There is no such thing as choice, just determinism. Therefore it is logical that we are all equal alphas with knowledge a product of luck, not choice. Thus, socio-economic equality must reflect this, as is only fair!
Reconciling Determinism’s Equality Principle and Alpha(s)
Herein, in title and textual body of this blog post, I allude to the broad concept of alpha, and specifying peoples as alphas (plural).
As covered in my blog post ‘Determinism’s Equality Principle’ there is no material choice in one’s actions, only ‘the chain’ of cause and effect responsible for arisings in nature and the cosmos, of which human relations are a part. The social justice corollary of this (determinism) is that people do not choose their status – it is imposed upon them by a luck-of-the-draw determinism, wherein choice is a thoroughly metaphysical construct imposed upon them by dominant institutions. Thus, a sophisticated social mandate is that we are all equals, no matter what circumstances someone may find themselves in.
However, there is and will always be, knowledge unevenly staggered across, and embodied by, the individuals who make up the population. This is for the conceivable future. Even if people were paid the same per hour for instance, or had equal access to resources, goods and services (in a non-monetary resource based economy (Fresco)), there would be an uneven embodiment of (philosophical and scientific) meta-knowledge across individuals. The idea that the best philosopher or philosophers (not necessarily the wealthiest person/s) should rule the republic may be a synthesis of understanding there is a philosophical alpha or philosophical alphas who have the best philosophical knowledge, as in Plato’s ‘philosopher kings’ (but let us make this gender inclusive in nomenclature!: (philosophical) alphas): e.g. alpha female, alpha male and alpha trans, for some gendered conceptions of (philosophical) alphas.
This is in stark contrast to a capitalist(ic) conception of an alpha or alphas who have the most amount of resources or money. I must concede there is a certain logic to capitalist alpha(s). However, under scrutiny this is a transient conception of alpha(s), wherein the social system becomes ever-more sophisticated: there is, and should be, no final frontiers: no end of (political) history at one rational static state (of social design).
Before proceeding in analysis, I would like to point to my lack of endorsement of a large overly-centralized federal government. Government is only valid as minimalistic subject to the anarchist’s burden of proof (Chomsky) – not as something that is self-justifiable. The anarchist’s burden of proof is that hierarchy and authority are not self-justifying. See and hear Chomsky elucidate this integral concept in this YouTube video:
And in digital print:
https://chomsky.info/20130528/ (‘The Kind of Anarchism I Believe in, and What’s Wrong with Libertarians’)
As much as possible political power must be decentralized in democratic decision-making in workers’ (rank-and-file) and consumers’ councils. I align myself with a technocratic form of quasi-anarcho-communism (communism with a small state to uphold private property), with a series of political steps, graded in fashion, to eventually arrive at this form of social design. This form of ‘resource based economy’ (‘RBE’) (Fresco) is not a final frontier, but simply the current best and most optimal design human organisation that could politically and economically coalesce. Fresco himself acknowledged that the humanely emergent social institutions are more authentic as compared with the established static realm which stifles human progress that is resistant to ongoing humane change. This RBE is in striking difference to Plato’s republic where a few rule the many, which inherently accords a centralization of governmental powers.
How does one decide or evaluate knowledge which would ‘confer’, uncover or excavate a philosophical alpha, or alphas of each gender for instance? I contend that evaluating one’s reconciled meta-knowledge and knowledge it should be measured in its service of the ‘the master morality’. The master morality, I contend, is adherence to the neo-utilitarian imperative which is the ethical compass and mandate to continually maximize the net positive aspects of sentient life (aka happiness, positive meaning, enjoyment, ecstasy, enchantment etcetera), whilst simultaneously continually minimizing the net negative aspect of sentience (suffering) in the world, through the careful enactment and conception(s) of ever-greater rights for (sentient) individuals. Enactment of this philosophy is usually a natural consequence of its intellectual synthesis, as it is the most holistically rewarding philosophy by its very nature. However, we should note that written philosophy which detracts from adherence to the master morality, may be worse than an unwritten philosophical praxis which does less harm! This is a very important point, and nuance as to what constitutes and comprises the master morality. This, I hope, shows a corrective to an otherwise underrepresented gendered virtue – aka the emotional intelligence of women, and the gender pioneering of non-binary gender folk, for instance, counting very significantly to the master morality. The concept of uncovering true gendered virtue allows us to deconstruct and dismantle patriarchal conceptions of an alpha or alphas, and these uncovered maxims, along with others, luckily, annul inter-gendered competition (competition between the genders).
Importantly, the neo-utilitarian imperative can be co-formulated as within, and underpinned by, the holistic self-interest of all individuals: continually unpacking and unlocking the latent immense power of cooperation.
So, in synthesis of determinism’s equality principle (which is a corollary of fairness and justice in the face of the ‘thrownness’ (Heidegger) of circumstance) and ‘philosophical alpha(s)’, there may always be a person or persons with the greatest philosophical knowledge in adherence to the neo-utilitarian imperative, however, this does not mean they are better than other people, since all people are equal, indefeasibly, according to, and absolutely mandated by, determinism’s equality principle!
So, to summarize, all people are equal alphas, according to determinism’s equality principle; but, for the conceivable future, a point is that there are, and will be, – alphas within alphas. Thus, we are inherently an hierarchical species.
PROUT and PAM
This blog entry is on PROUT and PAM.
PROUT stands for ‘Progressive Utilization Theory’ and PAM stands for ‘Progressive Australia Movement’. Key principles of PROUT inform PAM, but not exclusively: complimentary and more extensive reconciled political ideology is apparent and provided.
PROUT, synthesised by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar[1], envisages a transition from capitalism to an alternate economic model, constituting a tripartite structure:
- Big business transitions from the hierarchical corporate division of labour to a market socialist design, where workers have co-ownership of the means of production;
- Small business remains intact mirroring the current petit-bourgeois[2] distinction between business owners and workers, and where some are sole-traders de-facto paying themselves a wage through profits gleaned; and
- Public ownership for appropriate sectors such as utilities.
PROUT seems to not only provide an alternative to capitalism and communism, but also striking a balance between anarchism, capitalism, and communism. The anarchism component is refracted by more autonomous democratic worker cooperatives for large businesses that are decentralised in terms of decision-making factoring in cost to make profit1, as antidote to excessively top-down central planning of the economy in ‘communist’ regimes, eschewing overbearing state control, as well as without a hierarchy in the workplace in these big businesses; capitalism through utilizing markets in the private sector(s); and communism seeing resources – as a commons – where they “would be collective property from which usufructuary[3] rights are carved out for use by individuals or groups of individuals”[4].
PAM has many more progressive features: for more information, and/or to get involved, please see the following progressive websites:
Progressive Australia Movement (‘PAM’): https://www.progressiveaustralia.org.au
To get in contact with the movement convenor, for queries and/or if you would like to participate, join or contribute to PAM, please visit: https://progressiveaustralia.org.au/contact and fill out the online form therein.
For social media digital participation, engagement and further political material and synthesis visit PAM’s presence on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/778801853322899/
Advocated by PROUT – small business, and big business market socialist elements (of benefit for economies of scale in wealth accumulation and creation), and a healthy public sector – would be good and instructive as progressive stepping stones?, as political targets?, with room for further refinements/adjustments moving forward?
These above questions as a segue, how does PROUT and PAM align personally with my own politics?
Regarding PAM, alignment with my ‘no end of history’ progressive politics, are as follows, non-exhaustively:
- Treaty between the state and Indigenous Peoples;
- Environmental Protection;
- No Foreign Ownership;
- Contractual Election Promises;
- Income Ceiling;
- Republicanism for Australia;
- An Explicit Bill of Rights;
- Free Education (including tertiary);
- Full-Employment Guarantee (but minus graduated disability, of course);
- Rebuilding Domestic Manufacturing; and
- Principle of Localisation of Production.
