Now and Then.
Fall of the Roman Empire. Thanks to a slave class of about 80%, an opulent and corrupt elite and an army that was stretched thinner and thinner and weaker and weaker because of a slave class - Rome falls. The people of the ancient world must have thought the world was destroyed. Imagine the mass rapes, the murder, the few rich people who tried to get away to East Rome. Barbarians poured in over the borders, soldiers left their posts and everywhere the Empire was splintered and fell apart. Cities were ruined, monastaries pillaged and ancient monuments toppled.
The Crusades. Driven by a will for riches and new land knights from Europe pour into a relatively enlightened Middle East. They kill, torment, torture and plague the land for over a century. They g o back on their promises, they pillage and destroy Constantinople. If your skin is dark, that might be enough of a reason for you to be killed without a trial.
The first World War. The working class of Europe and America is sent into the trenches. Social Democratic international solidarity disappear in a storm of patriotism for whatever nation. From the factories, millions are sent into battle to be cut down en masse. The trenches are rife with disease, rats and water. The generals, in the meantime, stay behind the front in whatever chateau is far enough from enemy artillery to have practical supés every night.
Now a global capital systematically murders and imprisons dissidents against the greed that is the very essentials of capitalism. Haiti. Iraq. Afghanistan. Palestine. Sweden. The United States. Condolezza Rice, George W. Bush and Cheney were all in the oil industry. The weapons industry makes record sails. Arabs are spat upon for fighting back. The death of a few Americans or other Westerners is blown up hugely. For decades the Israeli army has shot Palestinian children with American-made weapons, loaded with Swedish bullets. Bombs have been felled over sovereign states. We all know there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction. No interest in democracy. The US isn't agreeing to international courts. Their operatives are murdering and setting up regime changes in Venezuela and Iran and tries to undermine those nations. Exxon was revealed as the liars and cheats they are. Skania in Sweden as well. Britain follows along - shouting out "we want some too, we want some too!" Tony Blair and Bush couldn't be more of a gang of companions than they are. Capitalists flow into China where unions are forbidden, children work in factories and any attempt to organize is brutally suppressed. The Trotskyists called it "state capitalism".
It makes me sick. When people look back in 200 years - they are going to look at us with the same kind of wonder at our idiocy as we do upon those mentioned massacres. Some philosophers believe that the "now" has a privilieged ontological position. But I don't believe that. In essence, all the suffering of history comes together. There's no reason to view the past tragedies as less of tragedies just because we happen to be in the "now".
The Crusades. Driven by a will for riches and new land knights from Europe pour into a relatively enlightened Middle East. They kill, torment, torture and plague the land for over a century. They g o back on their promises, they pillage and destroy Constantinople. If your skin is dark, that might be enough of a reason for you to be killed without a trial.
The first World War. The working class of Europe and America is sent into the trenches. Social Democratic international solidarity disappear in a storm of patriotism for whatever nation. From the factories, millions are sent into battle to be cut down en masse. The trenches are rife with disease, rats and water. The generals, in the meantime, stay behind the front in whatever chateau is far enough from enemy artillery to have practical supés every night.
Now a global capital systematically murders and imprisons dissidents against the greed that is the very essentials of capitalism. Haiti. Iraq. Afghanistan. Palestine. Sweden. The United States. Condolezza Rice, George W. Bush and Cheney were all in the oil industry. The weapons industry makes record sails. Arabs are spat upon for fighting back. The death of a few Americans or other Westerners is blown up hugely. For decades the Israeli army has shot Palestinian children with American-made weapons, loaded with Swedish bullets. Bombs have been felled over sovereign states. We all know there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction. No interest in democracy. The US isn't agreeing to international courts. Their operatives are murdering and setting up regime changes in Venezuela and Iran and tries to undermine those nations. Exxon was revealed as the liars and cheats they are. Skania in Sweden as well. Britain follows along - shouting out "we want some too, we want some too!" Tony Blair and Bush couldn't be more of a gang of companions than they are. Capitalists flow into China where unions are forbidden, children work in factories and any attempt to organize is brutally suppressed. The Trotskyists called it "state capitalism".
It makes me sick. When people look back in 200 years - they are going to look at us with the same kind of wonder at our idiocy as we do upon those mentioned massacres. Some philosophers believe that the "now" has a privilieged ontological position. But I don't believe that. In essence, all the suffering of history comes together. There's no reason to view the past tragedies as less of tragedies just because we happen to be in the "now".
posted by Björn at 3:04 PM
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