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Rome is Ablaze if You're an Anarchist Get Ready By Phillip Reynes
What does this mean for the left, for anarchists and the way we have looked at capitalism? That is a hard question and perhaps outside the space available to me, not to mention my limited understanding of vastly complex issues. Let me start by giving some historical context. The fact is undeniable to all but the most secular of anarchist that the emergence of capitalism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to unprecedented economic growth and personal freedom, as well as dramatic inequality, social dislocation and atomization—with it's consequent separation of man from man and man from nature. In the mid nineteenth century a bedraggled crew of anarchist, Lassalleans, Proudhonians, Saint Simonians and others gave voice to growing dissent in reaction to capitalisms glaring flaws. Yet no real powerful resistance emerged until Marxism emerged as a real force of opposition. Most in the left forget that Marx thought capitalism had amazing qualities most probably because most people have not read Marx. Marx wrote: “[It] has accomplished wonders” going on to say, “far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former exoduses of nations and crusades” Marx went on to state that Capitalism came at a coast that was fearsome! He looked at capitalism as a vampire that “lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.” Marx was convinced that just as the internal contradictions of feudalism had paved the way for capitalism, so too would the internal contradictions of capitalism pave the way for its successor. Many in the left lost faith in this inevitable collapse of capitalism and so we see the secularization of anarchism and socialism in general as a result. This is what I hope to address in describing in lay terms the scathing contents of the bulk of this article. Several advanced bourgeois states, notably the US and European nations, had started to enact important economic reforms resulting in conditions that in fact improved the lives of the masses –albeit not as fast as the improvement seen to the upper ruling class—thus, life was slowly getting better for the poor in these states not worse. This lead to the left splintering into three camps. The first is beast symbolized by the Leninists who having lost faith that capitalism would collapse upon itself felt that if this was so then they should hasten the collapse by force if need be. Many where unwilling on the left to accept the violence and elitism of such a course and so choose to stick to a more democratic path. Another faction believed Marx may have been wrong about the imminence of capitalisms collapse, but that he was right in the belief that in the end capitalism was unsustainable. The third faction of the splintered left rejected the belief that capitalism was unsustainable and felt that in the meantime it was possible to take advantage of the upsides of capitalism while working to minimize capitalisms downside. This lead to secular anarchist to try to combine capitalism and anarchistic theory. It lead to the idea of anarchism as an individual philosophy and not a social construct This also gave the social democrat the ability to marginalize anarchist who found themselves split and direction less. Marx was right! Capitalism will fail in a big way. What follows is a lay persons review of an article written by a capitalist, a Western economist. A man who would want to conclude anything but what he had to conclude. I have attached his paper at the end of the article for those who have the education and training to read it. We will most likely see in the coming years the end of capitalism as we have known it and it will start with the bankruptcy of the United States. The bankruptcy of the United States government has been talked about for years by independent observers, conspiracy's nuts and wacko's as the mainstream press would have it characterized. Most people have no idea about the ultimate financial consequences of decades of borrowing and spending by Washington, the republican culture of greed and the selling of the public trust to big business at our expense, all things inherent in unchecked capitalism. The result is a public that remains irrationally convinced that the status quo will remain intact for eternity. No one in any position of authority, you see, has yet admitted that the U.S. government is indeed going bankrupt. Until now, that is. Now sadly being 2006 when the Federal reserve ignored warnings that in all probability, even three years ago, where to late! In a remarkable paper posted by the Federal Reserve of St. Louis (see attached at the bottom of the article), and authored by a Boston University teacher named Prof Kotlikoff, it is revealed in blunt, unequivocal language that the clock has run out on the greedy Raganomic era of borrowing and spending without consequence. The paper, entitled, Is the United States Bankrupt?, will undoubtedly not remain posted for very long especially if the public actually sees it and it becomes widely known. Fortueatel it was publisher in 2006 and many like myself have read it. Kotlikoff explains, "Unless the United States moves quickly to fundamentally change and restrain its fiscal behavior, its bankruptcy will become a foregone conclusion." The Country is Insolvent He goes on to explain, "[that] the United States is going broke, [and] ...that radical reform of U.S. fiscal institutions is essential to secure the nation’s economic future." A failure to engage in the massive reforms the author advises will with certainty result in the financial end of the United States as we know it, Kotlikoff says the following: Salvation for the US is only possible if we engage in the following massive, radical reforms in three basic areas: 2) Privatizing social security so that workers own their savings accounts and the federal government can no longer swipe funds from Social Security. 