Thanks for reading!
[1] ‘Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, last accessed 3 November, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhat_Ranjan_Sarkar
[2] The term ‘petit bourgeois’ here is used to designate small business, not just sole traders in the strict Marxist sense. For a Marxist definition of this term, see ‘Marx on Social Class’ by University of Regina, https://uregina.ca/~gingrich/250j3103.htm#:~:text=Petty%20Bourgeoisie%20and%20Middle%20Class,134).
[3] ‘Usufruct’, last accessed 3 November 2024, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usufruct
[4] ‘Progressive utilization theory’, last accessed 3 November 2024, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_utilization_theory
- This kind of decentralising of decision-making through factoring in costs in business to make profit, in self-interested strategic allocations of resources at hand, as an economic, social and political mechanism – characteristic of markets – applies in small business too, not just big business, as is within the foreseen PROUT model. ↩︎
Raw Milk: Pros & Cons (Podcast and Video)
I originally made a presentation on this topic (The Pros and Cons of Raw Milk) to the Rotary Club of Mobilong, and have since adapted it to a podcast format.
Check out this podcast on the politics of raw milk! This is a political, nutritionist, and social justice issue with some overlap of animal rights/welfare covered. In this podcast, I explore the pros and cons of raw milk from the perspectives of the farmer, the consumer, public health authorities, and of course – the cow!
Enjoy!
Above is a shortened version on the pros and cons of raw milk in video format. Enjoy!
Petitions
An international and an Australian petition for more public investment in development of high-grade nutritional synthetic meats:
The International Petition:
The Australian Petition:
Please show your support for the petitions with your digital signature!
Books
Twenty-six of Henry’s books are currently available on Lulu (https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/henrywilloughby):
An Introduction to Social Justice & Ecologies of Knowledge Philosophy is a ‘post-modern’ philosophy of social justice and a basis for renewed political organising. It is a philosophical and political science treatise designed to reconcile social justice meta-knowledge, in an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach, to aid and guide the practices, praxis, and policy of social justice political parties and to assist activists in ideological understandings. It is a consciousness-raising book, written in the revolutionary style of knowledge relay and presentation – Post-Modern Meta-Philosophy. It represents knowledge pertinent to social justice in ‘ecologies’ in the vein of and as an extension to Gregory Bateson’s formulation of mind as an ecology. It is an invigorating renewed basis for informed and passionate political organising for the 21st Century! Enjoy! Readers will get a lot out of this book, no matter what your original political persuasion! Fields of knowledge interwoven into the book’s syntheses consist of nutrition, evolutionary psychology and medicine, cosmology, social science, philosophy, ethology, evolution, futures studies, and political science! It can be found on Lulu at:
The Spatial Politics of Adelaide examines the town planning and the mental constructs of town planners of five spatial grids of the Adelaide CBD, and the class, gender, and identity of socio-political manifestations in the spatial realm, in a journey from the West End to the East End of the CBD from Hindley Street to Rundle Street through Rundle Mall. The five spatial grids of analysis demarcated by the grid-like road layout in Adelaidian streets, moving from west to east, are investigated with social and political science commentary on the reproduction of different kinds of socially contested space(s). It finds that the grids in the west mirror the more working-class demographics of Adelaide’s western suburbs and that the grids in the east mirror the more middle-class demographics of Adelaide’s eastern suburbs. Both the working-class and the middle-class disrupt, resist or re-appropriate the homogenising spatial forces of big business capitalism and transnational commoditisation. In contrast, the centre space in Rundle Mall is more an abstract space of consumption, symbolically dominated by big business, but still with sites of resistance to ‘globalist’ transnational commoditisation. This book gives you the conceptual tools to deconstruct the spatial politics of your own town, village or city, wherever you may live! You can find the book on Lulu at:
The Archetype of Psychotropic Shamanism and the Morality of Group Bonding and/or Healing firstly warns of the dangers of shamanist psychotropic consumption to mental health especially for those with a genetic predisposition to psychosis as a foregrounding to sketching an archetype (‘original model’) of psychotropic shamanism. It argues that the archetype consists of unique ritualized components found in more traditional forms of shamanism which serve the function of group bonding and/or psycho-somatic social healing. It examines case-studies on more traditional forms of shamanism, finding common themes of group bonding and healing. It investigates the enduring power and influence this archetype has on neo-shamanist practices exploring case-studies on contemporary marijuana consumption in the U.S. It finds that group bonding and egalitarianism in such neo-shamanist practices is a commonality with the archetype. Further to the archetype, the book explores the underlying cultural ‘epistemes’ (‘ways of knowing’) that legitimize and underpin ancient and more traditional forms of shamanism being (social) psychointegration, polyphasia, and enchantment, all within a more egalitarian social milieu and setting. It can be found on Lulu at:
An Anthropology of Globalization contextualizes globalization from the evolutionary seat of the species in Africa, through to migration effectively colonizing the entire planet’s habitable land, to empire and capitalism as driving more intensification of global interconnectivity. It concludes with some stratagems of freedom and liberty to counteract hyper-market liberalisation, neoliberal and excessively homogenizing forms of globalization. It’s available on Lulu at the link below:
A concise methodological book on philosophy called Post-Modern Meta-Philosophy sets out a new technique for profound information relay and new, diverse and effective spatial presentations of knowledge, and can be found at Lulu at:
Philosophical Constructions of a Rational Culture gives innovations to the way we discursively think about topics such as God, religion, teleology, power and human motivation, as well as innovations to social structures, institutions and cultural mores, with the aim of expediting ‘the rational’ in culture. You can find it on Lulu at the link below:
An Ecology of Indispensable Knowledge-Bytes is a self-improvement, social philosophical text aimed to give the reader well-crafted mind technologies and tools to improve morality and ethics, sociality and political insights. You can find it on Lulu at the link below:
Native Title, Indigenous Self-Determination & Rational Cultural Synthesis in the Australian Context is a short book which canvases the history of the native title legal framework in Australia. It then critically assesses the efficacy of this framework as a mechanism for social justice and as a method to meet the socially pressing issue of eliciting and creating the conditions for full social and economic self-determination for First Nations People of Australia. It acknowledges just what native title cannot do in meeting this goal, so the book calls for a rational cultural synthesis between the ancient Indigenous culture(s), and the liberal capitalist regime/culture in authentic and rational negotiation between the cultures in light of their respective and differing virtues in meeting human need and the needs of the natural world. Indeed, the many progressive social and economic practices of Aboriginal peoples were overlooked, and still are, by ‘opportunistic’ colonizers who othered the Indigenous population(s), subordinated them, and refused to learn their immensely wise ways of living. Rational cultural synthesis is about truly humanizing the Indigenous’ wisdom and ameliorating institutional and social features of the neo-colonial capitalist culture. You can find it on Lulu at:
The Teleological Target and Labour Law: Domestic and Global explores the equity of individual and collective rights of employees and enterprise bargaining legislative frameworks between employees and employers in Australia with reference to dominant global neoliberal ideology, develops a teleological target for labour law, and gives a critique of the employee-employer distinction in the workplace:
A Post-Modern Social Justice Treatise: Meta-Knowledges in Post-Modern Meta-Philosophy gives social justice acumen presented in a post-modern philosophical style of information relay. You can find it on Lulu at:
Effects of Global Processes on Local Cultures: Trinidad, Papua New Guinea & Coca-Cola presents deconstructive information on the homogenizing, yet locally resilient and appropriated, effects of the corporate transnational meta-commodity Coca-Cola in Trinidad and Papua New Guinea. It gives a critique of capitalism as fueling irrationality through marketing strategy – a corporate homogenizing, saturation and colonization of space – capitalising on and fuelled by consumer vulnerability to corporate irrationality and production as abstracted from efficiently meeting human need. It concludes with a three-pronged model of ‘the rational’ in culture. You can find it on Lulu at:
Women: God’s Gift to Man-kind. Subjectivist Knowledge for Pro-Feminist Men is designed to help create strong and compassionate men who identity as pro-feminists in supporting women in struggles to obtain gender equity, and encourages men to adopt pro-feminist political views. It is designed to enhance the gender negotiation dialectic between women and men, through edifying the gendered consciousness of pro-feminist men to tackle men’s issues and ameliorate and redress relations with women. It encourages men to assist with women’s issues, and acknowledges the interwoven nature of issues and struggles between women and men. It is designed to enhance male morality in relations with women. Amongst many important knowledges for pro-feminist men, it covers ancient dimorphic gendered reproductive strategies of primate ancestors and debunks the corollary narrow sociobiological view of these ancient gendered behaviours as immutable in humans, and eschews biological essentialism. It calls for the further equalising of gender roles and courting rituals. It explores the virtues of monogamous intimate relationships, the contradictions of voluntary celibacy, and much more! If you believe in feminism and your own power to change the gendered world for the better, this book will both simultaneously improve relations with women through mind technologies to treat women more equitably as well as for men to treat themselves more kindly. Enjoy! You can find it on Lulu at:
Violence is a short book on the need to continually mitigate violence and to channel violent tendencies into less socially destructive forms. A non-anthropocentric definition of society is adopted, to include the interactions between all sentient creatures. Upon this definitional amendment of ‘society’ violence becomes better theorized. The question of sentience, and in particular – the capacity to suffer, is developed through critically evaluating scientific literature thereon. It is only through harming living sentient creatures that violence operates: harm is a condition of violence. The book explores hierarchy and primate aggression, as well as giving an analysis of dominant modern institutions built around markets or central planning in terms of their respective violent capacities, realities and real world outcomes. Five different categories of violence are given, wherein ritualized and virtualized violence are shown to be less aberrant and harmful. The book concludes with a call for better macro-political economic systems to replace the violent begetting hierarchies of central planning and markets – aspects of which could remain but mainly outmoded through decentralized planning and small-scale more locally based markets. This is a novel book with a matured and intricate conception and understanding of violence in today’s world. You can find it on Lulu at:
Individualist Surplus Identity Above Race
Race is a social, cultural and political construct. This is where certain biological traits are arbitrarily selected as identifiers and signifiers of racial identity, imposed both internally and externally. Since humans’ primary sense is vision, these arbitrarily selected shared differences are mainly initiated and reproduced by this visual primary sensory information. Racial identity can be forged through a connection to the struggles and achievements of one’s more immediate ancestors. These connections to immediate ancestors may be tied to geographic location(s) and/or nationhood(s). If someone has a success, it is not because of their race, but rather because of their individuality of which race may be a part; individuality produces a surplus supra to internally and/or externally applied racial taxonomy – as it manifests and is socially sanctioned. To make an analogy: compassion is a part of knowledge ‘just as’ race is a part of individuality.
Stop the Witch-Hunt of Alex Jones
Alex Jones, the founder of the alternative news company called Infowars, has been taken to court for ostensibly knowingly spreading misinformation re the Sandy Hook School shooting. It is not in Alex Jones’ character to knowingly lie nor misrepresent the truth. Jones initially suspected the school massacre as some kind of a false flag attack, to attack and undermine the second amendment right of the citizenry to bear arms, sponsored by the state or faction of the state apparatus in the U.S. It should be mandated that Jones make an apology to the aggrieved victims’ families for mistaken opinion, and publicly retract the inflammatory comments on record. Ironically, through injuncting a ridiculously inflated fine, where no fine is retributively justified in any case, the judge is thoroughly tyrannical as Jones himself has incisively commented in his legitimate defense. Jones should appeal the decision to a higher court which should and hopefully will uphold the needs for free speech and without retributive injustice. Whilst I personally disagree with much of the ideological positions Jones and Infowars take, they constitute an important news and informational source in the media-geopolitical landscape.
