FAX MACHINES

>Technology and capitalism are the most benign forms of competition; everybody gains.<

what a gigantic target/statement to shoot at.

the day everyone is as wealthy as billy gates, maybe then...

the day we stop having to fight wars around the globe in order to expand capitalism or find new sources of oil and other resources, maybe then...

the day capitalism takes a back seat to humanity, to democracy, to time, to the environment, to humans as living things, to animals and plants as living things, maybe then...

sorry to say it, all you free market capitalists, but capitalism is a system, run from above, top down, and it's being set in concrete this very second. "free" markets? what an illusion for a lot of suckers to believe.

just how free is capitalism when it is based on war and control of land and resources (time, humans, flesh and bone and skin and body parts, are all resources, things to be taken advantage of, forced in a package, and bought and sold...)?

now about technology. are we any LESS busyier with pda's and desktop computers? think about it: DO WE WORK LESS NOW THAT WE HAVE COMPUTERS, AS COMPARED TO THE TYPERWRITER AND FILING CABINET DAYS? or do we work just the same hours? do we go home earlier because of those computers? are we less hectic and brain fried and stressed out now, than we were thirty years ago?

so if we're working longer hours, and producing more in the same time period than 20 years ago, who does this benefit?

technology makes a vacuum in time. the time it does save just gets filled up with more work, more srcambling around, more hectic, spazzed out living. this whole country ain't goin any slower last time i checked...

step back from this world, from this country, from this life...

now about competition. if your closest competitor lies in their advertisements, and these bullshit ads prove increadibly successful, what do you do. do you lie too? even though you hate yourself for doing it, because you didn't want to run your business like that? or do you keep on being honest even though it doesn't pay the bills. there's some competition for ya. that's the side effect.

so if worldcom produces bullshit accounting books in order to increase capital and gain even greater market share and power, what do you do if you're their closest competitor? do you play honest as you watch your market share shrink and your customers jump to worldcom and your capital funds go down? or do you start to fuck around with the books too, try and make your corporation look stronger than it is. there's some fuckin' competition for ya.

race to the bottom. if your competition's lyin' and killin', what are you gonna do to survive? and if the competition means lying and fucking people over in order to survive, than isn't the competition about who can lie and fuck people over the best? that's the trap of the capitalist game... people are forced to do things they don't want to do, or would never do otherwise. that's the trap.

Yeah-ee, on the lea the rising wind blows
Fay-hee, on the lea the rising wind blows
How long how long?

Dead Can Dance - American Dreaming.mp3