When to decide

Seth Godin asks When to decide.

Important decisions carry risk and can unnerve and distract us.

One instinct is to delay, merely because doing something risky and distracting later is better than doing it now. That's the wrong strategy.

You should decide the moment that new information relevant to the decision is more expensive to obtain than the cost, the inaction and the anxiety of waiting.

…

Make high leverage decisions early, and profit from your ability to take advantage of commitments when others are still in limbo.

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One of the important decisions workers have to make is whether to overthrow the Capitalist system. This is a very unnerving decision that cannot be made lightly.

But, this decision needs to be made urgently for we are running out of time. The world is heating up, and we are paying the price for inaction. Capitalism is unable to stop this ecological catastrophe.

We must quickly decide on what action to take.

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October revisited: John Eric Marot's 'October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect'

Doug Enaa Greene reviews October revisited: John Eric Marot's 'October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect'.

The following four chapters are a long engagement by Marot with the new social historians who have written on the October Revolution. Here, Marot argues that the social historians have correctly demolished many of the old Cold War myths that the Bolsheviks manipulated the workers or carried out a coup. Rather, Russian workers were fully involved in the events of 1917 — from leading strikes, creating unions and fighting for Soviet power. What Marot does here, and I fully agree, is to say that the Bolsheviks were not foreign to the working-class movement, nor that workers were unconcerned with “high politics”, but that the Russian working class developed and learned throughout 1917, coming to the realisation that the Bolshevik program offered the best way to realise their aspirations.

As Marot says, the Bolsheviks won in 1917 because of their politics, they were “better able to comprehend and predict the course of the class struggle, to politically provide for it and in so far as provided for, to shape is evolution and guide it to a victorious denouement. Through political competition, workers developed their politics and reached a political consensus on the need to seize power” (p. 164). This ironically leads Marot to agree with anti-communist historians such as Richard Pipes, although for differing reasons, that without the Bolshevik Party there would have been no October Revolution.

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This is a very important point: the workers were fully involved and were willing to be led by the Bolshevik Party because of the track-record that the Bolsheviks had achieved through the struggles.

The importance of a tested and trusted revolutionary party built on Leninist principles of democratic centralism and strict membership criteria cannot be under-estimated. The party leads the struggle through example and willingness to listen, and decisive action.

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The Cuban Epic

Claudio Katz describes The Cuban epic .

Involving citizens in the direct handling of their future is the principal antidote to the dangers in the reforms. This can be achieved by supporting socialist democracy. The vitality of this system is an effective remedy to apathy. What happened in the USSR should serve as a counter example. Since the people considered themselves outside the political system they stayed on the margin of the changes that led to the restoration of capitalism.

Cuba has levels of real democracy superior to any capitalist plutocracy. Its leaders are not elected by an elite of bankers and industrialists, nor do they emerge from the cosmetic advertising constructed by the news media. They do not rule with terror against the population or the intimidation that dominates in some police regimes in Central America. But there are innumerable manifestations of insufficiency of democracy in Cuba’s political system and its media. The reforms are the opportunity to correct those deficiencies.

If the economic changes manage to combine appropriately the cooperatives, small property and state priority, the recovery of the economy will renew optimism. The productive and commercial transformations could result in visible improvements in the standard of living of the population. The big challenge is to speed up those advances with the market while at the same time preventing the restoration of capitalism.

The immediate key to avoiding that danger is to limit social inequality through maintaining public and universal education and health systems. The exemplary nature of the leadership, combined with this support, will help in finding the way through the new crossroads facing the country.

The Cuban people have demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to cope with the difficulties, regaining confidence in the revolution. It is a country that requires great caution when it comes to making forecasts. It was often said that it would not withstand the blockade, the invasions, the shortages or the isolation, and it always emerged with elegance. I am sure they will again win the war.

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It is interesting how a third-world country, such as Cuba, has survived such terrible hardships while achieving a better health-care system than the most advanced Capitalist state: USA. And they have a free education system through to university, while the Australian universities degrade themselves by becoming a major export-earner.

This resiliance and achievement comes about from an active socialist democracy. Although it is a one-party state, the debates are intense about how Cuba should face the future.

And the move away from centralised planning to more local control at the co-operative and factory level. It would appear that not all economic activity is amenable to socialist ideals, and that petty bourgeoisie should be harnassed.

