Capitalism is not in a position to solve the social and ecological crisis that it is causing. An open-ended transformation of the system is inevitable, and a struggle for transformation will be waged – especially against the fascist threat. Conscious reflection on the systemic crisis is the best antidote to the conspiratorial crisis talk of the New Right.
Caught in the discourse of power (tags)
The problem is that the country called Ukraine does not belong to the wage-dependent Ukrainian people. This state, for which the Ukrainians have gone to war, is, like every capitalist state apparatus, an instrument of power of the rulers.. The powerful have always been forcing a classic Stockholm syndrome on the population with their propaganda.
Persons without a center (tags)
"They have their great, constantly changing I, but none of them has a self, a core, an experience of identity (...) ...Without awareness & confidence in his own self, man, Fromm argues, is disconnected from both himself & environment."
Cacophony of Corporatism, Subsidies & Inheritance Tax (tags)
History is written by the winners. The Orwellian "memory hole" has long been a reality and could soon lead to subsequent generations no longer being able to develop any awareness at all of what it means to lead a free and dignified life.
Astonishment. The Beginning and End of Theology (tags)
Happy are those who can still cry in this world. Happy are those who dare to be defenseless. Happy are those who know and recognize their poverty. Only they are capable of truth, peace and common interests. These words refute everything served up to us as true.
Let the advertising die! (tags)
Advertising leads to useless purchases because it often persuades consumers to have needs instead of satisfying existing desires. This leads to excessive consumption of resources and materials and thus damages the environment.
The birth of propaganda and The war of perception (tags)
One of the founding fathers of modern propaganda, Edward Bernays, therefore also openly admitted that especially in democracies, where the majority of people decide, the control of thoughts and feelings is a central tool. "Public relations involves 'the engineering of consent.'"
Children suffer strongly from homeschooling in Lockdown (tags)
The situation, which UNICEF described as a "catastrophic education crisis" at the beginning of March, continues. In addition, errors, stereotypes, misjudgements and trivialization prevail in the discussion about children, Corona and digital distance learning.
Fromm refers, among others, to the teachings of Karl Marx, Meister Eckhart, Albert Schweitzer and Buddha and their "... radical demand for the abandonment of the orientation towards having, their anti-authoritarian position and their advocacy of complete independence (...) and their demand for social activity.
I consume, theerefore I am (tags)
People who, according to Erich Fromm, are afraid of freedom, who, suffer from "mental constipation" according to Wilhelm Reich, With consumer freedom, the long tradition of Enlightenment thinking is simply erased:
How is Corona changing the world of work? (tags)
Exceptional situations do not necessarily have to be handled in an authoritarian manner; efficiency does not have to be generated in command structures. Independent action by employees becomes productive in democratic structures - perhaps the Corona crisis has also triggered processes that go in this direction.
The turn to less: Corona and the consumption dilemma (tags)
The Corona crisis could be the beginning of a better normality. Corona could make a turning point in history. The global North has benefited from unequal trade relations. Global employment has lost its role as the center of life. We must get out of the old path dependencies.
Trump and the Post-Factual (tags)
Trump's politics is naive and skeptical, gullible and cynical. Trump's relation with truth is like a generalization of conspiracy theory assumptions that see manipulative-conspiratorial activities at work behind observable reality. Beware pathological narcissists & path paranoids!
Authoritarian Capitalism and Digital Demagogue (tags)
Trump is not an individual phenomenon but one of many structural manifestations of the sudden change of neoliberalism into authoritarian capitalism.
Authoritarian Capitalism (tags)
Phenomena like Trump and the new nationalisms confirm the actuality of the theory of the authoritarian personality articulated by Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm, and Theodor Adorno. By their structure, capitalist social media encourage narcissism and are not social media
Capitalism as a Religion (tags)
"Capital is the only god that the whole world knows, sees, touches, smells, tastes and excites all our senses. It is the only god that doesn't encounter any atheists" (Paul Lafargue's little known genial satire "Religion of Capital" from 1887.
Average wages in the US are lower than 30 years ago. Profits and income inequality explode, not investments. The austerity policy that has always worsened unemployment and economic growth is promoted as without alternative by German chancellor Merkel.
Pacific Radio Discovers Audio Of Speech by Dr King To London Audience (tags)
Pacific Radio has discovered audio tape of a speech Dec 7 1964 Dr Martin Luther King gave in London days before his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize as the youngest recipient ever at that time. It is in audio at http://democracynow.org and in text at http://pacificradioarchives.org
Erich Fromm on Karl Marx (tags)
The capitalist production method makes a few persons absurdly rich while the others hardly have enough to survive. Capitalism also makes people unfree and unhappy because their access to their true needs is blocked.
Against Growth Mania and Fair Redistribution (tags)
How can we rebuild our society so we manage with less growth and not collapse when growth does not occur? Consumption beyond a certain level is pathological, a compensation or substitute for missed life (cf. Erich Fromm).
Basic Income: The Way out of a Sick Society (tags)
Without the social contract, we become wolves to one another. Without the social contract, the state becomes a trough for the super-rich. Basic income could enable everyone to participate in social, economic and political life. Without vision, the people perish.
A courageous radical human rights agenda (tags)
The New Zealand government's response to the Christchurch earthquake was to assumed greater executive power to help the victims - necessary, in part, due to deficiencies in human rights law the same deficiencies which created a major tragedy at the bottom of the social scale over past 20 yrs.
