"Love, love, love.
Love, love, love.
love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.
Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.
All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.
Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
It's easy.All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need."
Ah...the immortal words of the Beatles. I was reminded of this song the other day whilst running through Centennial Park, my main running route in the city of Sydney. Because I had read this article earlier that day, and it reall
y got to me: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/27-0I have to quote herein part of this article, since it really affected me, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
"The secret to capitalism's success is its ability to take one of mankind's most powerful emotions - greed - and harness that emotion to drive economic progress. By greedily pursuing our own individual self-interests, the theory goes, each of us contributes almost accidentally to greater prosperity for everybody.
And for the most part, that's how it has worked. The innovation and risk-taking encouraged by capitalism have given billions of people a quality of life and security that would otherwise be unimaginable. If there is a better, more productive system for meeting the physical needs of human life, we haven't found it yet.
But then comes a year like 2008, a year in which capitalism has faltered and the security of millions of Americans is threatened. Trillions of dollars of wealth has disappeared in a remarkably short time, along with millions of jobs. Fear rather than optimism dominates the landscape, and everyone from economists to hairdressers to members of Congress is wondering just what went wrong and how to fix it.
There are technical explanations, political explanations and folk-wisdom explanations. There are explanations that attempt to get down into the nitty-gritty details and those that offer a big-picture analysis.
My own one-sentence assessment? Capitalism works by getting the best out of greed; it fails when we let greed get the best of us.
And that is a constant, never-ending problem. We have always known that greed is dangerous. Going back into time as far as the written word can take us, every major religion, every major culture has warned against the dangers of greed.
In a capitalist system, the knowledge of greed's dual nature - its power when harnessed, its danger when it is not - sets up a permanent, enduring tension. The trick is to give greed enough play to reap its benefits while minimizing greed's danger. In that sense, a greed-powered economy is like a nuclear-powered submarine. Both are driven by a potentially boundless but destructive source of energy that must be kept within bounds to operate safely.
But greed by its nature is seductive. Greed always seeks more, a little more, just a bit more, please. And greed can cause us to rationalize things that cannot and should not be rationalized."
GREED (grēd) n. An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth: "Many . . . attach to competition the stigma of selfish greed" (Henry Fawcett).
[Back-formation from greedy.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Now, the above article I just quoted comes from one of my favorite progressively-oriented web-sites, http://www.commondreams.org/. I had to highlight a few sentences from this article which left me dazed, and angry, I have to admit, as I felt they were stunning in their arrogance and deception. Let it not be said that I agree with everything I read on my news sources. Anyway, let's look at these, and see what you think.
Do you think greed is "one of mankind's most powerful emotions"? We sure don't, here at A.P.R. Love is the most powerful emotion. None of us would be here were it not for the unconditional love our parents gave us. Or, the love that couples have for each other when they have children. Love is what drove the victorious struggles for freedom and civil rights across the World over the past several centuries. To say that greed is one of our most powerful emotions is to give it more power and emphasis than it deserves. And to help perpetuate it's pre-emenance
in our society.The other sentence, "the innovation and risk-taking encouraged by capitalism have given billions of people a quality of life and security that would otherwise be unimaginable. If there is a better, more productive system for meeting the needs of physical life, we haven't found it yet!"
That writer needs to study history and environmental issues more. None of the benefits we associate with our modern capitalist system, fair labour practices, benefits, 40 hour work-weeks, etc.. were given, but had to be won through decades and even centuries of struggle by working people, at great cost in lives and livelihoods. Capitalism evolved over the past 400 years on the backs of slaves, then through brutal colonial policies extracting resources from countries and cultures not able to defend themselves. And now, left unfettered and unregulated, it seeks a global "race to the bottom" of continually moving production and support facilities to countries with the cheapest labour and most lax environmental regulations. Tell me what you think about this. Wild salmon, caught in the cold, clean waters off Alaska and Canada, is shipped to China for processing, then back to Alaska and Canada, to be sold frozen or canned. Now, is that the measure of a healthy economic system, one that is sustainable and rational? We rest our case. And, as Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, so eloquently put it, the Earth has a fever, caused by the capitalist development model.
What do we call unrestrained cellular growth in a body, and what does it do? Cancer of course, and it ends up killing the host. Modern capitalism is still predicated on unlimited growth and expansion of production and consumption, which is obviously impossible, since the resources of our planet are finite. Our entire scientific/technological/economic structure of the modern "western world", if left unchecked and unchanged, will bring catastrophic changes to the Earth's atmosphere and climate, leading to mass extinctions. At least 1.5 billion people on the planet do not have access to clean, safe, drinking water, and at least one billion are undernourished, while it's also "fouling the nest" and leading to global environmental collapse? Is that a system that is working?
