Re: capitalism & massacres - reply to Charu

[Vamsi Musunuru <vamsi@siliconcorp.com>]

    Now, now.....Charu.  If you really want to compare Socialism and
Capitalism
don't bring cultural and political issues into it.  If you do it becomes a
muddled and unintelligible analysis.

    US wasn't born as a Capitalist country much like India wasn't born as a
Socialist country.  However, it can be reasonably argued that US and India
adopted Capitalism and Socialism, respectively out of cultural and
political
pressures.  That is, Socialism and Capitalism are recent developments and
are
not retroactive to the developments of the past century or any unrelated
events
of this time!!  We fail to make this simple connection in our Mental
thought and
we get carried away with all sorts of explanations - maybe our emotions
take
over?

    Recently, I was having a dinner with a friend who is specializing in
Human
Psychology.  We got into talking about all sorts of stuff.  He did bring
out
some important points about our psychology is very much at the center of
what we
align with.  We came to an important conclusion that even the institution
of
Government is a "created" concept just like the concept of God, etc.  In
fact,
Government has replaced the role of God in some societies.  It seems that
we
always need some sort of intervention in our lives or else we become
overwhelmed
with responsibilities.  If the Concept of Government is created then the
laws of
a Governing body are created also.  How these laws are fabricated should be
guided by our logic and not emotions.  We all know what emotions have done
to
God's laws......why, the earth isn't flat and the sun refused to revolve
around
the Earth.  Einstein replaced Euclidean Space with non-Euclidean space. 
Edwin
Hubble has expanded our Universe from a mere Solar System to Billions of
such
Systems.  Stephen Hawking has expanded our 15 billion light-year Universe
into a
random shuffle of Physical Laws - a pebble in the sea of many possible
Universes.  Hmmm....I wonder what else can the Human Mind think of if it
didn't
have the "poor me" or "poor us" attitude??

    Well, before I get too far out into space I want to make the following
statements:

  1. Capitalism - in its broadest sense is a belief in some "invisible
hand" to
     guide our destiny.  Today, we are not so religious about it.  We know
that
     this "invisible hand" is the Market.  It is a respect for the
Fundamental
     Laws of Nature.  Resources such as Capital, Raw Materials,
Manufacturing,
     Tooling, Engineering, Marketing follow an intricate set of Laws that
we are
     just beginning to learn what they are.  Before it was the invisible
hand
     and now it is Supply, Demand, Interest Rates, Inflation, GDP, GNP,
etc.  We
     are standing at the shores of a great ocean of knowledge and it is a
great
     time to be alive.  We have finally recognized that even Humans are
subject
     to Natural Laws.  That our thoughts and emotions are product of some
     Chemical Processes that we are just now beginning to understand.
  2. Socialism - a dogmatic belief that Government (instead of the Market
     Forces) is supreme and that it should control production, ownership,
and
     resource allocation.  Sounds a lot like religion and God doesn't it? 
I am
     sure that it is probably just as addictive to the "common soul".  The
     fundamental flaw here is, of course, remember that even the concept of
     Government is created by us and that even our thought is governed by
     Natural Laws.....so I ask, how can something created by our thought be
     superior than that which governs our thought itself - Laws of Nature.
     Well, what are the Laws of Nature?  Man has always tried a shortcut to
this
     question and he came up with the Bible and the sorts.  We can't be
that
     lazy can we?  We have to explore and expand our Mental Models through
     patience and diligence just as those great men mentioned above have
     expanded our concept of Earth being flat and eternal to a speck of
dust
     suspended in sunbeam.

Sincerely,
Vamsi M.

Charu datt wrote:

>
> Evidently capitalism is very efficient, at least at operating propaganda
> machines.You want a listing of massacres? Well since you ask .....


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