Erich Fromm and His Proposal for a Basic Income (tags)
Philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm never abandoned his vision of a humanist non-estranged society where persons were not commodified or mere goods producers. His book "Having or Being" was written at age 76.
Memorandums on Alternative Economic Policy (tags)
The social state, solidarity, sharing and social justice open doors while neoliberal deregulation leads to exploding inequality, generalized insecurity and disappearance of the public spirit.
Frances Moore Lappé, Matthew Fox Speak in San Diego (tags)
Frances Moore Lappé and Matthew Fox, two powerful long-time activists who started in the 1970’s and both live in Oakland, came to San Diego to address the opening session of the Justice for Women and Children conference January 18 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in San Diego. Lappé wrote the book “Diet for a Small Planet” and founded Food First to work on projects helping people in Third World countries to feed themselves in ways that respected their environment and heritage of biodiversity. Fox was a Roman Catholic priest who was thrown out by the current Pope for championing the spiritual power of women; he's now a priest in the Episcopal Church and works on education projects with so-called “at-risk” youth to channel their creativity in non-mainstream ways.
From Obsuristan to Absurdistan: Barbarism or Human Future (tags)
Individual security can be emphasized so global vision fades. Half-truths and fish stories carry the day. "Communism is oppression of many by man and capitalism is just the reverse." Our challenge is to reawaken wonder and interdependence, to consider the way of nonviolent resistance.
The Accursed Anathema of Judeo-Christian History in the Western World: What It Means Today (tags)
The introduction of Christianity in the Roman Empire threatened Rome because even then Christianity seem to create “fanatical” minds—that were willing to die for their faith to a single monotheistic God who was seemingly too jealous and intolerant to tolerate the idea that other Gods also expected respect as worthy. The only loyalty those early proselytes had was a sole loyalty to a God outside the Empire. Then Constantine impressed by such zealots exploited Christian fanaticism as he made Christianity the official Roman religion—creating the especial emergence of Church to State (or as our American forefathers warned “temporal and spiritual tyranny”).
The Accursed Anathema of Judeo-Christian History in the Western World: What It Means Today (tags)
The introduction of Christianity in the Roman Empire threatened Rome because even then Christianity seem to create “fanatical” minds—that were willing to die for their faith to a single monotheistic God who was seemingly too jealous and intolerant to tolerate the idea that other Gods also expected respect as worthy. The only loyalty those early proselytes had was a sole loyalty to a God outside the Empire. Then Constantine impressed by such zealots exploited Christian fanaticism as he made Christianity the official Roman religion—creating the especial emergence of Church to State (or as our American forefathers warned “temporal and spiritual tyranny”).
Biblical Sabbath Economy (tags)
Franz Segbers insists the Biblical Sabbath economy cares for the oikos, not speculation and accumulation When the right of speculation trumps the right of housing, we end up protecting the sharks from the sardines (cf "Housing as a Human Right")
Life is Gift, not Possession (tags)
In "Kaspar Hauser," Jacob Wassermann describes a town suffering under a long drought. With the wells dry, the town becomes enmeshed in violence and recrimination until a little boy plays so beautifully on his flute that water rises again in the wells.
Bishop Huber on the Increasing Cisis of Trust in Society (tags)
Responsibility for fellow-workers is just as important as responsibility for profits. The growing mistrust toward the economic elite changes directly into mistrust toward our political system. To find ourselves and affirm human limits, we need persons who share our hopes and suffering
Lying into "Humanitarian" Wars (tags)
The worst lie of all is that we are not waging war but only taking "humanitarian peacekeeping measures" in Orwellian newspeak.. The great chance is that a generation will rise up that doesn't need to enter history through the battlefield.
Sustainability or Consumerism (tags)
The industrial nations must lower their CO2 emissions at least 80% by 2060.. Consumerism, accumulating goods as a substitute for meaning, is the great enemy of climate protection today.
Psychology of a Guaranteed Income (tags)
The main obstacle to a guaranteed income seems to be psychological, the envy triggered by another's good fortune.. People will always work since boredom becomes overwhelming.
Money, Power and the Human Psyche (tags)
Slavery still exists as money slavery all over the world where more than a third of humanity must survive at the subsistence level..Our relation to money has characteristics of madness. . When value blindness occurs in a person, his sense of reality becomes dead.
Paid Work and Basic Income (tags)
The goal of basic income advocates is to neutralize capitalism in one of its central premises: the generalziation of paid labor as the only or at least dominant path of securing existence. The future would be brighter if this were on the agenda.
EVOLUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN POLICE STATE IN AMERICA (tags)
GET THE BOOK
Can the Militarist See Outside the Box? (tags)
Liberation theology and the theology of hope can give us strength against fundamentalism intolerance and jingoism generated by hyper-materialism. False consciousness can be replaced by exchanging roles and egalitarian passion.
US: Patriotic pride and fear (tags)
Exploring questions of societal madness and contemporary fascism, Goldstein interviews political scientist Michael Parenti and psychologist Daniel Burston.
Brutality starts at home (tags)
US President George W Bush condemned the incidents of Iraq prison abuse and those who perpetrated them, saying: "That's not the way we do things in America." But unfortunately, that's not quite true.
Investigative journalist Ritt Goldstein's chilling commentary upon the growth of contemporary fascism. While versions of the piece have been printed in Europe, this is the first time it has appeared in English, this version created for Goldstein's fellow Americans.
A May 31, 2002 internal memo from the Education Department, "Criterion and Process for Removing Old Content from www.ed.gov," the department's Web site, is strangely akin to what occurs in 1984.