| Radical Politics Online Political Theory Sex. Drugs. Rock and Roll. All these things are great, wonderful, perfect, and should be legalized for public consumption. This is the foundation of the political philosophy that governs Radical Politics Online. But this belief that everyone has the right to experience the world physically, intellectually, and emotionally as the so choose, within the context of socially responsible behavior(i.e. damage to others, emotionally, physically, or otherwise, in whatever context, is wrong),is complemented by a commitment to the replacement of capitalism with the more humane, democratic and cooperative society of socialism. OK, your obviously confused. Well, you should be. Here's a less confusing version. Radical Politics Online is committed to ideals such as the free exchange of ideas, freedom of religion, speech, assembly, and the separation of church and state. Only through true intellectual freedom can a society truly flourish and grow into something better than it already is. We are, however, against so-called economic freedom because it is a lie. The capitalist "free market" is, in reality, an ogligarchical regime governed by a few CEOs and powerful shareholders. Right now these power players are in the process of concentrating themselves into fewer and fewer units--mergers and acqusitions will eventually mean a world governed entirely by corporations, whose economic power supercedes the political power of not only individual nations, but even the power of such supranational groups as the UN and the EU. All this as the corporate giants get richer and richer, and the rest of the world suffers under their economical knife. Radical Politics Online remains part of the school of thought committed to the replacement of this corporate regime by the institution of economic democracy on an international scale. A democratically planned, socialist economy is the sanest and most rational course towards true equality and, indeed, the restoration of free time. This economic planning cannot, however, be centralized--we have learned this from the failure of the Soviet Union and other such regimes. Rather, economic planning should take place primarily on a local, community by community basis. Each community (city, neighbourhood, etc.) would have economic committees, democratically elected, that would plan the economy (wages, production, hirings, firings, distribution of social services such as health, housing, education, transportation, etc.) within the context of broader national and international norms. This decentralized economic planning, complemented by the promotion of small-scale local private businesses, will result in a more flexible and dynamic system that encourages creativity, innovation, dynamism, and avoids stagnation and beaurocratism. But of course, this is all theory. Practically we cannot envision this kind of radical change anytime in the immediate future because of lack of education. The capitalist economic regime has too much power to give it up without problems. But we do not promote violent revolution. We are pacifists. We believe that the only way to break the corporate chokehold on society is simply to realize what kind of power we have as consumers, as workers, and, most importantly, as living, breathing, thinking, human beings. If everyone in America stopped going to Wal- Mart, it would close. If nobody bought Microsoft Windows, Bill Gates (or whoever's running that kingdom right now) would be out of a job. If people stopped eating at McDonalds, we could prevent the golden arches from defacing another historical street somewhere in Europe or Asia. If we stopped going to Disneyworld, the Gap, and wearing Nike shoes, they would have to close their sweatshops. Most importantly, the workers of these companies, of every company, need to realize their power as workers. Without the workers, things wouldn't get produced. And yet, most workers are paid shit relative to their value to the company. Even unions are virtually powerless, and are often infested with corruption (due to centralized planning). If the workers, that means everyone in the country or world who works for a company, be it industrial, food, electronics, or whatever, stopped taking the shit they've been dealt, just for a day, the corporate oligarchs would have to come to terms with the fact that their power depends on the compliance of the workers. The corporate oligarchs would have to realize that they can't make billions of dollars of profit from the products that the workers make and expect to get away with the giving the workers a lump of shit for their efforts. This is what needs to happen on a large scale. And Radical Politics Online is committed to the international struggle for economic democracy and socialism. What this economic democracy will mean for humanity is a great renewal of both freedom and free time. No longer bound to a nine to five grind, people will be free to experience the world as they see fit. No longer chained by corporate dominance, people can stop making and start creating. And with the institution of economic democracy, eventually the need for money and coercive government of any kind will disappear, freeing people to travel the world and experience its marvels without having to worry about the cost of a plane ticket or the need for a visa. Utopian dreaming? Impossible? Against human nature? Well, you decide. You make your own human nature. Would you like to live in a world where human nature is defined as selfish, greedy, and distrustful of others? Or would you like to create a new future, one based on the idea that humans are rational, intelligent, and able to live together in a cohesive, experiential society based on the idea that life is meant to be enjoyed, and not just lived? The first step is to realize the wrongness of the idea that human nature is based on self-interest. This idea is an invention of the capitalist system, and is one of only a few things keeping the system afloat right now. Human behavior is determined by a combination of factors: economic, physiological(as defined by Marx). There is no way that in that mix of things is a particular piece of coding that says "you will be greedy." Greed, self-interest, and the pursuit of oneupmanship, are all things promoted by the capitalist system, passed down through the educational system, that, despite its social nature, programs children that capitalism, the "free market" is the only economic regime that promotes freedom. Where have we heard this contradiction before? War is peace. Slavery is freedom. That's right, George Orwell's 1984. Not to say that capitalism is the same as the totalitarian regime seen in that particular book. But if we allow the corporations to take over much more of our lives, then we could see Big Brother in the face of Ronald McDonald or, worse yet, Pat Robertson. We don't want that, now, do we? If you want to change the world, then visit these websites and try to get involved. They're all good groups / organizations and most of them are working for an end to global capitalism and the struggle for socialism. Comments? Questions? send them here. Take Me Home! |