notes from the communist manifesto

Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and self-governing association in the medieval commune(4): here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany); there taxable “third estate” of the monarchy (as in France); afterwards, in the period of manufacturing proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, cornerstone of the great monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.


The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.


The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.


The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.

At this stage, the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its own political ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in motion, and is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeois. Thus, the whole historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie.


The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance, they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat.

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from Wiki on the dialectic:

In classical philosophy, dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική) is controversy: the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses). The outcome of the exercise might not simply be the refutation of one of the relevant points of view, but a synthesis or combination of the opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue.[1][2] The presupposition of a dialectical dialogue is that the participants share at least some meanings and principles of valid inference, even if they do not agree.


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The bourgeois seeks no synthesis of the Dialectic. It it is interested only in preservation & profit. By maintaining the struggle between freedom & equality, rather than participating in negotiations to resolve the conflict, it divides the proletariat in a permant struggle which serves only its primary interests. The perceived gains of the proletariat are illusion, products of the progression of materialism. Life itself, that of symbol & worth are abdicated in favor of an empty comfort.

Economic Expectation

The essential component of the Market is expectation. Heretofore, that expectation has been toward expansion, and a blind belief in growth; that expectation, at a basic level, within the Market has changed. However they might wish to disguise it the means of exchange must in the end be based on something of real value. The era of the petro-dollar is rapidly drawing to a close, and the ability of the American dollar to find, develop and exploit that resource is rapidly diminishing. The basic strength of the American Market, is and always has been in her ability to produce food, but that industry has now allied itself so closely with oil in all her stages of development that here again the dollar is losing ground.

Heavy industry save for a few pockets is gone, the high tech industry is stagnant, and will soon be eclipsed by countries with a greater stake in its present development. Our present infrastructure in based on the distribution and storage of foreign manufactured goods and our own agricultural products. This system also relies on petroleum throughout its operation. The nascent green technology will, without massive government infusion, take many years yet to develop.

Without a solid, universally accepted basis for the manufacture of currency, exchange must be based on a constantly changing assumption of where the true value lies, given the above deficiencies, property became the most attractive proposition which the fewest downsides upon which the market could derive a favorable evaluation of the dollar. It was a hedge against the inevitable fall, no more than a holding action--it main purpose was to allow the expectation and illusion of growth to continue. But there was no real growth, there was only inflation. As the demand grew, prices rose but the real value of the property remained the same. No other outlet arose which would alleviate the pressure because every other avenue was closed by the fuel-dollar equation which made investment an inevitable loss. The bubble thus had to be expanded by any means necessary to preserve expectation. Basically, that's what they were selling, expectation of an ever expanding economy, which no longer exists. When that became evident to the Market, prices began to fall. The new expectation is retrenchment, defensive positions against contraction. Credit becomes cautious, debt must be paid down; interest must be earned as the primary source of profit rather than speculation.

Against such a backdrop, the infusion of a finite amount of cash, no matter how large will be quickly absorbed in bolstering those defensive positions, rather than changing what is by now an unalterable position. The American economy, until basic outlooks are once again changed, and in the present climate that is unlikely, has nothing to offer the world by which she can show a profit, and is contracting. It is, at the present time, lurching towards a new equilibrium.

It is not the bottom of the real estate market that is the problem, but rather the bottom of the market itself, the bottom of expectation, that place where we will reside in the new economic order of nations. As noted above the infusion of money into a system with such an expectation is futile--however, the infusion of cash into reorienting the system and revaluing the dollar upon new infrastructure might allow for a shorter duration to the now prevalent inward looking expectation.

The Meltdown

Well, isn't this a fine mess.
A new emperor in fine clothes! But its a bit chilly for those.

700 billion.

For the frat boys in fine suits who got caught with their pants down, my momma used to say there was no such thing as free money.

Problem is, them boys never listened to their momma.

Dwindling resources equals the end of the gravy parade--So the dudes with the real cash, that paper not backed by the mystical machinations of credit for credit shut off the faucet.
--oopsers. Bound to happen. Tipping point. "Please, Mr. Bush, give us some more money so we can continue to roll in the dough--"

Probably happen too. Problem is that government money is worth no more than a handful of snow, and melts right through the hand. Bingo the bunko bankers go, give us more, and they will, cause everybody got their hand in the trough one way or another but strapped for the cash to pay the Wal-mart credit card, and that's mostly owned by China too. Everybody go Boo-hoo.
With no pain, the Corporate State can slip right through--which Mr. Rove knows, since Mr. Cheney told him so back in the day when they began building the paper castle with credit cards and bank machines--computers to track the interest rates and multiply the multiples--I guess in the end they forgot about the American propensity for the quick buck, now they are up against it and we'll have to see how far they are willing to go and just what they are willing to risk. They like to keep the untidiness on foreign shores but they will do what they have to do. Seems to me, the bankers like wars, but find riots to be most unprofitable.

All in. Us & them both. Us? we got a two and a three in the hole, and the first card turned up is a suicide king. If we let the bailout go through they get to play in the sand box for a while, if not, the shit hits the fan for a good bit, things get re-adjusted to a more realistic level, but Jesus knows there will be Hell to pay, and in the end they just move back into the dusty offices where the paper get pushed along. Its a good thing rednecks like to play dress up and wear gaudy uniforms with shiny medals, else ways they might have to hire Hessians to come in to keep order. As it is, homegrown blackshirts will have to do, at least they got some practice in at the RNC, bashing heads and doing the paper work, processing is a good word, sorta neutral in the scheme of things; at least when people disappear.

Time to pay the piper, people.--one way or another. Greed is good til the pot boils over and the revenooers come to take the truck; and you have to sell the cow for a dime on the buck. Happy go lucky has called the shell game and the pea has rolled off the folding table and is headed towards the gutter.

The Collapse of the Center

It seems the old center in Politics has collapsed, the Moderate republican can now be considered to the left of center;

which one might consider McCain if he had any principles that he actually stood for--

the conservative republican now holds the center, and the right wing of the party which is basically fascist has moved toward the left, which leaves an outright dictatorship a viable option, given the fundamentalist approach to establishing a Theocracy as the true right wing of the party.

I am thinking that given that, the liberal wing of the Democratic party must unite with the smaller fringe parties to form a new liberal party to combat the rising tide of Conservative forces which are moving towards a mentality of Fortress America because of dwindling resources, paranoia, and protectionism.

We must return to FDR's formula:"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself"

if we are going to survive as a free Nation.