An independent democratic socialist observes LIFE in " OUR democracy "

Monday, March 26, 2018

".... protesters who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality readily connected violence within the US to imperialist war and the social crisis."

Of course,this is what " radicalization " is all about : making CONNECTIONS as Black Muslim Malcolm X did way back in 1965. Malcolm aroused interest among radical young white socialists when he made a connection between racism and capitalism, between racism and imperialism.

In seeing these connections it is silly to vilify mere individuals or particular nations ( " hate America " ? ) or any religious or ethnic groups. NOBODY has to be an exploiter and oppressor of other human beings. This is NOT in your genes.

The end of capitalism does not mean endless , vindictive persecution of the former privileged class; only the end of their unearned and extravagant privileges.

I guess the gifted pioneer of modern psychiatry Sigmund Freud can best explain why peaceful social change is unlikely. ( read his " Civilization and its Discontents " ).

Also Dr. Freud was rather interested in SEX. They certainly were just as interested in sex in the Victorian Age as they are today. But only a sick " possessiveness " and seeing women as sex objects explains the " war between the sexes " today. Female socialists were wise to this more than a century ago.

The great Emma Goldman also made many acute observations here ( no surprise that she was deported to Russia ! ).

In 1917 SOCIALISM was very much in the air in capitalist America, then being stupefied by Wilsonian blather to " make the world safe for democracy ". ( we hear echoes of this today )

[ 1919: U.S. deports free-love anarchist 'Red Emma' to Russia - Jewish ...

https://www.haaretz.com › Jewish World

Dec 21, 2014 - On December 21, 1919, Emma Goldman – Red Emma, the activist and thinker who spent a lifetime fighting for workers rights, socialism, birth control and the cultural avant-garde – was deported from the United States to her native Russia. As Goldman was a naturalized American citizen, her exile was made ...]

Image result for freud civilization and its discontents

Sunday, March 25, 2018

The " GUN CONTROL " message is a little cramped and easily co-opted

Here's What You Need To Know About The 'March For Our Lives' Rally In Boston

Great to see all these young people feeling the power of MASS ACTION . But the " gun control " message is rather cramped and easily co-opted by the pseudo-liberal Democrats.

                Does GUN CONTROL relate to the mad men in charge of our nuclear arsenal, now planning World War III ?

         How ironic if thousands of kids protesting for " gun control " this weekend end up as cannon fodder in the next stupid imperialist war.

                 Kids in Syria , Iraq , and Afghanistan also need to be protected from " war weapons " . Or are they just collateral schmucks ?

                 Why not oppose the very manufacturing of mass murder weapons ? Can you rely on a fascist police state to keep YOU safe ? Does it now protect YOU from the daily evils of capitalism - including an increasingly toxic environment ?

Zionism - a false solution for anti-Semitism

Do I think any less my Italian heritage because of Mussolini or the Mafia ? The same about " Jews in general " under the dark shadow of Zionism. For democratic socialists there is a sharp distinction between the capitalist class and the working class, between the exploiters and the exploiters . No genetic heritage forces any individual to be greedy and selfish. Karl Marx , a Jew, chose to side with the working class , chose to arm it with a correct and powerful theory, a theory of History and a theory of " class struggle ". Bourgeois " democracy " has always denied the obvious : the reality of a class divided society. American high schools and colleges prefer that graduating students not be able even to IMAGINE a different " way of life ". Just how does the military get working class recruits to fight for THIS hell of inequality ?
The Jewish presence in the socialist movement has been a blessing for the human race. Zionism is proving to be a false solution to anti-Semitism. It even involves a violation of the Ten Commandments : not to worship idols. Zionism is clearly a form of state worship - indulged in by secular Jews. Orthodox Jews are increasingly disillusioned with Zionism.
In the past decades -since the 1967 Middle East war- so many " public intellectual" Jews have abandoned their once refreshing " progressive " cosmopolitism - or even socialist internationalism - for a cramped and arrogant nationalism . What would our founding fathers think about a JEWISH state ? And about dual citizenship in Apartheid Israel ?
American Zionists in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party tend to be belligerent neo-cons- completely out of touch with the still mostly Christian working class.
I could honestly say that I am a bigger fan of Western Civilization - the best of it - than I am of Dark Age backwardness in the Middle East. Why can't Arabs and Jews get along in a SECULAR nation which respects ALL the great religions of humankind ? It is foolish to fight over the bones ( sacred ground ) of long dead ancestors.
Our ashes ultimately belong to the Cosmos - not to some fabled Garden of Eden. God is everywhere !