3) Launching a national health insurance program that covers everyone and relies on a system of government-issued vouchers that citizens can spend with health insurance companies. What makes these reforms vital? In simple terms because the future gap between what the government debt and revenues is already monstrously large, and growing by the minute. This gap, called the Gokhale and Smetters measure, back in 2006 stood at an astonishing $65.9 trillion!!!!!! As Kotlikoff explains, "This figure is more than five times U.S. GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to try to understand this $65.9 trillion dollar black hole is to ask what fiscal measures are required to eliminate it. The answers are more then terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143 percent." If you read that last paragraph with any understanding of current political reality, you now begin to understand the magnitude of the fiscal problem facing the United States. It could be solved, as explained above, by doubling all personal and corporate income taxes. Not practical politically after all what would be the point of working? It could also be solved by slashing promised benefits in Social Security and Medicare. But inevitable rioting in the street is what that would end in. None of these solutions will occur. And that leaves only one alternative. It's what all government eventually do on their way to bankruptcy and collapse, and it's the thing that the United States will ultimately be forced to do: hyperinflation. The U.S. will have to print more money to escape the financial consequences of its unbridled greed fueled by Reagan and his sell America to business policies. Hyperinflation is inevitable As Kotlikoff explains: It's not like it hasn't happened before. Hyperinflation is actually the norm, not the exception, and it's the escape route taken by virtually every country suffering under the burden of payment promises is cannot possibly keep. Whether we're talking about Germany after World War I, or the United States over the next few years, hyperinflation is the only option remaining for politicians who refuse to practice fiscal sanity. No politician ever got elected by promising voters their entitlements would be halted, did they? Political popularity is derived from promising voters precisely what the nation cannot afford: Endless entitlements and runaway spending without apparent consequence. The China Factor The only thing keeping the U.S. afloat financially now is the temporary willingness of Asian countries to keep buying U.S. debt, thereby pumping up the U.S. economy with dollars earned on the backs of Chinese laborers. However, even the Chinese may eventually tire of lending money to a posh, spoiled and arrogant Western nation that has all but abandoned the concept of saving money. Says Kotlikoff, "China is saving so much that it’s running a current account surplus. Not only is China supplying capital to the rest of the world, it’s increasingly doing so via direct investment. The question for the United States is whether China will tire of investing only indirectly in our country and begin to sell its dollar-denominated reserves. Doing so could have spectacularly bad implications for the value of the dollar and the level of U.S. interest rates." By "spectacularly bad implications," Kotlikoff is saying that the value of the U.S. dollar would plummet, the level of U.S. interest rates would skyrocket, and hyperinflation would be well underway. U.S. citizens would find not only their dollars to be near-worthless on the global market, but their savings to be all but wiped out as well. Yes, you'll still have the same number of dollars in your bank account, but they won't be worth anything. This is what eventually happens, by the way, when a government eliminates the gold standard and separates its currency from precious metals. The U.S. dollar, a green piece of paper, technically stands for nothing other than the U.S. government's promise to pay. But when push comes to shove, the government will have no choice but to hyperinflate its way out of financial obligations, thereby rendering all currently-held U.S. dollars to be virtually worthless. Those investors or citizens who hold savings in U.S. dollars will be wiped out by a government that will essentially steal their wealth without having to snatch a single physical dollar from their hands. Future Obligations Will Not, Cannot be Met And yet, despite the seriousness of the U.S. fiscal situation, Americans and their elected representative live their merry lives oblivious to financial reality. National newspaper headlines even add to the denial, running headlines that claim the nation's economy is strong because the 2006 budget deficit will be "only" $296 billion. But look at what has happened since 2006!!!! The professor nailed it and we will only have to wait to know if our failed leaders will act. That this was considered a success by the Bush Administration is testament to the psychotic fiscal self-deception that now serves as the norm in the United States. The legacy of Ragan and Raganomics. It's like a family that owes $1 million on a $200,000 home announcing "success" because it has just reduced its monthly credit card borrowing from $15,000 to $12,000. And that's if you actually believe the numbers, because if there's one area where Washington has proven its skill, it's the expert deployment of smoke and mirrors on all things involving numbers. Cutting the annual budget deficit won't save us anyway. It only means that we're barreling head-first into a brick wall at a slightly slower pace than before. The entitlements will still come due: "There are 77 million baby boomer's now ranging from age 41 to age 59. All are hoping to collect tens of thousands of dollars in pension and health care benefits from the next generation. These claimants aren’t going away. The oldest boomer's will be eligible for early Social Security benefits now. In three years, the boomer vanguard will start collecting Medicare. Our nation has done nothing to prepare for this onslaught of obligation, with the exception of raiding the funds set aside for this to help corporate buddies at the peoples expense. Instead, it has continued to focus on a completely meaningless fiscal metric—“the” federal deficit—censored and studiously ignored long-term fiscal analyses that are scientifically coherent, and dramatically expanded the benefit levels being explicitly or implicitly promised to the baby boomer's." Oblivious to what's coming The American people, as usual, remain oblivious to the financial future that awaits them. Even as the housing bubble has pooped in all real estate markets, most people don't have a clue what "hard times" really means. To today's debt-ridden yuppie spenders, "hard times" means shuffling six different credit card accounts to cover the payments on an overpriced house, two new SUVs in the driveway and a vacation to Paris, none of which the yuppie couple can afford. Nero Fiddles while Rome Burns It's too late to save the United States from its financial meltdown, I believe. For starters, there is a complete lack of willingness to make tough financial decisions and begin paying off the national debt. Such an idea is so foreign to the U.S. that no presidential candidate in the last two decades has even seriously proposed such a plan, save perhaps Ross Perot. A nut job by any serious measure. We on the left have failed to make social justice and economic justice an issue but then we had not the resources as greed and excess often trump the sound advice of social anarchist and socialist in general. Even worse, there's not even recognition among the masses that a financial problem exists beyond a recession that might become a depression and yet this three year old report to the Federal Reseve made it clear. Said it loudly no screamed it. Since the report was published Bush continued to proclaim the economy is in good shape, and the press remains complicit with its printing of economic half-truths, few will recognize any problem at all. Non did the press failed again like thats a surprise to us at COIMC or our readership. Obama seems incapable of confronting publicly these same realities. Besides, any such recognition of the financial problems then facing this nation requiresd the observers to actually be able to do basic math. Well they don't need basic math now to know its bad and going to get worse. Our public education system, which is now largely considered institutionalized day care for nutritionally-deficient children, has seen to it that mathematics instruction never gets in the way of diagnosing children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and drugging them up on amphetamines so powerful that they actually have a street value as recreational drugs. Thus, few young Americans can even do math. And none of them lived through the Great Depression, nor did they understand the study of it in school, meaning they are precisely the kind of naive, overconfident yuppie spenders who are ripe for being financially obliterated by an economic meltdown. When their ignorance turns to fear as it is starting to, the ever-widening spiral of financial panic becomes unstoppable until the whole system hits rock bottom. And "rock bottom" is far, far below the relatively luxurious lifestyle to which American consumers have become so smugly accustomed. Preparing for the Inevitable The timetable for this economic collapse is unknown, but it's very unlikely to happen in the next year or two. A collapse by 2012 is certainly possible, and seeing it by 2020 is almost certain. That leaves the more intelligent among us plenty of time to prepare. But the usual preparatory actions by Americans won't suffice in such a large-scale collapse. FDIC-insured banks, for example, will almost certainly collapse and take the FDIC down with them. Even if you are repaid by the FDIC, you'll only be paid in worthless U.S. dollars anyway. I published this today on Colorado IndyMedia and if you wish to read the attachment refered to here please go to the end of the article found at http://colorado.indymedia.org/node/1604 |
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Of course it should be
Of course it should be YOU'RE, the contraction of YOU and ARE, not "your" which is the possessive. Fucking morons.
