Communist Toilets are Better Than Capitalist Toilets
endnote added 23 May 2012
From 1996 to 2008 I spent most of my time in formerly "communist" countries---Slovakia, and (briefly) the Czech Republic.
During that time, I used many different toilets in buildings of different vintages. I live in a panelaky (pre-fab high rise) and I lived in older buildings as well. You might as well say that panelaks are communist buildings since they were built during communism.
But never once did I have the problems with toilets that I have experienced in the USA in the past three years. I do not wish to go into the gruesome details, but the toilets in the USA just don't work very well.
I draw the conclusion that communist toilets are superior.
Indeed, given the increased surveillance of ordinary citizens, the increasingly militaristic role of the police in the USA, and the complete absence of job security and the scarcity of health care, it seems to me not at all an unreasonable proposition to suggest that communism in Eastern Europe gave many people a better life than is currently available to many people in the USA. The current residents of the USA may say that, despite the features I have cited, they are "freer". I don't know what that comes to. The mass media in the USA is full of propaganda, and if you don't have time to read non-commercial media, then your thoughts are not your own, but were planted in your head by someone else. I suppose that some citizens might point to their new "smart" phone, their large truck, or their new computer. Resisting an urge to laugh (or throw up), I would say that those items do not, by themselves, make your life better. The quality of your life depends upon what you do. Do you have independence and make decisions at work---or, must you simply follow orders? Do you have time for your family and friends? When was the last time you actually read a book? (Was it a piece of militaristic political propaganda provided by a "history book club"?) How much time do you spend worrying about whether you will lose your job? How much time do you spend worrying about whether you can pay your bills?
Of course, it is to be expected that what I am saying will seem outrageous to many people. As a historian might point out, the USA was unique among countries in the world in the "hysterical" reaction to the Soviet Union and its version of communism during the "Cold War', and such hysteria lingers among many citizens of the USA. Plainly, that sort of fear-mongering is useful to the political class. It is an easy entry point by which to manipulate citizens. (In the future I shall add a reference to the thus far unnamed historian, who, by the way, points out that the hysteria was completely unjustified. The USSR was in no position to invade the USA, and, in any case, took a mostly defensive posture.)
Endnote:
The historian in question is Eric Hobsbawm, in his The Age of Extremes; A History of the World 1914-1991, Random House, 1994; Chapter Eight, "Cold War".
Friday, May 11, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Crimes of Capitalism
In the USA an educated man can strut proudly and proclaim
the maxims of marketing
and think thereby
that he shows his worth;
but marketing is bullshit.
It pretends to reveal some deep truths about humanity,
but instead has all the power of a distorting glass that cuts the light
and twists shapes into grotesque mockeries of original perfections.
The fact that such rubbish is given any place at all in universities
is evidence of a dismally low level of actual culture.
Overheard:
"And they have a good business school."
---Said by a young man....to a friend, as if boasting....
But he is about to ruin his life,
to waste his life,
and damage the lives of others;
all perfectly legal,
--capitalistically legally.
The crimes of capitalism include the personal possession of paintings
and things of beauty
by individuals;
----things which are by natural right the birthright and possession of all human beings;
never mind the question how they got their wealth
---these fools who clutch at beauty they cannot create---
They exchange their wealth for things at auctions,
auctions which should never happen.
What kind of fool imagines that he can possess beauty?
What narrowness of intellect!
What brazen idolatry!
Oh! Look at me! On MY wall hangs this or that beautiful thing which I did not and never could create!
But I could buy it.
The man has evidently got a screw loose.
A perfect capitalist fool!
the maxims of marketing
and think thereby
that he shows his worth;
but marketing is bullshit.
It pretends to reveal some deep truths about humanity,
but instead has all the power of a distorting glass that cuts the light
and twists shapes into grotesque mockeries of original perfections.
The fact that such rubbish is given any place at all in universities
is evidence of a dismally low level of actual culture.
Overheard:
"And they have a good business school."
---Said by a young man....to a friend, as if boasting....
But he is about to ruin his life,
to waste his life,
and damage the lives of others;
all perfectly legal,
--capitalistically legally.