All of us have at some time in our lives been engaged in meaningful work, where we committed all our physical and mental resources to the tasks at hand, because we believe(d) the results would be well worth the struggle. That drive to produce things or materials we believe in is very strong, and if harnessed by supportive governmental polices and institutions, would lead to great changes and results.
What alternatives are there to capitalism? Has anything "better" been tried? Well, certainly, any society that could have love, instead of greed, as a basis and motivating theme would be worth trying. The closest societies we have to that would be the social democracies of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and yes, even Cuba. Cuba has it's share of problems, yet somehow they have been able to maintain their socialist state for 50 years, in spite of great pressure from the spiteful empire to the north. We encourage people to visit all manner of countries, social democracies and others, to see for yourselves. What do social democracies offer? Universal health care, unlimited unemployment benefits, so people will not be thrown out on the street and starve if unable to find jobs, minimum vacation times of one month for all professions, and many other benefits. And why are these benefits offered? Because people in these countries care about each other. What is that? Love. Not that these countries don't have problems, by any means, but they all have:
- the highest life expectancies on the planet
- greatest percentage of literacy
- lowest violent crime rates - lowest incarceration rates
- lowest infant mortality rates
Needless to say, the U.S. isn't one of those countries, but it could be. That choice is up to us.
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS
While greatly enjoying my time working and visiting in the vibrant city of Sydney, Australia, I still have to
seek tranquility from the rigours of city life on my days off. Yesterday I decided to visit Royal National Park, 25 miles south of the city, on the coast. A large preserve of virgin coastline and expanses of the native gum/eucalyptus woodlands of the region. Just a 45 minute train ride from downtown led me to Sutherland Station, from which I had to bike another 8 miles in to the park. I got lost on the way down, so ended up doing 15 miles on that leg, in the hot 32C sun. The woodland there is very pretty, with the smooth-barked trees and ferns all about. I brought my mask/fins/snorkel with me, so I could explore in the water, and try out my new underwater camera housing, in preparation for my Great Barrier Reef diving, three weeks hence.
After two hours pedaling in the hot sun, I decided to head for the nearest water, which was called Warumbul bay.
After setting up my beach gear, I headed in to the water quick, it was hot! I swam and snorkeled around for several minutes, enjoying the cool water, and views through my dive mask. I noticed and felt the bottom to be quite rough and rocky when I first stepped in, but was not sure why.
After being in the water about 15 minutes or so, I began to notice small jellies (jellyfish) all about in the water. Not sure if they were hazardous or not, and since I was not in a wetsuit, just swim trunks, I decided to beat a hasty retreat to shore. Unfortunately, when I reached the shallows, I stumbled on the rocks in my swim fins, and razor sharp oyster shells raked the back of my right calf, leaving a nasty gash. I also reached out to steady myself with my left hand, as we always reflexively do, but fortunately, just got scratches on it. I knew I did some damage to my leg though, so I managed to lift myself up onto some rocks.
Fortunately, a couple I had seen fishing earlier were picnicking right above, and saw a bloody American stumbling ashore. My leg was bleeding quite profusely at this point. We started talking, and when they saw my leg, immediately asked if I needed help. I did in fact, as all I had for bandaging material, was my own shirt, which I needed for protection from the blazing sun.
They cut up an old rag they had in their tackle box and we used that, along with some kleenex, to make a tight and effective pressure bandage, which did the trick. The deepest part of the gash was about an inch long, and needed direct pressure, to stop the bleeding.
With this tight and durable bandage, I was able to relax, and then hang out with Michael and Thea, as they introduced themselves. They live in Sydney and were in the park to fish and relax on New Year's Eve. They have visited America twice, and enjoyed it, and have a son living in Ohio. We had a great time hanging out for about an hour, before they went back to their fishing, and me to relax in the shade and have some lunch, before riding back in the hot sun to Sutherland Station to catch the train.Had they not been there, I would have lost quite a bit more blood, and had to sacrifice my only protection from the blazing sun, in order to stop the bleeding. I would have had a very uncomfortable trip back, and probably would have attracted considerable, but unwanted attention. Isn't it nice when we chance upon kind and caring people? They are all around us, wherever we are, though it often takes something like this, to remind me of that. Cheers.
