Profit and loss

Jane lycidas2 at earthlink.net
Thu May 3 22:53:12 CDT 2001



Mike Weaver wrote:
> 
> > > Just to get rid of one of the BS platitudes of these folks,
> > > just ask yourself, what does it really mean that the
> > > activity on the foreign exchange and currency and index and
> > > commodities, and all manner of derivatives has sky rocketed?
> > > Could it be a very, very, good thing?
> >
> >
> >It certainly reflects an increasing diversity of trans national
> >transactions. And as you, I and Jbor believe, this is a POSITIVE
> >trend. More participants, a greater diversity of objectives, a levelling
> >playing field, a contraction of "protected" markets in ALL nations -
> >who could possibly be so obtuse as to argue that this is a bad thing?
> 
> Gad sirs you almost have me convinced. Capitalism may be inherently
> destructive of human decency, fueled by competition, greed and insecurity,
> just about as far from "Love thy neighbour..." as you can get in peacetime
> but it is, the way you put it, a GOOD thing.

Capitalism is not inherently destructive of human decency. 

Capitalism:  An economic system in which the means of
production and distribution are privately or corporately
owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation
and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

There is a lot of evidence in Pynchon's books, a truck load
in the critical literature (again, see for but one example,
Jeffrey S. Baker's "Amerikkka Uber Alles"), from which to
make a good argument that Capitalism is not the
target of P's satire. However, he is very concerned about
the Nationalist/Protectionist internal and external cartels
and the linking of government ideology to a collective WAR
or Nazi economy. This is always a danger, not of Capitalism,
but of 
all Systems, but we, particularly in the USA (where the
opportunity for diversity is better than ever!)  are moving
in exactly the opposite direction from what
Pynchon the satirist portrays with apparent and entertaining
exaggeration, fabrication, bold and perhaps Nobel divesting
bravado (Nixonian pasquinade) as the American nightmare
screaming with imperial orgasmic climax. Look high not low,
and if you read Sasuly, P's primary source for IG Farben
material, this is will be clear as bell. 

BTW, jbor or another member here said they could not secure
a copy of Sasuly, but you can certainly get one, they are
all over. Be careful, the book ain't worth more than $20.00. 


> 
> As if.
> 
>          All that healthy activity you detect is only the elite and their
> admirers gambling with the futures of millions, their chips paid for with
> the labour of millions past. Out here in the working world that healthy
> activity adds up to  job losses, wage cuts, loss of social services,
> increased crime, social tension and flare up.
>          All the benefits of free trade of which you have spoken will only
> reach an elite. This is the globalization which Terance doesn't believe in,
> the continuing development of a global elite. For the majority in each
> population further entanglement with capitalism means different forms of
> poverty and insecurity.
> 
> For millions of us life in a capitalist system is painful and like all sane
> people we will try to deal with our pain by removing its source, and the
> ways we go about that are many and varied.
> 
>          You can heap all the scorn and contempt you want on expressions of
> hope which fail to meet your benchmark of reason, it doesn't make you right
> or Teufelsdröckh wrong. It just makes clear which side you are on.
> 
> Anti-capitalism isn't an ideology which can be logically reduced to false
> perceptions, but a dialectical reaction continually developing within
> capitalism's workings. The first wave of anticapitalism may have failed,
> but the next one's already agrowing.



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