Our CRAP Society.

      I have posted this before, but I feel it is worth repeating from time to time.

Our C.R.A.P. society, based on 

Capitalism,
Religion,
Authority,
Patriotism.

                  CRAP for short,

       

        Any alien looking in on our society must come to the conclusion that we earthlings love CRAP. It is all they will see as we scurry about working in CRAP jobs for CRAP wages and in what little “leisure” time we have we rush around buying CRAP. We spend precious time discussing the benefits of this piece of CRAP as opposed to that piece of CRAP. We weigh up the difference between this pair of CRAP trainers and that pair of CRAP trainers, this CRAP label and that CRAP label. We consider we have choices when we select this CRAP newspaper or that CRAP magazine from the avalanche of CRAP paper pulp on offer. One CRAP supermarket after another offers us an array of CRAP food and TV vomits endless CRAP into our homes and we flick from CRAP Big-Brother to CRAP house make-overs, from CRAP lifestyle programs to CRAP celebrity chat shows.

        Move to the realms of the “serious” CRAP and we have on offer CRAP political parties throwing up an display of smiling CRAP politicians, who, come election time, prance about offering CRAP policies in the hope that they can take their place in that CRAP institution at Westminster. What we get from the CRAP government of the day is such things as the CRAP war on drugs, that doesn’t work, CRAP tough on crime, that criminalizes poverty, CRAP war on terrorism, that is counterproductive,

Capitalism,

can produce nothing but an abundance of CRAP as profit is the only motive.

Religion,

produces CRAP freedom destroying dogma, based on the supposed mutterings of some airy-fairy gods.

Authority,

gives us a CRAP life based on surveillance and strict unbending laws.

Patriotism,

the last refuge of the scoundrel gives us CRAP racism and generates canon fodder for the state’s endless CRAP wars.

      Is this the type of society that we want to bequeath to our children and their grandchildren? Should we not be taking control of our own affairs and producing to our needs based on sustainability? A world of free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid is possible, a world that accommodates us all as equals and prepares the world for the next generation rather than rob them of an existence. 

First we have to get rid of  C. R. A. P. Let’s start now.

ann arky's home.

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF CRAP.

Lifted from an old post on my sister blog Annarky1:


Society based on Capitalism,Religion,Authority and Patriotism.

             C.R.A.P.   for short.

        Any alien looking in on our society must come to the conclusion that we earthlings love CRAP. It is all they will see as we scurry about working in CRAP jobs for CRAP wages and in what little “leisure” time we have we rush around buying CRAP. We spend precious time discussing the benefits of this piece of CRAP as opposed to that piece of CRAP. We weigh up the difference between this pair of CRAP trainers and that pair of CRAP trainers, this CRAP label and that CRAP label. We consider we have choices when we select this CRAP newspaper or that CRAP magazine from the avalanche of CRAP paper pulp on offer. One CRAP supermarket after another offers us an array of CRAP food and TV vomits endless CRAP into our homes and we flick from CRAP Big-Brother to CRAP house make-overs, from CRAP lifestyle programs to CRAP celebrity chat shows.

        Move to the realms of the “serious” CRAP and we have on offer CRAP political parties throwing up a display of smiling CRAP politicians, who, come election time, prance about offering CRAP policies in the hope that they can take their place in that CRAP institution at Westminster. What we get from the CRAP government of the day is such things as the CRAP war on drugs, that doesn’t work, CRAP tough on crime, that criminalizes poverty, CRAP war on terrorism, that is counterproductive,

Capitalism,

can produce nothing but an abundance of CRAP as profit is the only motive.

Religion,

produces CRAP freedom destroying dogma, based on the supposed mutterings of some airy-fairy gods.

Authority,

gives us a CRAP life based on surveillance and strict unbending laws.

Patriotism,

the last refuge of the scoundrel gives us CRAP racism and generates canon fodder for the state’s endless CRAP wars.

      Is this the type of society that we want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren? Should we not be taking control of our own affairs and producing to all our needs based on sustainability? A world of free association, voluntary co-operation and mutual aid is possible, a world that accommodates us all as equals and prepares the world for the next generation rather than rob them of an existence. 

