Well, the pinko is back. I don’t have the time, energy or knowledge to constantly defend communism, but I do have the ability to explain it. I’ll do a couple of quote-by-quote posts for my detractors, but I can’t sustain an “I’m right- no your wrong and I’m right- no your wrong and I’m right” battle for long. I just want people to have a better understanding of what Communism means. I really encourage any other Commies to help me out here, because I am badly outnumbered!
Even when they work for themselves, they are doing work that will not improve their standard of living. Now why the heck would they do that?
Gold star for Protsilaus! There are other forms of compensation than getting more stuff! There are other motivations for doing labor!
You didn’t like school, so you would be a prime candidate for one of those jobs that require less schooling. It would be almost exactly the same choice you made in a capitilist society- “Would I rather spend my time training or working?”. For every person I know that is in school (but doesn’t like it) because he or she wants a job that makes more money, I know a person that would wanted to study but didn’t go to school because they wanted to start making money immediate, rather than spend years in poverty and debt. I think that the two forces would balance each other out, and more people would end up in labor they found rewarding.
Luckly, there are engineering students out there that dig engineering. I know a few myself. No one would make a good engineer if they hated it. It would not be one of your abilities. All we ask is that you work hard at something that adds to society. Thankfully, it takes a lot of different kinds of people to make society work.
I am a geek. I would say about half of my friends are either computer science or engineering majors. Perhapse we just come from different worlds, but the people I know really enjoy what they are doing. They program for fun. They build wearble computers for the sheer sport of it. I asked one friend (who was working as a poorly paid intern for a big computer firm) why the heck he did what he did, and he said he really loved seeing his hard work come to fruition in the form of bringing new technology to the world. He loved being on the frontiers of what human works could do. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your engineering experience, but there are plenty of others that do.
They can be bought with things other than Beemers, yachts and trips to Paris. Beyond that, money doesn’t always ensure that people will do a certain unpleasent line of work. After all, being a whore is a very lucrative profession, and damned if ambitious women arn’t exactly flocking to the brothels.
Have you ever spent time unemployed? Even without the financial burden, it sucks. You feel like an unvaluable person. Your talents wither and go to waste. It is kind of like that miserable feeling you get when you sleep in till noon on a Sunday and realize that your day is wasted on nothing. After a while, alcohol, drugs and other numbers start to seem appealing- a way to break the depair of uselessness. We have seen a lot of this on Native American reservations, for example, where unemployment and loss of a sense of purpose has brought on general depair. I don’t know whether it is innate or socialized in to us, but to be useful is the human condition.
You, my friend, need to find another line of employment. I find my work enjoyable (even though I resent being alianated from my labor). I enjoy the companionship of my coworkers. I enjoy the old fashioned feeling of “a job well done”. I enjoy the chance to show off my knowledge. I enjoy meeting new and interensting people. It is certainly preferable to laying idle in the gloom of my house. And this is for work without purpose. I would be even more satisfied with my employment if I felt it was serving some useful purpose (other than enriching the portfolios of Viacom stockholder).
The popularity of something has nothing to do with how good something is. Otherwise, we would still be learning Creationism in school. And, once again, you make my point for me. Learning to appriciate film is work. It takes some amount of thought. It is much more likely that a capitalist society will put out work that is easy to enjoy but has little lasting value. As popular as “Bubble Boy” may be, I do not think it will add to the good of our society or our cultural heritage.
You know what I mean! The do not widely distribute films with subtitles, and as a result America misses out on the cinema of most of the world. And Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is what I actually what I am basing my observations on. I work at a video store. I cannot tell you how many people refused to watch CTHD, full well knowing it is an exellent film, because of the subtitles. I have had people come in and literally yell at me for daring to stock something not in English. At least once a day we have someone come in and demand their money back on CTHD due to its subtitles. Heck, yesterday someone came up and asked me if Chocolat had subtitles. After I assured her it didn’t, she put it back anyway, stateing “I heard it takes place in one of those French countries, and I don’t think I will be able to follow it.”
How do you account for the fact that after the commercial sucess of Clerks, Kevin Smith went on to make FOUR movies with the same tired characters and recycled jokes? Or how do you account for Blair Witch II? In both these cases, it appears that commerical success has dampened innovation in both these cases.
I didn’t say there was never innovation. Nor did I say that the Soviets didn’t produce some bombs (ever seen a tractor musical?). I was asserting that the twentieth century versions of Communist states have produced a signifigant amount of innovation, and Western film has produced a signifigant amount of stagnation, especially considering the amount of resourses that are poured into American fil,.
I never said that all film has to be heavy. I do, however, expect film to add to a country’s society and cultural heritage. Plenty of innovative films can also be entertaining. French New Wave films were often about gangsters, outlaws, prostitutes and other entertaining subjects. Fellini’s films, surreal though they be, are a rollicking good time. Innovation and entertainment are not mutually exclusive. I think that good film ought to bring us both.
Tell that to the companies that no longer research and produce vaccines because they are not particulatly profitable.
That is because humans have tended to be in situations where greedness and selfishness have been rewarded. They know no other way. Just because you can’t picture it, doesn’t mean it can’t happen. All you have ever known is Capitalism. Of course you are going to assume that Capitalism is the One True Way, because you have never seen anything else and have never been able to have a thought that was independent of the Capitalist way of thinking. It is pretty hard to open your mind and imagine a world where things worked differently. Luckly for us, some people do manage to do that- we call them visionaries.
Of course, Capitalism doesn’t have this problem…
{fixed code. --Gaudere}
[Edited by Gaudere on 08-21-2001 at 01:15 PM]
. Sorry if I seemed to imply that. I don’t think everyone deserves all A’s. Nor do I think we should even out the curve so that everyone gets all C’s. But this isn’t a classroom we’re talking about, and I am concerned when too many people start getting F’s. You should be too - It’s those folks who are the seeds of revolution. Which is why I think some vaguely socialistic programs are necessary - public schools, labor laws, the GI Bill, anti-trust law, unemployment benefits, social security, etc. You know, some of the stuff we have now in the U.S. 
( or alternatively, live in a massively repressive oligarchy ).