duryodana.com

The forms of Communism and Socialism is myriad… and maybe this idea has been thought out already as well, but I haven’t come across it in my studies…

My personal belief leans more towards the ideas of Council Communism, rule of the people through Council… Worker’s Councils, Neighbourhood Councils, up to and including National Councils… each voted on and representing, directly, the people…

but, I admit, that even that idea can lead to power that can be abused…

though, at the same time, I believe regardless of what form of government that we have or can have, abuse can and will be a part of it… government, fundamentally, is a human construct and as such can never be perfect… it will host all the greed, avarice, prejudice and corruption of the people instituting it…

the trick is a balance of power and accountability…

Direct democracy, at least while modern ideas of Nations and States are still in play, is an impossibility and in the end is unruly… it can lead to mob rule and the systemization of societal prejudice, for example apartheid South Africa, American slavery, Nazi genocide…

How can a government be made accountable?

That’s the true question…

“If God made everything, then what made God…?”

If the Government is the ruler, then what can control it…? well, an independent non-political judiciary who’s singular role is to represent the law and can hold the government accountable to the law as well…

what can enforce it…? an independent non-political military and police force…

we have thus ended up at the point where modern Governments around the world have ended…

no matter what type of government, the formula above becomes increasingly difficult to accomplish…

ie. if the military has the guns, what’s to stop them from taking over… like every other military coup that’s occurred throughout history…

if the judiciary follows the rule of law, wasn’t it the government that put the law in its place?

nasty catch-22.

There is only one true way, as I see it… a way of accomplishing that end without mind-fucking the military like is done in Western Democracies today to enforce obedience to the governments… and that’s by making a People’s Military…

a military that’s accountable to the people, ruled through people’s Councils and not through Governmental agencies.

sounds awfully Communistic doesn’t it…? exactly…

Likewise, the Police MUST be accountable to People’s Councils…

how do we prevent the People’s councils from attempting to force the military and police to enforce their own prejudices…

how do we make a Judiciary that can ignore law that is counter to the People’s welfare…

by instituting an all-encompassing Constitution that will act as the guideline for the people, government, judiciary and military to follow…

A Constitution that would put the power into the People’s hands, but not allow the people to become the same tyrant an individual could become…

Regardless of political aspirations, personal or societal prejudices, moral outrage or just plain homicidal tendency… there would be an overriding guideline that would prevent those tendencies from finding an outlet…

in other words, a Communist Constitution.

Communism SHOULD be constituted, not instituted through a Party…

A Constitution that would be inviolate…

even if not following Council rule, with a Constitution that enforces the guidelines of Communism, a State could participate in multi-party rule…

It wouldn’t matter if a conservative Christian right-wing nationalist Capitalist party took power, because they wouldn’t be able to change the underlying fabric of the Constitution and if they tried, the independent Judiciary that would be responsible for the rule of law, and the Police and Military that would be responsible for enforcing the Law would be answerable only to the Constitution and make any law counter to the Constitution null and void.

Constitutional Communism.

now there’s an idea :-)

Do American’s have to say “American”, “America”, “USA” or some variant of those in every single sentence?

what’s ok for me is illegal for you…

fucking Americans…

here’s the latest one… Two American soldiers were caught trying to sell or fund right-wing loons in Columbia…

BUT… the US has been giving everyone and their mother grief about Venezuela purchasing AK-47’s from Russia, for fear of them falling into the hands of Columbia’s left-wing geurilla’s…

ie. it’s ok for the US to arm right-wing murders, but not ok for anyone else to arm left-wing murderers…

you have to admit, there’s some pretty funny ideas of “equality”, “even-handedness”, “democracy”, “freedom” floating around these days…

who really believes the American soldiers were doing this without direct involvement from the Administration? well, I guess you would if you are brain-dead…

U.S.: Colombia to question accused U.S. soldiers

U.S. won’t lift diplomatic immunity for two
Saturday, May 7, 2005 Posted: 0203 GMT (1003 HKT)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The United States on Friday said Colombian prosecutors could question two U.S. soldiers accused of selling arms to far-right death squads.

