Notes for the Desert

June 28, 2011

Tuesday afternoon and I am in Las Vegas.

The weather is sunny and hot, over a hundred and there is strong easterly breeze.

June wore yellow panties and a yellow bra and we had sex a couple of times.

I am looking for a camper van…with a plan to drive across the country, Canada that is, in the month of July.

I am interested in radical politics or a radical egalitarian society.

Standing in the line waiting to be searched by security was uncomfortable. Most people looked slightly frustrated, confused and scared; we were herded into humiliating situations for our own good.

I would rather take a chance of being blown up by a bomb in the sky, than having to be subjected to airport security regulations and pat downs.

I drank half a bottle of Jim Bean, in the airport, on the plane and at June’s house. My sleep left me covered in sweat and today I am half the man I use to be.

June is watching a Korean movie. I am typing in the den.

The eleven internal contradictions of capitalism as reported by Erik Olin Wright in the book “Envisioning Real Utopias.”

1. Capitalist class relations perpetuate eliminable forms of human suffering.

2. Capitalism blocks the universalization of conditions for expansive human flourishing

3. Capitalism perpetuates eliminable deficits in individual freedom and autonomy.

4. Capitalism violates liberal egalitarian principles of social justice

5. Capitalism is inefficient in certain crucial respects.

6. Capitalism has a systemic bias towards consumerism.

7. Capitalism is environmentally destructive.

8. Capitalist commodification threatens importantly broadly held values.

9. Capitalism, in a world of nation states, fuels militarism and imperialism.

10. Capitalism corrodes community.

11. Capitalism limits democracy.

Some people (who?) believe history is predetermined. That means these people believe in fate, in a certain destiny, that free will is an illusion. Our lives, individually and collectively, have been marked out.

Capitalism is preordained and a necessary step in evolution.

This is a theory.

In reality capitalism is now seen as a “given” and part of the natural order. Though not too long ago many believed, “another world was possible.” This is no longer the case.

Manifest Destiny

In the 1850’s many white Americans believed they were a superior race who were destined to rule the planet.

This preordained destiny was already laid out but would take human effort and will to bring it into the physical realm.

Cosmic grooves on the cutting edge…

through hard work and effort

your preordained destiny be realized…

manifest destiny has been used to explain/ justify

human cruelty and is the basic premise of capitalism.

Marx thought capitalism was a necessary but eventually the internal contradictions would cause its collapse. The agent of change would be the exploited working people.

As of 2011 this has not transpired.

For an Optimist:

The example of water is useful. There is no material change by increasing or decreasing the temperature until you hit certain predetermined thresholds;

100 degrees for steam and 0 for ice.

The way a people organizes themselves economically may change materially if certain threshold are met. What these thresh holds are, is a matter of debate.

Historical materialism is based on the premise the supreme instinct of man is self preservation. Therefore the pattern of human conduct is governed by the need to survive.

“The expansive idea of flourishing refers to various ways in which people are able to develop and exercise their talents and capacities, or, to use another expression to realize their own individual potential. This does not imply that within each person there is some unique, latent, natural “essence” that will grow and become fully realized if only it is not blocked. The expansive idea of human flourishing is not the equivalent of saying that within every acorn lies a might oak: that with proper soil, sun and rain the oak will flourish and the potential within the acorn will be realized as a mature tree. Human capacities and talents are multidimensional; there are many lines of possible development from the raw material of the infant. These capacities may be intellectual, artistic, physical, social, moral or spiritual. They involve creativity as well as mastery. A flourishing human life is one in which these talents and capacities develop.

Certainly without things like adequate nutrition, housing, clothing and personal security it is difficult for people to flourish in a expansive or restrictive sense.

Political Justice

“Freedom” is the power to make choices about one’s own life; “democracy” is the power to participate in the effective control of collective choices that affect one’s life as a member of the wider society.