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Male nerd privilege

Cathy O'Neill writes about Male nerd privilege.

Would it help if we gave it another name? Basic human rights, perhaps? Because that’s what we’re talking about, at the end of the day. The right to be free, to not get shot by the police, the right to hold a good job and care for your family, stuff like that.

Of course, there are plenty of people who are unwilling to move to the next level because they don’t acknowledge the structural racism, sexism, and other stuff at all. They don’t see the current situation as problematic. But on the other hand, there are loads of people who do, and Aaronson is clearly one of them.

As for problems for women in STEM, we’ve already studied this and we all know that both men and women are sexist, so it’s obviously not a blame game here. Instead, it’s a real cultural conundrum which we would like to approach thoughtfully and we’d like to make progress on as a team.

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It is a cultural problem that can only be solved by moving to a classless society for things like sexism and patriarchy serve the interests of the ruling class by dividing people against each other. Once you accept division by gender, you are more likely to accept division by privilege.

In order to overcome such divisions, we have to mature as adults instead of being children squabbling over who's got what toys and whom mummy and daddy loves the most. This is a very painful social development, and many choose to remain as adolescents: privileges of adults with the responsibities of children.

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Income Inequality Author Turns Down Prestigious Award; Can you Solve a Problem When You Don't Know the Cause?

Mike Shedlock writes Income Inequality Author Turns Down Prestigious Award; Can you Solve a Problem When You Don't Know the Cause?.

Mish Comment: Already his thesis is suspect. One need only look at the developers of Google, Microsoft, and countless other extremely successful individuals who became the world's wealthiest by their actions, not their inheritance. Piketty attempts to explain this away later, but for now let's continue with the Guardian.

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Shedlock overlooks the influence of white male privilege because fish cannot water. The examples he gives all had tremendous advantages of being born into the right families, having sufficient income to indulge hobbies and attend good schools followed by universities, and having the right connections to get the right jobs or attract the right investors.

Piketty proposes solutions to economic problems even though he does not know what drives economic growth. He also confuses symptoms of problems with the problem.

Rising income inequality is a symptom of government interference in the free markets, of increasing government percentage of GDP growth, and of inane central bank inflation policies.

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Shedlock does not understand that the state supports the majority of the Capitalists. The vocal miniority of Capitalists are complaining because they are being screwed by the majority.

Shedlock is correct in saying that we have to understand how Capitalism works before we start proposing solutions. And the best explanation for this is from Karl Marx and Frederrick Engels in "Capital". And inequality is a sign that the system is working well for the Capitalists.

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What would Happen if the Int’l Criminal Court Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu?

Juan Cole asks What would Happen if the Int’l Criminal Court Indicted Israel’s Netanyahu?.

The Israeli government murdered Palestinian political leaders (not just guerrillas) and have routinely illegally expelled Palestinians from the West Bank or from parts of the West Bank illegally incorporated into Israel. They deploy torture against imprisoned Palestinians. Their policies on the West Bank, of building squatter settlements on Palestinian land from which Palestinians are excluded, is only one example of Apartheid policies. Getting a conviction on Article VII should be child’s play for the prosecutor. And there are other articles which Israel is guilty of contravening.

If Israeli government officials or leaders of the squatters in the Palestinian West Bank were convicted by the ICC, would there be any hope of enforcement? Israeli firms doing business in the West Bank would be exposed to billions of dollars of legal actions in European courts and would be unable to sell their goods in Europe, if they were declared fruits of crimes against humanity and apartheid. If the legal actions were brought by Palestine, Israel would be ordered to pay it massive reparations.

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Such an action would also have ramifications in Australia as well because Australia is a state party to the Rome Statute. Whether the Australian government will enforce the decisions of the ICC given the bi-partisan support for Israel, remains to be seen.

Any decision by the ICC against Israel will put the Australian Jewish community in trouble because the majority support Israel through financial aid (especially to settlements on the West Bank), political actions, and military (through young dual-citizens serving in the IDF). These could be construed as criminal activities. Again, prosecutions are doubtful given the current political climate in Australia.

Also, of interest would be have the designation of foreign fighters would affect the young dual-citizens who serve in the IDF.