Link: CNN

here’s a funny thought.

admittedly, I’m a “left communist“, or more accurately, “council communist“.

Rabidly so.

So, frequently, I get into spats with others, from Right-wing loons to social-democrats.

Of course, one of the most frequent topics is the USSR.

Now, that topic drives me nuts to begin with as I in no way consider the Soviet Union as an ideal form of Marist implemented rule, but I’ve dealt with that before…

However, one thng they never fail bring up during those debates is this “fact”… and I’ll say here and now, that I agree with them… it was a fact… I do not in any way dispute that.

They say: “Well, what about the people in the USSR that didn’t agree with Communism… they didn’t want to live under Communist rule, but had no choice… that was an aweful dictatorship… an awful restriction on people’s lives…”

Now, as much as a I agree with the underlying fact that people couldn’t change the “Communist” system in the USSR… I fail to see the reason for the underlying disgust they have developed towards that fact.

here’s the question that makes me unable to see their point… if it was so “wrong” that people in the USSR couldn’t change the type of government they lived under, how come it’s not equally “wrong” that I’m forced to live in a Capitalistic Democracy and can’t change it…?

In the USSR people were forced to live under the dictatorship of a Party…

In Canada, I’m forced to live under the dictatorship of the government, which “marginally” represents the majority.

if one is wrong, and the other is right… then the reasoning must be made that “majority” rule is ethical, whereas Party rule is unethical.

the majority can never be characterised, inherently, as ethical… it is not.

especially if it exists in a society that promotes the greed and avarice inherent in Capitalism.

therefore, I feel there is no moral superiority to “capitalist democracy” and no reasoned grounding to insist that it has a superiority over single Party rule.

To all the Veteren’s of the Second World War…

To the Canadian’s, British, American and Soviet especially… Thank you!!

To the Japanese, Germans and Italians… thank you as well… you fought for your countries, even if that country was wrong, you just did what any man would do when seeing your nation threatened. Thank you, and if there is a God, God bless!

That’s just not said enough.

Got into this heated debate with an American I know…

He’s NOT Republican by any stretch of the word, but he’s always been “soft” on the military actions Bush has undertaken…

which, of course, has been an endless source of disagreement with us…

so, last night in a normal round of back and forth something hilarious came out

Fred: listen, what do you think of revolutions?
Bill: how do you mean?

Fred: Well, do you think they are ok? morally good? necessary?
Bill: well, yes… the War of Independance was necessary… it was good…

Fred: ok… so, likewise, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was good and necessary… the Cuban revolution was necessary and good…
Bill: no… they weren’t

Fred: well, either they are good or they are not…
Bill: well, sometimes they are good and other times they are not

Fred: who decides that?
Bill: It just makes sense…

Fred: No… I don’t mean the final record of the event… who decides then and there that one revolution is good and the other is bad.
Bill: Well, Russia and Cuba were Communist Revolutions, so they were bad.

Fred: so, becuse Communism is bad, then a revolution that is supposed to bring it about is also bad?
Bill: yes…

Fred: What about people that think Capitalist Democracy is bad?
Bill: huh?

Fred: Well… what about people who believe that Capilatist Democracy is inherently bad…
Bill: I don’t follow…

Fred: Well, I believe that Capitalist Democracy is bad, it’s inherently bad because it implements a system that by its very nature necessitates the exploitation of some element of the population and/or the population of a second nation. Therefore, Capitalist Democracy is bad. Therefore, by extension I can say that the American Revolution was wrong… the French Revolution was wrong.
Bill: no… you can’t say that because the War of Independance freed the US from British control

Fred: granted… but in many ways that was secondary… the reason for the revolution was economic… the leaders of the revolution disagreed with taxation without representation and most importantly they disagreed with their profits being sliced into by British taxation. The population got on board for any number of reasons, like all revolutions, but the impetus was the propaganda from the Wealthy Capitalists that started the whole affair… In the end the Reolution was for and resulted in a representative democracy that was entirely clouded by its second aim of free market capitalism.
Bill: and…

