Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Class War | 85 comments (85 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Class War (4.00 / 7)
Opportunity here for me to stand on my "most people would prefer the feudal system" soapbox.

Give the proletariat bread and circuses, or in modern wording, beer and football, with some vague promises about the possibility of class mobility if you work hard enough, plastered with a layer of religion, and the 1% are home free.

The poorest states over here are also the reddest. That is the fundamental problem...

by asdf on Wed Aug 21st, 2013 at 01:12:01 PM EST
Re: Class War (4.00 / 6)
I wouldn't quite call it feudalism or even neo-feudalism. After all, in feudalism the lord had obligations to his serfs. It was a fidelity contract.

When feudalism was finally abolished in Sicily in the 1840's, it created a disenfranchised lumpenproletariat without any means of subsistence. And of course the elite land holders, the Church included, simply refused to register their lands. It's still a mess.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Thu Aug 22nd, 2013 at 09:57:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Class War (4.00 / 6)
And that is how such a large number of Sicilians ended up in New York City.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 at 10:23:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Class War (4.00 / 4)
It is hopeless...People are well... as we Serbs say "stoka" (meaning sheep , cows and other domestic animals).
I am just watching here in Australia how in this September election people are voluntarily going to vote for those who will ( and are openly promising to)"slaughter" them. They not only, like hypnotized, are going exactly to a slaughter, they are even cheering it...
Honestly it's not that Labor is not going to " slaughter" some of them too by striping them of some basic services but with conservatives it is going to be "bloodbath"... For some totally unknown reason people simply can not see themselves being the part of the group that is going to be slaughtered. For example conservatives are going to get rid of a lot of public servants , and they openly are promising this ( and on a state level here in QLD they already are doing this) but for some reason people do not believe that they personally are going to lose either their job ( they probably need a memo with their name on it) or service that those public servant provided.It is always about someone else being a loser...For some unknown reasons people tend to see themselves as a part of establishment that conservatives are working for, just because they managed to get a huge mortgage ,loan on their few cars including  4WD , and huge loan on their numerous Visa cards...Incredible. They simply do not get it that they are in " debt slavery"...that there is no way that they will repay their debts ever and that in a nano second they can be striped of all their "possessions".
It is hopeless...      

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein
by vbo on Thu Aug 22nd, 2013 at 09:58:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Class War (4.00 / 2)
I agree that it seems hopeless, but if we accept that it is hopeless we tend to give up. If we do we might miss an actual opportunity to change things. So hope has to become a choice. Or just read my sig line.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Aug 22nd, 2013 at 11:18:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Class War (4.00 / 4)
When you are young you can easily harbor some hope...but not me...too old for that...lived long enough to learn a lot about people. And what I learned I don't like...
Unfortunately if any change ever comes it will going to be trough spilling a lot of blood...and as we see it now , even then it is only temporarily because time will come again when whatever progress  we as a human race have achieved trough history can and will be reversed.
We are fighting for gay rights and against racism (and that's great) but at the same time they are striping us of our basic rights: to work and receive dissent pay for our work so that we can live on it, to have roof above our heads, to enjoy our pensions with whom they are playing roulette on the so called market (casino), to have dissent and affordable healthcare and childcare and education for our children ... to have dissent age care for every single old person... Governments  are going to cut it to the bone everywhere because our  1% of rich can't stand the thought of not having record profit every single year...let alone endure some real loses (not loses on projected profits that are actually projected on a fairy tale economy of risky loans ).
I admire you who have a will to fight (all tho is there anyone out there to hear you or you are preaching to the choir...) hoping that change can come peacefully and on time. Unfortunately I am not one of you and I am preparing myself for the worse...


Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein
by vbo on Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 at 01:33:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Class War (4.00 / 8)
When you are young...

I am over 70. But I am also trying to be prudent. Hence my interest in and efforts towards gardening. At the least I get fresher, better tasting and healthier vegies, we are getting used to preserving food via canning, etc. and I am getting needed exercise. An added benefit is that time in the garden soothes my mind. Voltaire's advice in the face of French Absolutism was "tend your garden."

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 at 10:39:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Class War | 85 comments (85 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Display: