driving people mad.

I see that Walmart whipped up people in New York state with a small number of cheap products and then set the timetable for opening its doors to very early in the morning. The result was hundreds of frenzied hysterical shoppers. When it came close to opening time they knocked down the door and tramped over and killed a worker who was on duty. This capitalist system is utterly rotten and insane. 

I was reading what Marx said about such things when he talked about capitalism. "The extension of products and needs falls into contriving refined, unnatural and imaginary appetites." Yes capitalism does that alright. If we do not need something it will try and convince us we need it. Or if we need only one of something it will try and convince us we need several. And then there is the other racket. It will try and make products that fall apart as soon as possible so we need to buy more. 

Capitalism is inherently inefficient and wasteful. And as the worker at Walmart found out, and as the millions of workers in sweatshops world wide know, it is also a killer.

And here is another one from wee Marx. "It is not consciousness that determines life, it is life that determines consciousness." Now what does this mean? It means we were not born with fixed ideas in our heads and from these we then went on to shape the world. It means that we were born into an already existing world and this world and our interaction with it created our consciousness. 

Why is this important? There are many reasons. The christian movement try and tell us that we are born with "original sin" that is, we are already in trouble and that we have to come to their christian god to get saved. this gives them power and creates great confusion. All the religions have some version of this. This is nonsense. They indoctrinate the children to believe their views. As the Jesuits say: "Give me the child and I will give you the man." Notice not woman. Jesuits do not think women are important.  But they do think indoctrination is.

The other and more important reason this consciousness thing is important is that it shows consciousness can change. If we live in a period of economic stability and upswing we are liable to be more of the opinion that capitalism works. If we live in a period such as now when the banks and finance houses are crashing and jobs disappearing then we are more liable to think that capitalism does not work. In these circumstances socialism has a better chance of taking root.

So be prepared, "life" that is the capitalist world around us is now bringing down events that will remove all believe that this world is stable and capitalism works. By preparation I mean that we get organized to end this sick capitalist system and replace it with a democratic socialist society. In the stable democratic world of abundance that this would make possible we could all evolve a consciousness that would be much more conducive to a decent life for all. 

Sean.