to do it for every Joe Blow?
: There would have to be a compact of mutual trust before any different economic arrangement would represent an improvement over capitalism. That's why many of the participants in this forum are in favor of "one big union."
It is those kinds of vague, nonsense answers that diffuse your argument. Mutual trust? How many of you would blindly accept this in any form? What guarantees would you need or want? This kind of mutual trust is a silly notion based on personal relationships that can not work unless each person takes responsibility for one another....when you can figure out how to do that.....then start talking. It should take you about five hundred years....start with Israel and Palestine.
: : Again capitalism, money, "greed", "profit", "commodity lust": whatever you want to call it, produces inovation and technology.
: It is people in their roles as intelligent thinkers who have produced innovation and technology, and in their roles as capitalists, they have merely tried to "cash in on" innovation and technology. Social innovations, such as the Bill of Rights and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, have to my knowledge not netted any direct profit to any capitalist, and there are plenty of people I know who "innovate" technologically in order to make their lives easier, regardless of the possibility of profit coming from such innovation. No one, here or elsewhere, has persuaded me that such innovation is entirely dependent upon a capitalist system.
What is the benefit to innovate, if I am not pressured to do so? Why not get nice and big and fat and stale.....or I suppose that this apparent unionism will result in an elevation of the human spirit to innovate and all work together.....Capitalist systems force innovation based on market share...it actually results in better made products at lower prices....The incentive is real....because it often requires investment to develop...the only incentive is return.