First we have to get rid of  C. R. A. P. Let’s start now.

ann arky's home.

AUSTERITY - NO PAY FOR THREE MONTHS!!!

    Not been paid for three months and then being put on part-time 20 hours a week at €200 a month, that's capitalism IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) style for you.

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

Unpaid for three months - 

shop assistants in Fokas department store protest

 

       Employees at the Fokas department stores, one of the most well-known retail outlets in Greece taking part in a 24 hour strike over unpaid wages dating back to June. In addition according to Union of Shop Workers, the company is in the process of replacing full time positions with part time ones paying just 200 Euros a month for a 20 hour week.
       (200 euros a month is just enough to cover rent on a modest one room apartment in the poorest parts of Thessaloniki.)

enosiemporiothess@gmail.com

ann arky's home.

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS, AND MORE OF THE SAME!!

      The media and our millionaire politicians keep going on about the "crisis", however what they fail to mention is that it is not "a" crisis, as capitalism "is" crisis. The capitalist system of economics has lurched from crisis to crisis. Most of these crises bring misery to millions of ordinary people, today's crisis is probably hitting billions of ordinary people. Today because of the nature of the capitalist beast the "crisis" is world wide. In Europe apart from the "financial" crisis, the German economy is in decline, France has returned to recession, the Italian economy is contracting, and just to screw things up a bit more, China's economy is slowing. All that translates into misery for millions of ordinary folk. World wide, this year alone a further 43 million has been added to those suffering hunger. According to Oxfam, almost one billion people are now hungry, that is a staggering one-in-seven of the Earth's population. This is not because we do not have the food and resources to solve this problem, but is because food is not grown to satisfy people's needs, it is grown to make a profit. That's capitalism, your needs can only be seen to if you have the money to create a profit for somebody else.

      As capitalism has grown to become a world wide economic system, hunger and poverty across the globe has grown, not diminished. In country after country as the capitalist system develops, so does the difference between rich and poor. There is nothing in the system that will make it other than this.  If we continue to look to capitalism to solve these problems, we will just move along to another crisis. Hundreds of years of a failed man made economic system, which produces poverty and deprivation for millions and luxuries for the few, surely merits  that we re-think the way we structure society. Let's move away from the billionaires paradise, to a place where we the ordinary people are in charge of the society that we live in, and create a system that sees to the needs of all our people. We have the resources, the ability and the need to destroy this parasite driven system of profit and greed. We can, and for our own benefit and that of future generations, we must, build a society based on mutual aid, justice, co-operation and sustainability. A society of communities in federation with other communities, controlled by all those who live in those communities.

ann arky's home.

ANARCHISM, A LONG PEDIGREE.

       How far back does capitalism go? It has been practised as an economic system for several hundred years, over that time it has developed and refined its procedures and institutions but has failed utterly to eliminate poverty in any one country, even the most developed, America and Britain for example. As it draws wealth to the centre, the periphery suffers, be it city, country or continent, it does not and cannot spread wealth evenly. It is a system that never has and never will see to the needs of all the people. It has been tried and it has failed miserably.

       Anarchism goes back much further, at least to the first century BC. It has only been tried in small pockets on the planet and though where tried, it did see to the needs of all its people, it was always crushed by the power hungry authoritarians. A way of organising society that has persisted for more than 2,000 years, which advocates tolerance and self-sufficiency, is surely worth a try today.

     The earliest  anarchist were probably the Cynics of ancient Greece who scorned all power structures, wealth and adherence to to convention.

     The following is a short extract from Fearless Speech by Michel Foucault, page 120, published by SEMIOTEXT(E)

     There is, however, very little positive doctrine in Cynic preaching: no direct affirmation of good or bad. Instead, the Cynics refer to freedom (eleutheria) and self-sufficiency (autarkeia) as the best criteria by which to assess any kind of behaviour or mode of life. For the Cynics, the main condition for human happiness is autarkeia, self-sufficiency or independence, where what you need to have or what you decide to do is dependent on nothing other than yourself. As a consequence -- since the Cynics had the most radical of attitudes--they preferred a completely natural life-style.  A natural life was supposed to eliminate all of the dependencies introduced by culture, society, civilization, opinion and so on. Consequently, most of their preaching seems to have been directed against social institutions, the arbitrariness of rules of law, and any sort of life-style that was dependent upon such institutions or laws. In short, their preaching was against all social institutions insofar as such institutions hindered one's freedom and independence.

ann arky's home,

14.5% ANNUAL PAY INCREASE, NICE ONE LLOYD.

