Young Master Smeet
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Relevent to this debate is the film Whiplash. http://theconversation.com/whiplash-is-a-horror-film-so-jazz-critics-should-stop-worrying-36156
Quote:Whiplash is not solely concerned with jazz. It is as much a study of alienation and abuse. And so its inheritance is not from jazz history – but from a sub-genre of expressionistic films about obsession and losing one’s humanity. Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes and Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull are the real antecedents of Whiplash.At the heart of the film is the teachers insistent question: "are you leading, or are you dragging?" i.e. do you know what you are doing? He dismisses a french horn player, not for playing out of key, but for not knowing that he was playing out of key.The film isn't about Jazz, but about the Hegelian Master/Slave dialectic: how do you know you are good enough? Pertinently to this discussion: how do I know anything? Answer, when someone who I presume to be as knowledgable as me agrees with me. How do I know she agrees? How do I know that she knows as much as me? Well, I must try and destroy her theories and positions, in direct contest.But if I win, then she doesn't know as much as me, and so I don't know if I am right, and if I lose, then I was wrong.But, that's all there is, a process of being less wrong, and ongoing tantalising debate.
LBird,I'd agree entirely with socialism being about from each… to each…., etc. but the inward neccessity of volition, of the realisation of free human beings means an identification with our determinations is necessary, society cannot appear as an alien object but as an expresion of the subject.
LBird,but you would agree that the workplaces will be democratic? And that, like the taxi driver, they will be self regulating and democratic among themselves, on a day to day basis. Since no-one is being compelled to work (You don't believe in forced labour, do you? You do seek the emancipation of labour, don't you?) all work is by fre association, and that is democracy. Democracy is so much more than nose counting. Any democratic plan would be the expression of free association of producers.
Hmm, well, going by the wikipedia entry on cadre:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadre_%28military%29
Quote:The cadre (UK /ˈkɑːdər/ or US /ˈkædreɪ/) is the complement of commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers of a military unit responsible for training the rest of the unit.is not far off, I suppose, although the militaristic overtones would be misplaced within a society without armies. I deliberately chose affinity group because that would cover things like the Harmsworth Astronomy Club, to the World Geological Society, or the University of Oxford.Taking the OED definition:
Quote:In Communist countries, a group of workers, etc., acting to promote the interests of the Communist Party; also, a member of such a groupSicne there would be no socialist party in socialism, I don't see why such a definition would be relevent (and, as I noted, the affinity groups would be freely associating, subject only to the general principles of the whole community. So, for instance, I would envisage some mad buggers founding the Society for Racial Science, and being allowed resources to pursue their mad science, unpleasant though that sounds).
LBird,FWIW many moons ago I did describe how I suspected scientific production would be organised in Socialism. The community own the means of production, democratically. Affinity groups (or learned societies, universities, science clubs) would have free access to the means of science, test tubes, microscopes, bottles of copepr sulphate, etc. for larger scale experiements, like a Large Hadron Colider, they will need to have a democratic allocation of resources, as well as find neighbours willing to work on it (I assume the scientific affinity groups normally are willing to work on their own projects). Such affinity groups would be expected to be internally democratically organised, but would be freely associating and have fredom of thought and expression. Democratically run publishers and libraries will disseminate the output of their research, and different levels of peer review will be used depending on the intended audience. Libraries would stock materials suitable to the needs of their user community and their stated collection development policies and a worldwide collaboration in universal bibliography.Most people will recognise rational authority, and will listen to such groups of experts when they are invovled in ademocratic question (and of course, there would be no conflict of interest, since any benefit that acrues from sicence will be a communal benefit). Since there are no wages nor salaries, science is just as much their hobby as car making is a car makers hobby, as everyone's work is their hobby in socialism. No one will be compelled to work.Put another way, only one person can drive a taxi at a time, and the taxi driver is expected to select the best route. We can vote on what sort of car the taxi driver has, and conditions of how many can ride in the taxi, but ultimately, the taxi driver, as a free human being, should be able to get on and do their job.I compare this model with your anti-democratic demand to shut down debate, and which must inevitably make it moe difficult for minorities to become majorities (since the majority 'true' theory much demand the reserach time against the minority, in a winnder takes all game).
https://theconversation.com/quantum-computer-makes-finding-new-physics-more-difficult-36869So, quantum computers have been used to demonstrate Lorenz covarience, the idea that the laws of the universe are symmetrical and are the same everywhere. The interesting thing is this seems to be an unintended, or unanticipated, outcome of the development of technology, i.e. of quantum computers themselves:
Quote:Häffner’s day job is quantum computing. Using electrons associated with single atoms (ions) of calcium, suspended in an electric trap at extremely low temperatures, Häffner and his team can create qubits.Qubits are the quantum-mechanical analogue of classical bits – the 0s and 1s that run our classical computers. But they are unlike classical bits and more like Schrodinger’s cat, because they can be “dead” and “alive” at the same time, which is to say they can be in two different states at once.[…]Häffner realised that this new fancy hardware could be used for experiments unrelated to quantum computing. It occurred to him that two entangled qubits could serve as sensitive detectors of slight disturbances in space.Now, the knowledge gained has not opverturned any paradigms, indeed, it has merely strengthened the existing one (and closed down another avenue of disproof). The significance for socialists is two fold: first, it is an example of knowledge coming through changing and advancing technologies and the ways in which we intereact with the world; but also from scientific freedom to experiement and utilise the technology before them.
