The Violent Silence of a New Beginning

from In These Times:



The Violent Silence of a New Beginning
The Occupy protests are important, but soon the difficult question must be answered: What social organization can replace capitalism?

BY Slavoj Žižek


What to do after the Wall Street occupation, after the protests that started far away (Middle East, Greece, Spain, UK) reached the center, and now, reinforced, roll back around the world? One of the great dangers the protesters face is that they will fall in love with themselves, with the nice time they are having in the “occupied” places. In a San Francisco echo of the Wall Street occupation on October 16, a guy invited the crowd to participate as if it was a hippy-style happening in the 1960s: “They are asking us what is our program. We have no program. We are here to have a good time.”

Carnivals come cheap—the test of their worth is what remains the day after, and how they change our normal daily life. The protesters should fall in love with hard and patient work — they are the beginning, not the end. Their basic message should be: The taboo is broken. We do not live in the best possible world. We are obliged to think about alternatives.

The Western Left has come full circle: After abandoning the so-called “class struggle essentialism” for the plurality of anti-racist, feminist, gay rights etc., struggles, “capitalism” is now re-emerging as the name of THE problem. So the first lesson to be learned is: Do not blame people and their attitudes. The problem is not corruption or greed, the problem is the system that pushes you to be corrupt. The solution is not found in the slogan “Main Street, not Wall Street,” but to change the system in which Main Street cannot function without Wall Street.

There is a long road ahead, and soon we will have to address the truly difficult questions—questions not about what we do not want, but rather about what we DO want. What social organization can replace the existing capitalism? What type of new leaders do we need? What new institutions, including those of control, should we shape? The 20th century alternatives obviously did not work. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12188/the_violent_silence_of_a_new_beginning

Stay there long enough, occupy long enough, and they will be coming to us with proposals for single-payer. But nothing but bullshit will be forthcoming in the short run, or if the protests start to erode.

and heavy regulation or dismantlement of the outlaw banksters and corporations.

GOD FORBID we live in a hybrid like in the rest of the civilized world!

Capitalism, well regulated, works great!

Where certain things are the province of a social government, such as public transportation, power, and health care.

Keeping companies to "only" a few billion in assets and preventing any company from gaining more than 40% market share (Ill grant computer OS market an exception) isn't penalizing innovation and growth.

COMPETITION is what promotes innovation and growth more than monopolies... just look at the oil cartel and the car industry. With the oil companies owning so much in the car companies, mass produced innovation has been decimated for the last 60 years!

If it wasn't for the government's safety and fuel standards, and emission standards, we'd still be stuck with 40's and 50's level technology!

If the government would have a (small) hand in the market, selling no more than 5% share in cars, cheap, American made, and built to high fuel and safety standards, that would in it self drive the rest of the industry to make better cars!

a government run and owned generic drug factory or 3 would provide cheap, safe medicine to low-income patients. that would drive big pharma to lower their prices to reasonable levels.

I would lastly add that nearly EVERY SINGLE MAJOR MEDICINE EVER DISCOVERED WAS DONE SO WITH GOVERNMENT MONEY AT UNIVERSITIES!... NOT at big pharma.

viagra was such a drug. it was a heart medicine someone noticed caused hard-on's that's all.