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Unprepared

Seth Godin is Unprepared.

We've been so terrified into the importance of preparation, it's spilled over into that other realm, the realm of life where we have no choice but to be unprepared.

If you demand that everything that happens be something you are adequately prepared for, I wonder if you’ve chosen never to leap in ways that we need you to leap. Once we embrace this chasm, then for the things for which we can never be prepared, we are of course, always prepared.

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We are never prepared for the revolution. The Bolshevik Party was caught off-guard by the February Revolution. The preparations for the October Revolution were made in a rush in the face of rapidily changing events.

Yet, the Bolshevik Party was able to carry out the successful insurrection because it had forged itself in many actions beforehand. There was always the cycle of experience, reflection, and action. This training was invaluable in facing sudden problems.

It also helps to have a correct theory to work off. Theory gives one options. The more correct the theory is, the closer the options correspond to reality.

This also applies to the opposition. Their incorrect theory prevents them from seeing options that could benefit their cause. They have to revert to outright brutality and force because they no longer control or understand events.

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'Why Haven’t We Drawn the Obvious and Transparent Lessons from the Past Seven Years?'

Mark Thoma excerpts from 'Why Haven’t We Drawn the Obvious and Transparent Lessons from the Past Seven Years?' by Brad DeLong.

Since every nominal asset comes with a nominal liability, arithmetic tells us that, as far as economic material interest is concerned, the soft money-caucus has as much at stake at the margin as does the hard-money caucus. But back before World War I a great deal of the soft-money caucus did not have the vote. Combine the restriction of the formal franchise with wealth’s dominance of the informal franchise and it is not surprising that—except in times of total war or revolution—hard money ruled in the North Atlantic core of the global economy from the days of Sir Isaac Newton to World War I. In between World Wars I and II ,as the material power of the hard money caucus ebbed, it made sense that its ideological power would wane only with a lag.

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This is a very Marxist view of the world. Power determines ideology and ideological change lags the change in power.

And the obvious lesson is that politics and economics are very much intertwined. Ideology influences politics; politics defends the economic interests of the powerful; the powerful promote an ideology that serves their interests.

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Used to be

Seth Godin writes about whp and what Used to be.

"Used to be," is not necessarily a mark of failure or even obsolescence. It's more often a sign of bravery and progress.

If you were brave enough to leap, who would you choose to 'used to be'?

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I used to be:

• A supporter of Israel
• A Liberal Party voter
• A reader of ALOR
• An anti-Communist

As Muhammad Ali says:

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

And yet, I retain some of my conservative principles:

• Defend rights, not privileges
• Do what is right, no matter the cost
• Treat people with dignity and respect

What has changed is whom I choose to do these things for.

When one is young, one looks for elders to emulate. And those that are easy to emulate are the most visible and vocal as they seem to be the most popular.

Yet, reality exists in the shadows and the quietness. Here one finds time and space to reflect.

My conclusion is that I need to change the world. You may disagree.

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Palestinians ready next Move as UNSC rejects end of Occupation

Juan Cole writes that Palestinians ready next Move as UNSC rejects end of Occupation.

The international community has gotten tired of the games the Israelis are playing, in alleging that there is an ongoing ‘peace process.’ There isn’t. The Israelis consistently refuse to negotiate with the Palestinians in good faith, as I argued in The Nation last week. The Israelis are violating the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the treatment of occupied populations, by flooding their own population into the West Bank. They are keeping Palestinians stateless, which denies them all basic human rights.

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Imperialist settler societies think they can ignore public opinion. They are so used to genocide that they do notice it anymore. Genocide has stripped away their own humanity so that they cannot even admit to others having humanity and therefore human rights. They think human rights belong to those with the biggest guns, and are horrified when others use that logic against them.

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In praise of complexity economics

Chris Dillow writes In praise of complexity economics.

One feature of complexity economics is that recessions can be caused not merely by shocks but rather by interactions between companies. Tens of thousands of firms fail every year. Mostly, these failures don't have macroeconomic significance. But sometimes — as with the Fukushima nuclear power plant or Lehman Brothers — they do. Why the difference? A big part of the answer lies in networks. If a firm is a hub in a tight network, its collapse will cause a fall in output elsewhere. If, however, the network is loose, this will not happen; the loss of the firm is not so critical. Daron Acemoglu has formalized this in an important paper, and there are some good surveys of network economics in the latest JEP.

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A critical node in a network is one that has survived previous prunings whether through skill or luck. The longer it survives, the more critical it becomes as success garners more connections. Thus making the inevitable failure all the more devastating.

But this still leaves the question why firms fail? The Marxist explanation is that of over-production: more goods are produced than that can be consumed.

This is what is happening with the oil production currently. There are producers who are losing money as they pump oil. Instead of shutting down, these producers have to keep pumping in order to maintain income so that the investments are paid off. Capital cannot lie idle for long.

As always, the Capitalist economists cannot look too deeply at Marxist explanations because they will have to admit the Marxist Laws of Motion for Capital. They would rather say that they do not know than admit an alternative explanation.

Over-production is a direct result of the exploitation of workers under the Capitalist system through the appropriation of surplus value. This is what no Capitalist economist will admit to.

Crises are a normal part of the operation of Capitalism. The current struggle among economists is about how to mitigate the effects of such crises.

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Cutting through Singer's Paradox

Seth Godin muses on Cutting through Singer's Paradox.

And this is the problem every good cause outside of your current walk to work faces. They are trying to solve a difficult problem far away. They're working to do something that is neither close nor now. And often, because the work is so hard, there's no satisfactory thank you, certainly not the thank you of, we're done, you're a hero.

The challenge for real philanthropic growth, then, is to either change the culture so our marketing psychology is to donate to things that are neither close nor now, and that offer little in the way of thanks, or to create change that hacks our current perceptions of what's important.

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This is also the challenge for Communist parties everywhere. How do we get people to see beyond their immediate economic and political concerns?

One way is to apply Lennist principles of party growth—gather all people who see the real solution together into a disciplined party to share experiences, discuss and debate ideas, and agree to a course of action.

This is not a vanguard, but a temporary aggregation of people who are somewhat advanced in their ideas and practices at a particular time. It is a group that others will want to join as their experiences and ideas advance.

The party does not lead through superiority, but draws others into it through getting the situation correct, and acting at critical moments.

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The diversity paradox

Chris Dillow writes about The diversity paradox.

What I mean is that there are (at least) three distinct meanings of the term. One is ethnic and gender diversity — ensuring that women and minorities are fairly represented in positions of power and prominence. A second is cognitive diversity — giving space to different intellectual perspectives. And a third is ecological diversity: having a variety of strategies and business models.

I would argue very strongly for diversity in the last two senses.A multiplicity of perspectives — or epistemological anarchism in Paul Feyerabend's words — can be a solution to the problems of (tightly) bounded knowledge and rationality; this is expressed mathematically in the diversity trumps ability theorem. And ecological diversity can protect economies from shocks: the 2008 crisis was so severe because there was a lack of such diversity in the financial sector because many banks were following similar strategies. In a changing environment, mixed strategies help ensure survival.

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This is something the Bolshevik Party found very hard to maintain after victory in the Russian Civil War. All other political parties were suppressed because of their alignment with the forces of reaction. Once this happened, the only means of political expression was through the Communist Party. Trotsky saw this as one of the contributing factors in the degeneration of the Communist Party.

Cuba avoids this problem to some extent by allowing independents to stand for election. Indeed, most of the deputies are independent! Because of the unrelenting economic and political blockade from the USA, any new political party would be subverted by US interests.

This is a fundamental problem with Communist revolutions—the protracted struggle leads to less diversity as less willing participants leave to join the reaction. Pushing people beyond their endurance forces them to revert to old and known ways.

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A more inclusive university

Dan Little looks foward to A more inclusive university.

This fact presents a major challenge to people who want to see universities change fundamentally with regard to race and culture. We want the twenty-first century university to be genuinely multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic. We want these “multi’s” because our country itself is multicultural, and because we have a national history that has not done a good job of creating an environment of equality and democracy across racial and cultural lines. And we want the universities to change, because they are key locations where the values and skills of our future leaders will be formed. So if universities do not succeed in transforming themselves around the realities of race and difference, we cannot expect the larger society to succeed in this difficult challenge either.

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Liitle is an elitist because he believes society cannot change without the leading institutions (like universities) doing so first. He cannot imagine such fundamental change originating from the lower social orders.

