- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Homer Simpson is alive and well...

Posted by: Farinata ( L'inferno ) on January 31, 19100 at 16:58:15:

In Reply to: Oh, yeah, Mr. Smarty-Pants Communist? posted by Joe Adelphio on January 31, 19100 at 16:23:11:

: Oh, yeah, Mr. Smarty-Pants Communist? (phhhhhp!) How about it YOU show ME a better consumer unit than the nuclear family, huh? Can you, tough guy? No you CAN'T, because there ISN'T ONE!

A 'better' consumer unit, eh?

How about a cancer cell; that's possibly the most efficient consumer unit out there...?

: Why, the nuclear family is simultaneously the most efficient consumer unit (1 washing machine per household, 2-3 tv's, 2 cars etc)

Riiight. So the ideal social unit should have 3 televisions and 2 cars, yeah?

The perfect recipe for producing a population of brainwashed, apathetic, fat and lazy consumer zombies; where your very identity becomes shaped by what you consume and what television programmes you watch.

The fact that you live in luxury while millions starve is nothing to you; neither is the fact that you drive a vehicle that produces 25 times its own weight in toxic gases every year.

Please don't pretend that this mode of consumption is 'efficient' either;

Annual energy consumption per capita (1998)

US 13477 kWh
France 6966 kWh
Europe 5525 kWh

In other words, the average US citizen consumes 2.5 times as much energy as the average EU citizen; what does the US have to show for it?

How about higher infant mortality, lower literacy rates, higher rates of violent crime, higher obesity rates and higher rates of mental illness?

If you call that 'efficient', there's a bridge I've got for sale here...going cheap, too.

: AND the father-breadwinner-as-boss duplicates the hierarchical relationship NECESSARY for their future as workers in which they will play a subordinate role to their managers.

So you're saying that slavery is perfectly acceptable because it duplicates the workplace conditions a boss desires?

The 'land of the free'? Yeah, right...

: Are you telling me there's a BETTER ideal than this? Show it to me!

How about a system that didn't involve 50-hour weeks of pointless, pen-pushing work that resulted in fuck all of use to the world?

To quote Mark Renton on the subject;

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrasment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life."

: Training starts young, buddy. Somebody failed putting you in line, I can see that.

In other words;

"You don't appear to be a slave. Somebody should have turned you into a slave, because then you could be like me".

Take it and stuff it. Stuff your two-by-four mind, stuff your family saloon, stuff your cancerous existence and game-show thrills, stuff your vapid defence of shallow materialist consumerism and detonate your nuclear family.

Oh, and I'm not a Communist, I don't have a TV or a car, neither do I want them. I've got better things to do.

Farinata.




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