Thought for the day – Page 3 – Open Empire Foundation

March 31, 2017March 31, 2017

Thought for the Day: not “types” but STAGES OF capitalism

Many people come to the erroneous defence of – or only partial willingness to admit – the flaws of capitalism. They see the problems that are occurring, and will usually say something along one of the following lines:

That’s not capitalism’s fault, that’s because capitalism isn’t being given free reign
That’s not capitalism, that’s crony capitalism
That’s not capitalism, that’s vulture capitalism
That’s not capitalism, that’s socialism / communism

Continue reading “Thought for the Day: not “types” but STAGES OF capitalism”

March 26, 2017March 26, 2017

Thought for the Day: hate your cowardice

There’s not a lot of good uses for hatred, but I found 2 of them during the course of my life. In my 20s I took up smoking cigarettes, and 5-6 years later was able to quit, in part because I broke off the love part of that love-hate relationship ( at least long enough to let me quit ) … and now once or twice every 2-5 years, I might have a rollie ( rolling tobacco – perhaps containing whacky weed ), or I might have a cigar – but it’s very rare either way, and leaves me with no desire to re-take-up the habit. Continue reading “Thought for the Day: hate your cowardice”

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017

Ego – it’s not a dirty word

SkyHooks' Red Symons in engyptian consume, from the song "ego"

At the outset I want to say that I am misinterpreted, misrepresented, and misunderstood by some people on an almost constant basis … they’re convinced they couldn’t possibly have interpreted anything even slightly incorrectly, convinced there’s nothing I could possibly say that would be valid or add any significant change to their interpretation of events, and convinced that the values and methods by which they’ve interpreted the situation are unassailable. Continue reading “Ego – it’s not a dirty word”

March 20, 2017March 20, 2017

Thought for the Day: Capitalism’s Blame Game

If there’s one thing I’m really fed up with about society, it’s all the victim blaming that goes on:

the callousness & disingenuousness of the instigators
the callousness & gullibility of the followers and enablers
and the utter cruelty and pointlessness of it all

Continue reading “Thought for the Day: Capitalism’s Blame Game”

March 19, 2017March 19, 2017

Thought for the Day: Ethics vs. Morality

You’ve probably heard these two words and like a lot of people might struggle to differentiate between them, so I’d like to offer you a reasonably quick ( and relevant I think ) analogy between the various flavours of authoritarian capitalism, and the Open Empire Foundation vision. Continue reading “Thought for the Day: Ethics vs. Morality”

March 19, 2017March 19, 2017

Social behaviour modification & censorship

author’s note

I found an old screen-capture image I’d taken from Facebook a few years ago, and it inspired me to write this post, which discusses how an alternate economic framework, based on consequences rather than property, would deal with such things as censorship, societal values, and moderation of behaviour.

Continue reading “Social behaviour modification & censorship”

March 15, 2017

Another reason to love The Matrix

I’m a huge fan of cinema, and sometimes there’s a movie I can keep watching and never get tired of it … The Matrix is one of these.

The book Simulacra and Simulation in Neo's hand, from The Matrix

In the first movie, Neo pulls a book off his shelf, in which he hides the contraband he sells. The book is titled: Simulacra and Simulation – and the following is an excerpt taken from its Wikipedia page of that book ( which I’m now thinking I’d like to read in full ): Continue reading “Another reason to love The Matrix”

March 14, 2017March 14, 2017

“Job Creator” – title of the wealthy but otherwise talentless.

Thought for the Day: #JobCreators

If you’re the kind of person who uses this title “job creator” about yourself, then you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel of talentlessness … because let’s face it, anyone with any real skills – a mechanic, painter, architect, musician, or whatever – may very well create jobs as a by-product of what they do, but that’s just it … it’s a by-product, and nothing really worth mentioning; they’re not going to say “I’m a job-creator”, they’re going to say “I paint frescos”, or “I fix prestige motor engines”, or “I perform neurosurgery”.
Continue reading ““Job Creator” – title of the wealthy but otherwise talentless.”