And here we have the thermostat model of economic crisis:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31034870
Quote:Falling oil prices are forcing Royal Dutch Shell to cut investment by $15bn (£9.9bn) over the next three years.So, imagine you're in a cold room, the evening starts chilly, but gets colder. you decide to put the heating on, you put it on, but the room takes a while to heat up, so you turn the heating up, eventuially, the room gets too hot, so stiffling, you turn the heating off, repeat.So, here we have a rush to invest in producing oil, too much is produced so the price falls unsustainably low (compared to the cost of certain fields), and so investment is withdrawn, gradually the price will rise again, investment will lag behind the price signal, and people will ivnest again, and again glut the market. Repeat.Of course, if it's bad, and infrastructure is lost, it becomes more expensive to reopen those fields.
http://zedbooks.co.uk/paperback/europe-after-the-minotaurZed books are giving away a Varoufakis ebook. Miht be of interest.
Just to add, I suspect Syriza will end up behaving much like our sotto voce Labour government did with its Keynsianism on the quiet. Also, the French Parti Socialist has already come to power on an anti-Austerity ticket and floundered.
Stuart, we've never said capitalism cannot be reformed, but that any reforms achieved:1) have to be compatible with the ongoing accumulation of capital;2) can be reversed easilly;3) do not necessarilly lead to socialism nor socialist consciousness;and that we think directly campaigning for socialism will be more effective, even as a short run measure.Syriza have managed to appear 'out of nowhere', largely through being a broad coalition. Given the horror of what has happened to Greece, I hope they at least manage to alleviate some of the suffering, but it's clear where the real power lies, and we would be remiss not to point it out.Indeed, as we see here, Syriza are aware that it will need to spread its reformution:http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/23878
An example of the risks invovled:http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/noonan-new-greek-government-could-see-ireland-lose-out-on-350m-659671.html
Quote:The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said the Irish taxpayer could lose €350m if Greece defaults on its debts.OK, so necessary grovelling from the euqally indebted Irish (who have their own anti-austerity party waiting in the wings). But the point remains that a bold default could spread mayhem to otehr fragile economies. It will take a co-ordinated effort to abolish the market system, we can't leave that to competing economies.
This is the mob Syriza are lashed up with:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Greeks
Quote:In terms of society, they stand in opposition to immigration [13] and multiculturalism,[14][15] supporting the banning of squats and the development of a Christian Orthodox oriented education system.[16]Economically, the party is focused on the rejection of the loan agreement between Greece, the EU and the International Monetary Fund.[9] Kammenos calls for a committee standing above political parties and endowed with emergency powers and authorities to clear up the events that led into Greece's economic crisis. He proclaimed a "national awakening and uprising", and supposed that Greece had fallen victim to an "international conspiracy"Charming.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-4b6f-The-Greek-election-wont-end-the-fight#.VMIEethLdhcteh Greek communistb party put the boot in:
Quote:the president and leading officials of Syriza are feted in the mansions of the plutocracy, the IMF, in Texas, in the Bilderberg Group meeting at Lake Como in Italy, in the City of London.They loudly declare that Greece’s membership of the European Union and Nato is not disputed.Interesting comments in the annual report of the Ecology building society (from 2013) http://www.ecology.co.uk/pdf/about/Ecology-Annual-Report-2013-3.pdf
Quote:Total assets reached a record level at year end of £124.8m, a rise of 13.73% (2012: 6.10%). The growth level would have been higher were it not for measures that we took to restrict inflow of funds, necessary to ensure that the overall financial sustainability of the Society did not suffer. It is necessary to restrict liquidity to ensure that profits can be maintained, these profits being the mainsource of capital available to the Society. Despite the increase in overall lending, we ended the year with higher levels of liquid funds than our preferred level – another reason why we will continue to extend our reachto potential borrowers in 2014.The reason for this wa:
Quote:Over the course of the year, the Society has tried to maintain its rates for existing savers, while recognising that the difficulties at the Co-operative Bank have led new ethical savers to Ecology. The Society has deliberately operated with a very low margin between our saving and borrowing rates, in order to deliver value to both borrowers and savers.So the building society was suffering from people trying to lend it money!
