Rethos.com - richardtreadwell's News Feed

Greed Based Society: A Rebuttal

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:28:09 -0400

I consider myself a scientific person, encouraged by empirical evidence; so, at the surface Friedman’s argument for capitalism is compelling. Several problems arise, however, upon a more mindful take of his words. His examples are flawed, his history skewed, his definitions conflated.

First, the indigenous tribes of the world may object to his “crystal-clear” account of history, stating that only societies that exploit self-interest have escaped grinding poverty; although that is a fairly minor point. More surprising is ...

Carbon-Free Does NOT Require Nuclear

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:29:18 -0400

Many prominent science magazines argue that solving the environmental crisis requires that we use substantially more nuclear energy.

If this was true I'd be all for ignoring the many health risks (including intentional and unintentional explosion) and centralization aspect for the sake of the climate.

But, I discovered from talking to some folks at the Sustainable Energy Summit at Amherst, that it certainly is not true. And this article explains how we can reach a carbon-free and nuclear-free society in scientific yet understandable terms.

McCain can take his 45 n...

Selling the Fire Ball: George Bush and Iran

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:26:59 -0400

Great post from a Great site. It's an exchange between Media Lens participants and NY Times workers showing how the media is once again deceiving the public to allow another invasion.

Also Includes GUEST MEDIA ALERT: DAVID PETERSON RESPONDS TO OLIVER KAMM below

When George Bush arrived in Britain last week as part of his "farewell tour", the real reasons for the visit were buried well out of sight. The tour was not, as the Guardian suggested, a mere "continental au revoir". The purpose was to coerce Gordon B...

Cooperative Based Society

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:48:07 -0400

"Bright and early for the daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere"

Capitalism, as many of us realize, is an exploitative system at its roots, predicated on money-making money. However, if someone is sitting around watching their money grow, someone else is not getting due compensation for their day's labor. Capitalism is such a malfunctioning system it undermines itself; there should be some price that clears the market, that removes scarity and surplus, but incentives lie in artificially manipulating prices, spending on advertising, extorting labor as much as possible. It is a...

A Bank for the Common Good

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:40:25 -0500

More and more people are seeking out an avenue to act and force change, to be heard and acknowledged. This capitalist system is indeed rotting from the inside out, but what it calls spoiled, we call ripe for change. Aristotle got it right to say that man is a political animal. People are feeling the unnaturalness of prolonged political isolation; we are cynical in sizing up politicians, caustic in describing our "democratic" process, yet ignorant in the reasons behind our feelings. We attribute them to man's nature, to inevitability, because when something is inevitable it can be...

Deadly Incentives - Response to Ian Wooden on Corporations

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:14:44 -0500

Response to Ian Wooden on Kiadso’s post “The Silliness of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)”

http://www.rethos.com/news/view/626-The-Silliness-of-CSR-Corporate-Social-Responsibility

I like to see corporations as well, but only to learn about their practices. The fact that they are on this site most certainly does not mean that they are courageously trying to make a difference by throwing themselves at our mercy. It means, we are a profitable market, and they are trying to get us to buy their stuff any way they can. Now I...

A Corrupt Patience - Response to Ian Wooden

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:18:23 -0500

This is a response to Ian Wooden’s posting http://www.rethos.com/news/view/309-Capitalism-and-Inequality-If-Only-Time-Could-Tell-

Reclarifications: By “patience”, I mean the kind of patience a battered woman has when she sends her husband off to anger management therapy. I mean the kind of patience it takes to patch up a dilapidated house. All this while a nice guy and a lovely home call to you. No, sometimes patience isn’t the right approach. Will it take hard work and commitment to rehabilitate a violent husband or rebuild a crumbled house? Indeed. But...

Oil and Climate Change - You Can't Solve One without the Other

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:38:45 -0500

Our planes, trains, and automobiles all run on oil. When people think carbon emission, they instinctively think transportation, that to reduce emissions we must stop moving about so much. But oil enables far more than transportation. The fact is, just about everything around us has been made better or possible because of widespread energy availability. Oil use is ubiquitous. Oil is much more than the liquid that makes a car go; it is truly the lifeblood of the world. Transportation accounts for only 20 percent of carbon emissions, the bulk comes from power generation, 35 percent, and the...

Get Out There and Argue

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 19:26:18 -0400

Having a place for all of us revolution seeking people is great. We can gauge how cohesive the movement is; we can share ideas about how to further our causes; we can immerse ourselves in the routes to true freedom and democracy. But this can also be a big problem…

If we all feel at home with like-minded people, we might ignore the majority of people who only have a glimpse of the ongoing destruction and deceit, the people who are stuck in the deadened mainstream media, but don’t quite realize the extent of the propaganda; the people who grimace at our immoral, bell...

From iPhones to Education

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:59:18 -0400

The iPod, the iPhone, people love them because they’re user-friendly; we intuitively know how to use them. Somehow these devices complement our physiology. They are in-tune with our brain and body’s functioning. We hate things that are hard to use, things that don’t quite fit with our natural actions. Why, why, why then, is our educational system so damned counterintuitive?

Humans are born with an innate capacity to learn, its pretty much the whole reason our cortex is the way is. It changes itself in response to new information and experiences, it searches fo...

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:22:22 -0400

This movie plainly tells how corporations and the government dominate the content of the media and use it to carry out their agenda. By systematically misinforming us, emphasizing and distorting certain key world events, and ingraining propaganda into our skulls, they are able to covertl...

Wealth Distribution

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:25:20 -0400

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/weal th.html

This is the end result of private ownership of the means of production. Turns out greediness is not good…

History has taught us one very good lesson again, and again, and again. Man is not meant to have concentrated power for one very good reason – individual man is primarily concerned with his own interests. Even kingships that began with altruistic intentions inevitably evolved into corrupt institutions of oppression. This happens over and over. And, we have let it happen again. Even if it bega...

A Fair Pay

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:10:18 -0400

There is a philosopher someone told me about, and I’m not sure what his name is, but he talked about a just way of making laws, or imagining how they should be made. You pretend you are in charge of making laws, but you have no idea who you are. You don’t know whether your male or female, white or black, so naturally you wouldn’t want to make any laws that would discriminate against blacks or females, or anyone for that matter, because you just might be one of those discriminated against, and suffer all the injustice that entails.

I don’t know if he tied...