Some turnings and course corrections of 2016

It might be worthwhile to add some things to this blog which apparently still exists even though it's likely no one has visited it for many years.

Seeing that my book does not seem to have been completed, nor my game(s), nor that interactive modular floating sculpture thing, I think I will send out a few words and pictures here. I'll just assume for the moment they are really going out.

Maybe begin with this...


A button made by the
Syracuse Cultural Workers
(Hey, I'm from there!)

         Less Capitalism

There may be some alarm or confusion about this button. If I am in favor of reducing or replacing capitalism, how is it that I have given so much support to various businesses in my neighborhood, to other money-making enterprises and have run my own businesses from time to time?

Capitalistic enterprises, designed to produce some kind of profit, have existed throughout history, and will probably continue to exist in whatever social/economic/political system we eventually turn to. Socially, the enterprise can be an application of creativity to a social need. The entrepreneur, or artist, for that matter, who designs the specific or the general solution to a social need deserves some kind of credit for his or her contribution, as well as payment for expenses, just as any worker deserves compensation. If the compensation is fair, everyone benefits.

Capitalism, or the capitalist system, on the other hand, is an economic structure that determines how all enterprises, all labor, all resources, all living things and all wealth shall be valued in a society. And they are valued according to a single all-pervasive principle. That principle does not flow out of some moral or ideological discussion. It is rather generated and continually reinforced and expanded by the operation of the capitalist system itself. The principle of capitalism is profit is valued above all else, and whatever stands in the way of obtaining the greatest profit is to be eliminated. Those people most successful in this system, the capitalists, acquire the most wealth, and are in a position to drive society toward ever greater focus on profit-making above every other value and ever greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the most successful capitalists.

Karl Marx happens to present capitalism as a necessary stage in the progress of civilization that eventually is overthrown due to the contradictions embedded in an endless trajectory of profiteering. In any case, it is clear that a system that does not include benefit to humanity or to nature as primary values will become more and more anti-social as it focuses more and more on profits for a few people. Capitalism has been harmful to society for hundreds of years, but it has now reached the stage where its elimination is necessary for the continuation of human civilization and of life on earth.

Capitalism affects us all, not only as victims of exploitation and injustice, but as participants in the culture of profiteering. It is said we fight for equality and justice and power for the people. And we do. These things define us seeking something more than what we can get for our individual selves, something higher than mere profit, something helpful to society. Why? Because we care about all people; we care about the entire earth.  More Love. Less Capitalism.