Fred: well… any revolution “primarily” is driven by a desire to escape from oppression. Cuba wanted to get out from under Batista, Russia from under the Tzars… true?
Bill: yes, but…

Fred: no buts… its a simple fact… your but will go on to talk about secondary things…. I’ll get there in a bit…
Bill: ok

Fred: So, the primary for people to join a revolt is to escape real or perceived oppression, correct?
Bill: Yes

Fred: The secondary effect of the Bolshevik Revolution was to instll Lenin’s idea of Communism… which, you see as bad.
Bill: yes, exactly!

Fred: the secondary effect of the American Revolution was to instill Capitalist Democracy… right?
Bill: umm… yes…

Fred: which I see as bad… right?
Bill: …

Fred: so, you see the Bolshevik Revolution as bad… I see the American Revolution as being ultimately flawed… you disagree with me… I disagree with you… so… who decides…?
Bill: …

Bill: I guess they both were right in as far as they were to escape a worst oppression… and the secondary effect, as you call it, is a matter of opinion…

Fred: ok… we can leave it there…

Fred: now… if a population is being oppressed, or it perceives an oppression, which is debatable whether there’s a real difference between the perceived and the ‘real’, is it then not right and good that they revolt against the actor of that oppression?
Bill: yeah… where are you going with this Fred?

Fred: It’s very simple, the US is perceived as being an oppressive occupying force in Iraq… therefore, it is morally right and necessary for the people to revolt against that oppression… even if the secondary effect is undefined or not to your liking, because ultimately that’s a matter of opinion…
Bill: fuck you, Fred… you motherfucking asshole… etc etc etc

and so we finished a rather good debate by one of us resorting to emotionalism brought about by some fucked up sense of nationalism and American superiority…

And this guy is one of the better ones…

and THEY have the bomb?

cripes… be afraid, people…

Presidente Chavez,

If you have a position open in your governemnt for a Council Communist, 35 years old, B.Sc. Computer Science, that doesn’t speak Spanish, but is wiilling to learn…

give me a call!!

:-)

who needs enemies, eh?

Analyst Charged With Passing Secret Info

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago

The FBI arrested a Pentagon analyst Wednesday on a charge alleging he passed classified information about potential attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group. Larry Franklin, 58, of Kearneysville, W.Va., turned himself in Wednesday morning.

He made a brief appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., and was released on $100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport.

The single charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. A preliminary hearing was set for May 27. Franklin’s lawyer, John Richards, said he expects his client will plead innocent.

The charge is the first in an investigation dating to 2001 about whether Israel improperly obtained classified U.S. information.

Franklin, who specialized on Iran and Middle Eastern affairs and had clearance to review top secret information, gave the information to two people without such clearance at a luncheon meeting at a restaurant in Arlington, Va., in June 2003, FBI agent Catherine Hanna said in an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint.

The people at the lunch were employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity because they are not identified in court papers.

link: http://news.yahoo.com/

seen on The Agonist

Pentagon probes tales of forced prayer at U.S. Air Force Academy

Last Updated Wed, 04 May 2005 11:16:59 EDT
CBC News

COLORADO SPRINGS – The Pentagon will investigate the U.S. Air Force Academy after cadets complained that they were ordered to pray and told they’d go to hell if they didn’t preach the word of God.

Michael L. Dominguez, acting secretary of the U.S. air force, announced Tuesday that a task force will visit the Colorado Springs, Colo., campus of the academy after 55 cases of religious intolerance were uncovered through internal surveys.

link: http://www.cbc.ca/

what can you do?

people are so locked into their ignorances you just can’t get through.

trying to get through the steel and concrete into their minds is the most useless act of futility that someone can participate in.

you can hope for the best, and you may get through to some people, but the ignorance that gets blasted at you usually makes you sink to their level

Oh well… work on people with open minds and the ability to use them

:-)