Yet, this idea of elitism is another chain that binds us to the existing social order. We are continually told to look to and petition our elites for justice nad peace. We are told not to do anything on our own initiative because we do not the complete picture that our betters do.

Yes, there has been fundamental change from our betters granting us concessions, but these were won after bitter and prolonged struggles. Even these gains are being eroded.

A new society is needed in which we are all adults rather than obedient children hoping for benevolent parents to look after own interests.

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Magical Thinking and the Paranoid Style

Mark Jamison writes about Magical Thinking and the Paranoid Style.

The conservative movement is built on two interlocking premises, Americans can be made to fear almost anything and that fear can be used to sell most anything; paranoia and magical thinking combined for profit and political power. Rick Perlstein wrote a piece for Baffler a few years ago,“The Long Con: Mail Order Conservatism” that captures the con-artist element perfectly while Richard Hofstadter’s classic, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” captures our long historical dalliance with crazy.

Over the years, the Right in the United States has been comprised of a sort of mainstream Babbitt Republicanism which, with the 1971 Powell Memo coalesced into a celebration of Friedmanism, a sort of religious celebration of self-interest that dovetails nicely with elements of conservative huckster-paranoia. The result is a Republican Party that cannot really control the forces it has manipulated to gain and retain power. In the end though the Republican Party is a fusion of high-toned grifters selling bad economics designed to further the interests of the military/financial/corporatist industrial complex and small time con artists who use direct mail and now the internet to fan the flames of fear, resentment, and division, primarily as a selling strategy.

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Divide and conquer has long been a maxim of ruling classes throughout history. As long as the subordinate classes are kept fightened and fearful of each other, they will continue to look to the rulers for safety.

yet. magical thinking and fearfulness are attributes of children. The rulers want to see themselves as adults (or parents) who protect and nuture their children.

But parents who keep their children as children without giving the room to grow into adults themselves, are abusive parents who are only interested in maintaining control.

Even Anarchists are prone to magical thinking. They believe a single general strike, or other spectactular event, will bring the whole system tumbling down.

They do not realise the road to adulthood is fraught with danger, opportunities, learning and un-learning, mistakes. That is the nature of maturation. There is no easy path. It is the very difficulty that turns children into adults.

So it is with the evolution of societies. People must learn to take on more and more responsiblity for their own lives and to grow society into a more harmonious whole. This will take the wisdom of experience and struggle.

Societies do not grow wholly through individual growth, but also through individuals learning to respect and listen to each other. The social and personal must be bound together through politics.

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Top 5 Five reasons 2014 was a game-changer for Palestine

Ramzy Baroud gives the Top 5 Five reasons 2014 was a game-changer for Palestine.

1. A different kind of Palestinian unity
2. A new resistance paradigm
3. BDS normalizes debate on Israeli crimes
4. Parliaments are [f]eeling the heat
5. Israel’s democracy exposed

Critical to the success of this change has been the resistance and self-determination of the Palestinians themselves. The Gazans were able to thwart the ambitions of the Israeli government.

Also, the part played by solidarity movements throughout the world are undermining the unconditional support given to Israel by other governments.

Certainly 2015 will bring much of the same: The PA will fight for its own existence, and try to maintain its privileges, bestowed by Israel, the US and others by using every tool available; Israel will also remain emboldened by American funds and unconditional support and military backing.

Yes, the next year will also prove frustratingly familiar in that regard. But the new, real and opposing momentum will unlikely cease, challenging and exposing the Israeli occupation, on one hand, and sidestepping the ineffectual, self-serving Palestinian Authority on the other.

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67 years of dispossession and genocide has not weakened the Palestinians. It took Panem 8 more years before starting the rebellion.

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The bloody history of Australia's race riots

Peter FitzSimons writes The bloody history of Australia's race riots.

In Sydney, the phrase "race riots" conjures up the disgraceful images of Cronulla Beach in 2005, and many have the mistaken impression that our history of such riots starts and finishes there, apart from the odd flare-up. But the truth of it — and it is the foundation stone on which the whole series rests — is that Cronulla was not an aberration, but simply the latest in a long series of race riots we have had.

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Throughout, we Australians have shot at each other, thrown stones and insults, knifed and clubbed each other, thrown Molotov cocktails, demonised particular races and religions, and even sworn to wipe certain among us from the face of the earth.