The crimes of capitalism include the personal possession of paintings
and things of beauty
by individuals;
----things which are by natural right the birthright and possession of all human beings;
never mind the question how they got their wealth
---these fools who clutch at beauty they cannot create---
They exchange their wealth for things at auctions,
auctions which should never happen.
What kind of fool imagines that he can possess beauty?
What narrowness of intellect!
What brazen idolatry!
Oh! Look at me! On MY wall hangs this or that beautiful thing which I did not and never could create!
But I could buy it.
The man has evidently got a screw loose.
A perfect capitalist fool!
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Weather Report: El Paso, Texas, 6 May, 5pm
I am dying here. The air is foul. All the windows are sealed shut. Air comes in through the air conditioning system---air "conditioning" ha ha ha! what a joke! The air is dirty! Outside the air is too hot to breathe. No sane person would willingly go outside except for very short periods of time; it is too hot. I am dying, suffocating. There is no life here.---only dust, dirt, a heartless sun, enormous trucks, and cement....... This is hell. -----gmooh! Death would be a welcome relief.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Little Otik
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing Jan Svankmajer's film "Little Otik."
It is based upon a folk tale collected by KJ Erben.
The story expresses the fear that a small child will eat more than a poor couple can provide for them.
In the story, a wooden substitute for a child eats the parents, and many others----until he meets a grandmother who knows what to do.
In the USA, if there were to be a modern version of such a folktale, it would have to be about
the automobile----which destroys lives and cities.....
Would that the USA version would end in a way analogous to Erben's original, with the mother and father
saying that never again would they wish for an automobile....
If only.....
gmooh
It is based upon a folk tale collected by KJ Erben.
The story expresses the fear that a small child will eat more than a poor couple can provide for them.
In the story, a wooden substitute for a child eats the parents, and many others----until he meets a grandmother who knows what to do.
In the USA, if there were to be a modern version of such a folktale, it would have to be about
the automobile----which destroys lives and cities.....
Would that the USA version would end in a way analogous to Erben's original, with the mother and father
saying that never again would they wish for an automobile....
If only.....
gmooh
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
a May Day Poem; a day late....
The USA is
a stumbling, bungling giant,
cruel and
not at all cute,
going about
in the world making mischief,
and worse.
Stealing
corn in Mexico,
rice in
Haiti and the Phillipines,
and all the
while happily singing an idiotic song
about
freedom and liberty,
while his
enormous feet free the dying from their cares
with the
gift of freedom-in-death.
I was born
here,
educated
here,
but I do
not belong here.
This is not
my home,
but the
place of my imprisonment.
I do not
belong here,
and I do
not belong to it,
the giant
enormous and cruel;
I am as
much his victim as anyone else.
And every
day I brush elbows with people who live under his shadow,
--people
who thrash about in the darkness,
and who
cannot see how he towers over them,
blotting
out the sun;
they are
too busy,
thanking
god for their freedom,
---because
with one voice they all say:
It’s so
much better here than in Mexico!
Copyleft
MJLovas 2012; all rights reserved, copying for commercial purposes strictly
forbidden----distribution for cultural purposes encouraged so long as original
authorship is ackowledged
Recommended Reading: Walden Bello, The Food Wars (Verso, 2009)
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
my life is a nightmare
This is an ugly place,
a hateful place,
a miserable place,
a stupid city that is not a city,
a horrible country.
There is nothing good here.
And, yet, people talk to me.
They smile as though nothing has happened,
as though all this ugliness and stupidity were normal,
or as if they do not see it.
They must be trying to drive me mad.
How can they not see?
Why do they pretend?
How can I talk to people who are so blind?
Are they alive at all?
Every day it is the same bad dream,
the same nightmare.
Unbearable and unimaginable.
Cruel.
a hateful place,
a miserable place,
a stupid city that is not a city,
a horrible country.
There is nothing good here.
And, yet, people talk to me.
They smile as though nothing has happened,
as though all this ugliness and stupidity were normal,
or as if they do not see it.
They must be trying to drive me mad.
How can they not see?
Why do they pretend?
How can I talk to people who are so blind?
Are they alive at all?
Every day it is the same bad dream,
the same nightmare.
Unbearable and unimaginable.
Cruel.
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