        While the financial Mafia, lead by the likes of Goldman Sachs etc. continue with their slash and burn of the living standards of all the ordinary people across Europe, they have no qualms whatsoever in gorging themselves on the fruits of their plunder. It is not done surreptitiously, no it is done quite blatantly, their arrogance makes them feel they are entitled to such stratospheric payments.

It's hard being a banker, I have to make some tough decisions.

      Take Mr Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, while you and I are suffering from a wage freeze or wage cut, this hard working gentleman received, for his 2011 annual pay, an increase of 14.5% taking his reward for a hard years work to the princely sum of $16.2million. This is approximately £10.3million a payment that makes up his salary, bonuses, long term share rewards and perks. You can rest assured that every penny/cent of that was gleaned from the “austerity cuts” and “deficit reduction” being imposed on the rest of us. Well, that's capitalism for you.

ann arky's home.

HAS THE ARAB SPRING BLOSSOMED?

CAIRO.

This from The Anarchist International:

          We have all observed the emergence in Tunisia of a vast energy that spread to Egypt. In Tunisia as well as Egypt, unstable dictators were unseated. We distrust the people who helped push for these limited goals. Specific people and organizations (such as the April 6 Movement) persistently agitated and organized to implement technocratic capitalism in Tunisia and Egypt. In Tunisia, elections have been held and a new prime minister elected. Now that Tunisia has a reliable capitalist democracy, the actors that exacerbated the insurrection have mysteriously vanished. There is still rebellion and the population knows how to utilize the tools of the democracy-bringers, but the absence of these actors is very clear. In Egypt we see a similar pattern catalyzed by these same actors, fighting for technocratic capitalism.

Continue READING:

ann arky's home.

PROBLEMS WITH GDP.

        It always fascinated me when I learnt the the UK GDP climbed during to years of the housing boom, simply because the value of the house were rising, not that there were more house built. It seemd odd that the country had "X" number of houses and the country's GDP was "Y" some time later with the same amount of bricks and mortar, windows and doors the country's GDP had risen to "W", all because the value put on those bricks and mortar went up. So by producing nothing and sitting doing nothing you just got richer and purchased on the strength of this illusionary wealth. And our learned university economists thought this was great and would last for ever. Ah, the wonders of capitalism.

ann arky's home.

OCCUPY MOVEMENT = AL QAEDA!!!!

     

     This government, like all other governments spends billions on surveillance of "terrorist organisations", but what is a terrorist organisation and who decides? The following short extract from BTYahoo News, throws up lots of questions, though in some people's minds, it clears things up.

City of London Police have sparked controversy by producing a brief in which the Occupy London movement is listed under domestic terrorism/extremism threats to City businesses.

The document was given to protesters at their “Bank of Ideas” base on Sun Street – a former site of financial corporation UBS. City police have stepped up an effort to quell the movement since they occupied the building on 18 November, with the document stating: “It is likely that activists aspire to identify other locations to occupy, especially those they identify with capitalism.
“Intelligence suggests that urban explorers are holding a discussion at the Sun Street squat. This may lead to an increase in urban exploration activity at abandoned or high profile sites in the capital.” The Occupy movement is listed alongside threats posed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), Al Qaeda and Belarussian terrorists.

CONTINUE READING---.

 

         Well at least this statement makes it clear that the role of the police is not to keep the peace and law and order. To all those who laboured under this illusion it is now there in black and white on the printed paper, issued by the police themselves, their aim is to protect capitalism. Now it seems to be out in the open that you are a terrorist/extremist if you are a threat to City business. It would appear that in the eyes of this regime that we live under, peaceful protest by the citizens equates to extremism and terrorism. I thought we were told that it was the courts that would decide who was right or wrong in these matters, not the police chief. Is it the government or the police that decides who is on the list alongside Al Qaeda and FARC, or are these list made up by group of unelected secret service bosses? Or more likely a group of corporate advisers who will do everything in their power to eliminate any criticism to their greed feast.

ann arky's home.