But here is the strange and wonderful thing. After each riot, there has been an extraordinarily uniform response. That is, the broad mass of people reel in horror, get their bearings, and then use the ugliness of the riot as a clear sign of the direction we should not be heading henceforth.

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Yet, Muslim women are still harrassed for the way they dress. It is the families of Muslims that are being raided by the anti-terrorist police. It is the non-white refugees that are still being locked up in detention centres, having their boats turned around, dumped on remote islands, or left to drown at sea. It is Aborigines who are demonised and deprived of dignity and neccessities of life.

FitzSimons is part of the same ideological superstructure that they tried to convince the US that racism was dead because Barak Obama was elected president. How many more Fergusons are people going to tolerate before they wake up?

Racism is essential is the survival of Capitalism. As Malcom X said, "You cannot have Capitalism without Racism."

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The Deadly Reign of the Animate Object: Capitalism and Sociopathy

Stephanie McMillan writes on The Deadly Reign of the Animate Object: Capitalism and Sociopathy.

Capitalism is not just an economic process, but it’s the whole way our society is arranged, an ensemble or matrix of social relations. These comprise three main fields: economic, political, and ideological.

The economic field is determinate; profit is the point, and everything else is set up to solidify the relations of production that keep it coming.

Capitalist ideology, centered on competition and individualism, is designed to make the way we live seem normal and inevitable. It’s forced on us by its institutions: school, the church, the nuclear family, media, and culture. Why would we need advertising, for example, if they didn’t need to convince us to participate? Ideological domination is unrelenting conditioning and indoctrination to naturalize capitalism, to make us compliant, passive, greedy and self-centered. To make us identify with it, instead of understanding it as the enemy that it is.

Political domination, the job of the state, has two main aims. The first, performed by the government and its laws, is to regulate the relations within and between classes to keep the flow of capital smooth and free of obstacles. The second is for when ideological domination fails: when we can no longer accept living this way, the state turns to coercion through terrorism. This function is performed by the state’s armed forces, its military and police. If we don’t comply, the guns come out.

The entire purpose of this set-up is economic: the accumulation of wealth for a small minority of people, those who own the means of production, namely factories, tools and land. This ownership was not ordained by a god. Nor is it because capitalists are smarter or worked harder than anyone else and earned this right. It is because they took it. They started with trading, which many societies understood as thievery since it’s the exchange of unequal values. This is still the way that mercantile capitalists accumulate wealth. They continued with land theft, backed up by war and genocide.

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Workers have to understand how Capitalism works. That is why Karl Marx wrote Capital. It was to make the laws of motion of Capital comphresionable to ordinary people.

Then Vladimir Lenin developed the Bolshevik party into a tool for the working class to overthrow a Capitalist country.

The fundamental contradiction of capitalism, reproducing it and driving it forward, is capital vs. labor in the production of surplus value for private accumulation. This process is what produces class divisions, class domination, and class struggle. It also uses oppressive practices like racism and patriarchy, and has terrible effects like ecocide and war, which we all have to deal with. It is a global system that dominates all of social life, and all the dominated classes and social groups struggle against it in their own ways.

But the core of this is embodied in the struggle of workers against exploitation. Workers are the ones who face capital in their daily struggle for existence, in an inherently antagonistic relationship. They are the only ones able to offer an alternative to capitalism; other classes can resist but can’t break its framework. So if we are to actually destroy capitalism, the working class needs to lead all the dominated classes in a revolution, to overthrow the capitalist class.

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In order for the working class to do so, workers have to identify with the working class. They will have to surrender their aspirations of joining the Capitalist class. They will have to overcome the indoctrination of racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia, in order to see other people as human beings.

This requires intense personal and social development which is best achieved through self-education, reflection, participation in mass movements, and action on the streets. We cannot be instantly and flawlessly tranformed into the people who can overthrow this Capitalist system. We must endure the daily political struggle in our own lives, and with others.

We must accept that mistakes will be made. We must be ready to quickly identify these mistakes, own up to them, and rectify them. We must be able to forgive ourselves and others for making these mistakes.

There is no magic formula for this transformation. It requires what we workers have done all of our lives: long, hard work.

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