Agreed,what the fuck.This is
Agreed,what the fuck.This is basic,or did passionate type frenzy interfere?
English is not my first
English is not my first language I apologize for the typos.
PhilR
Sorry Phil,I thought it was
Sorry Phil,I thought it was frenzy.
fixed.
fixed.
What a fucking loser you are
What a fucking loser you are & what a pile of crap this is! You losers will be the first to be in the gun sights of FREEDOM LOVING AMERICANS! Woot! I can hardly contain my anticipation of this event-Woot!
GOD BLESS AMERICA YOU COMMIE FUCKING PIGS!
Looking forward to a God
Looking forward to a God Less Amerika you fucking reactionary prig. Don't forget that we have guns too cretin.
I just sit back calmly
I just sit back calmly thinking of the poison that is your ignorant negative hatred eating away at your already decrepit cancerous identity.Have a good vomit fucker.
I think it is
I think it is anarchistnews.org not commienews.org but your use of "&", and "Woot" have non the less swayed me to join the ranks of Capitalists world wide.
'&' and 'woot' are powerful
'&' and 'woot' are powerful in expressing a discerning and intelligent opinion.
Oooh, I call the name Alaric
Oooh, I call the name Alaric Malgraith for the neo-barbarian siege of Roma.
"A collapse by 2012 is
"A collapse by 2012 is certainly possible"
Tonight were going to party like its December 21 2012!
Primitivist Eschatology?
Primitivist Eschatology?
One can always hope.
One can always hope.
Colorado Indymedia
Colorado Indymedia Administrator,PHILLIP REYNES-CONVICTED/REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER-PEDOPHILE
EXCERPTED from THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (August 4,2006)
Acupuncturist given two years probation
A Denver acupuncturist was sentenced Thursday in Jefferson County District Court to two years of intensive supervised probation for promotion of obscenity to a minor.
Phillip A. Reynes, 46, also was ordered to perform 96 hours of community service. He was convicted at trial two months ago.
Reynes was arrested last August after a series of exchanges on the Internet with an investigator posing as a 14-year-old girl.
[ NOTE: Reynes surrendered his acupuncturist license on 8-30-06 because of this felony conviction ]
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EXCERPTED from COLORADO SUPREME COURT ANNOUNCEMENT SHEET (7-6-2009)
No. 09SC335
Court of Appeals Case No. 06CA2440
Petitioner:
Phillip A. Reynes,
v.
Respondent:
The People of the State of Colorado.
Petition for Writ of Certiorari DENIED. EN BANC.
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http://www.co.jefferson.co.us/da/da_T99_R224.htm
EXCERPTED from the JEFFERSON COUNTY DA's OFFICE
Phillip A. Reynes (DOB: 10/01/59), Denver . Arrested on 08/15/05 for Promotion of Obscenity to a Minor. Status: Found Guilty by Jury on 06/02/06 to Promotion of Obscenity to a Minor. On 08/03/06 he was sentenced to 2 years Intensive Supervision Probation and 96 hours of Useful Public Service. On 10/24/06 he was re-sentenced to 1 year Department of Corrections.
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The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) maintains this site and is currently in the process of evaluating the accuracy and integrity of all sexual offender registration records to determine if the data fulfills the minimum requirements for all Internet postings. Therefore, at this time, all qualifying sexual offender records may not appear on this website. These records are being updated daily and will be posted to the website as soon as they are available. If you believe any information found in these records is incorrect or if you have any questions, please contact CBI's Program Support Unit at (303) 239-4222, or at sor@cdps.state.co.us.
1
Please click on the name for more details
Name Date of Birth Picture Category
reynes, phillip allian October 01, 1959 Felony Conviction
Last Reported Address: 1760 syracuse st , denver , CO 80220
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About PhillipR
Vineacity
Articles Posted: 1
Links Seeded: 39
Member Since: 10/2008Last Seen: 8/26/2009
I am Phillip Reynes, a 49 year old divorced father of two beautiful girls, and currently live in Denver Colorado.
– Read More
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COLORADO INDYMEDIA
Members, contributors and editors
LIst of Active Members of the Colorado Independent Media Center
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