CHILD POVERTY - AGAIN!!!

       One of the advantages/problems with living a long life is you get to hear the same old crap being mouthed by our prancing, pontificating, parasitical politicians, time and time again. Each time they come up with their new-regurgitated heart felt rendering, the new generation think it is a new problem and the mouthing politician's feelings are for real. I was born in one of Glasgow many slums, and there was poverty a plenty. Now heading for my eighties, and with Edwina Currie's remark, that no one in the UK goes hungry, ringing in my ears, I hear once again the latest primadonna politicians shedding tears over child poverty, and with that gravitas they perfected at the Oxbridge Club, stating how something will have to be done about this dreadful problem. They have been mouthing this after every election during my long life, and we still have nearly 3 million children in poverty in this country with 1.6 million in severe poverty. After so many years highlighting the problem of child poverty, I think we now have to come to the conclusion that either they don't want to fix the problem, or under the present system it can't be fixed. I'm firmly in the camp of the latter, as evidence across the globe points to increased child poverty as the capitalist system develops.

This isnae wit a voted fur.

Pinpointing child poverty also helps to obscure other factors, that are wrong with the system. Child poverty doesn't exist in isolation. Every child in poverty is in a home that is in poverty, and every home that is in poverty has a family in poverty. Nearly 3 million children in poverty, and 1.6 million in severe poverty, how many homes, how many families? In other words we have a society that has widespread poverty. Further more it has been with us throughout the history of capitalism, and the theatrics of our well-heeled political class will do nothing to alleviate the problem. It is the system that is wrong and our millionaire politicians are merely milking it for all they are worth at the expense of the ordinary people.

EIGHTEEN HUNGRY CHILDREN.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day

eighteen of tomorrow’s people

cruelly thrown away.

When pandering to a fashion

gratifying our greed,

think, theirs is no desire

but a basic need.

Envisage a familiar face

a child that calls your name,

try to be the parent

try to place the blame.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen little faces

that never learnt to play.

Walk past your local school

listen to the shrill,

stand and count to sixty

imagine hunger start to kill.

Fingers must be pointed

at decisions made on high,

questions must be asked

loudly asked by you and I.

Eighteen hungry children die

every minute of every day,

eighteen precious lives

the claws of hunger slay.

WHY?



ann arky's home.

THE EPIDEMIC DISEASE OF CAPITALISM.

       The propaganda from the proponents of capitalism continually spout that capitalism will bring prosperity to all. Yet across the globe poverty is on the increase. As poverty increases so does all the health problems that go along with poverty, mental health problems as well as physical. Figures show that suicides and depression are on the increase, there is no doubt that enviromental problems of the individual play a big part in bring about these conditions, the sort of things that are part and parcel of capitalism, unemployment, competition, the illusion that happiness comes in nice fancy wrapped boxes at a price, and the constant fear of deprivation, diseases that could be called the capitalist epedemic. The following is an extract from an article published in LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal the full article makes excellent reading.

By Mark Harris

July 23, 2011 -- www.resistance.au -- There is no denying it, depression is on the rise across the world. The World Health Organization says depression will be the second largest contributor to the global burden of disease by 2020. For young people this is already the case. Depression leads to about 850,000 deaths every year.

But why is depression on the rise? In some instances it is a product of more readily available methods of diagnosis and public understanding of the disorder. But increases in suicide rates and other indicators suggest that the increase in depression is well beyond this statistical readjustment.

Depression is not always caused by a chemical imbalance or as a result of human biology. It is a result of social factors such as loneliness, lack of social support, financial strain, lack of purpose and unemployment. These are endemic under capitalism.

Even in a wealthy country like Australia, youth often look to a future that is at best unfulfilling. Furthermore, capitalism is based on competition. In all sorts of ways we can only succeed if someone else fails. Obvious examples are job interviews or exams to get into uni.