• Peace & Justice? First comes the hunger, then comes Revolution

    From Jos Boersema@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 27 19:55:43 2023
    XPost: alt.politics.socialism

    “Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.”(1)
    "First comes food, then comes morality."(2)


    Quote famine 1840s (Wikipedia):(3)

    The European Potato Failure was a food crisis caused by
    potato blight that struck Northern and Western Europe in the
    mid-1840s. The time is also known as the Hungry Forties.


    Quote Revolution 1848 (Wikipedia):(4)

    The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime
    of the Peoples[2] or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of
    revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one
    year, from 1848 to 1849.

    Compare also: The Jewish people accepting the Torah (Law of Moshe
    Rabbeinu), after centuries of slavery in Egypt (FWIK).

    Revolutions of 1917, started out of the horrific First World War, with
    all the associated evils it brought upon the people.

    The Dutch Revolution against Spain in 1566, which didn't really start
    because of any torturing, but because taxes where once again raised and
    the people had reached the breaking point ("De Tiende Penning").

    French Revolution: "Let them eat cake" ... apparently that struck a cord.

    *

    Suffering precedes Revolution by the masses.

    The reverse also is true: when there is enough to eat, this Usenet group
    is dead.

    When the suffering starts on a grand scale, the ideological debate will
    likely start up again. I propose to resolve the great Divide & Conquer
    between the various camps, which are (Right) markets versus (Left)
    central planning, (Right) dictatorship versus (Left) democracy. Markets
    are good and necessary, but need to be without centralization of wealth
    and resources; democracy: we need more of it, more direct, more on a
    human scale. More "help neighbor Joe formulate his points" than "grandiose Savior of the People promises ''we shall all be filthy rich soon''".

    It is like the world has been divided into two groups, each of which
    has half the truth, so that neither side will fundamentally fix the
    world. The political Right and the political Left. On a positive note,
    they keep the balance between each others ills. On the other hand, the
    general population is notoriously disinterested in politics. The best
    willed politician can barely get any traction for serious improvements.
    People usually just want more money for themselves, immediately. If that
    is not promised ... they are not interested. Peace ? Justice ? Let's
    see if there is meat on the table first.

    The state of the world is not the politicians fault, and not even the
    organized gangster top bankers / financiers who run the mass media. It
    is the people themselves. There is more than enough freedom to achieve
    just about any ideological objective. First comes food, and so long as
    there is food, only food is what really matters.

    Both sides do not seem to want to face reality: the land belongs to
    everyone, and does not work in a market to be traded and hoarded as if
    it is a commodity.

    It is regrettable how even in a time when a vast amount of people where
    using land directly for farming, the culture was so primitive they did not figure out how to give everyone the same amount of land value. This seems
    to mean there is no fundamental society. There is no unity, no justice,
    no realism, no long term view, no wisdom. The people who had little land rightly wanted more ... but then the people who had more also wanted
    even more. Nobody could figure it out. I hope we are all ashamed of our
    past now, or soon will be once we realize the extend of the catastrophe.

    It was known from the Jewish law how land should be handled. Even if
    society pretended they couldn't figure it out logically, which makes no
    sense, there was precedent and even religious force if you will.

    Now it seems it has gotten harder to know the truth about land ownership
    and use, because of the methods of modern farming take land and natural resources out of view of many people. The confusion is rising. Except
    with the super rich. They know that owning land equals power.

    Society is like a race car going full throttle. Life is great so long
    as there is no corner and when it comes, just see if you can go through
    at maximum speed. When it gets scary just close your eyes, and that is
    even more exciting ! Then they crashed, the suffering started ...

    *

    Proposed changes:

    - Trade economy with a lot of freedom.

    - Land (natural resources) should be distributed to all as an inalienable
    right, but can be swap traded and rented out.

    - Companies (businesses) should not be allowed to become too large, and
    should be democratized by law once the owner retires. Small businesses
    should be left unaffected.

    - Finance capital should not stimulate dictatorial businesses. Extreme
    wealth is prohibited.

    - A democracy can be attempted based on groups of 10, who group with 5 to
    form 50, who elect a Delegate. The delegates form councils of
    Government. Delegates are immediately replacable by whom elected them.

    ***

    1. https://nl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht
    2. http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Erst_kommt_das_Fressen%2C_dann_kommt_die_Moral_...
    3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Potato_Failure
    4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1848
    --
    Economic & political ideology, worked out into Constitutional models,
    with a multi-facetted implementation plan. http://market.socialism.nl

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