An Abyssal Tragedy of War in Ukraine: Some Lessons to Heed?
What if the same puppet-master(s) control(s) both Putin, his presidential administration and the Federal Assembly in Russia (Russia’s legislative body), as well as Biden, his administration, and the Congress of the United States?
Let me elaborate and elucidate: nothing is more profitable for the big dominant financier international banking cabal than war. Why? The U.S. central bank, deceptively termed the ‘Federal Reserve’ (‘the Fed’) bank, is a privately owned corporation exempt from Congressional oversight. It does not comprise a part of the Federal Government as many believe. The asymmetrical relationship with Congress and Treasury is that the Central Bank sets interest rates, controls the expansion and contraction of the money supply, as well as the discretionary power over issuance of the line of credit extended to the U.S. government for public projects. Herein there are two disingenuous features. I need to do more research on the first of these features, however it seems to be apparent that private interests in the Fed ultimately control which public projects they deem worthy of backing through their discretion to supply or withhold credit in the form of purpose-specific loans at interest to the U.S. Federal Government for these public projects (not simply elected officials representing the public at large). Secondly – money is created out of loans to the U.S. Government as debt charged with interest. Inherent in this fraudulent asymmetrical design and relationship are inflation – flushing more money into circulation the more loans are facilitated, and bankruptcy – only the principal loan money exists in the money pool at any given time and thus not enough money exists to repay the interest on these loans. The (central) Bank of England was once controlled by private interests but has since been nationalised. So nowadays, the international central banking cabal uses the Fed as its main front for financier capital accumulation. This included the GFC in which the U.S. taxpayer bailed out hundreds of foreign banks that were a part of, or linked into, the Federal Reserve System.
The international banking cabal, probably primarily led or spearheaded by the Rothschild’s international banking dynasty, has setup as a beach-head, a private/corporate monopoly over money creation and its ensuing rigged system for promulgation of its selfish interests, usurping legitimate democratic power from Congress and constitutional rights and political designs, in today’s geopolitical super-power – U.S. As I will meticulously argue elsewhere – cabals of geopolitical elites conspiring for world domination of which the financier class is a strong element has in its effect furthered U.S. led (neo)imperialism with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This has been actuated through acute perversion of the democratic functionality of Congress. The Fed, Wall Street, the military, homeland security, and greedy corporations that have grown wealthier in this system of political lobbying and financier manipulations converge on ‘a war consensus’. This is because, in times of war, the Federal Government via the Treasury must procure loans from the Fed at interest for military spending or military aid to other countries. The U.S. taxpayer is now paying for this military aid to Ukraine and the interest on the loans made by the Fed to the U.S. Government for ‘defence’. The national debt for the U.S. is over $31 trillion, which is obscene and insanity. In the Fed’s own terms – the U.S. government has procured the money in the form of loans from ‘private investors’. I would add that the jargon of finance capital is intentionally opaque in order to hoodwink the public so that they will not pose a threat or challenge to their disingenuous and social and economic parasitical machinations. But that is another whole blog post topic for another day!
It’s not that I don’t believe in military aid to help stop a geopolitical aggressor – the Russian army and ruling class in this case, and to provide military and social assistance to a victim state – Ukraine in this instance. It’s that a tiny elite – supranational mega financier capitalists as well as arms dealers – get richer by the day as afflicted and involved countries become poorer and many pay with their lives as a result of psychopathic elitist manipulations.
It is incumbent to point out the injustice and economic inefficiency of imposing blanket sanctions on an entire country! It is a disgusting and primitive form of indiscriminate punishment. It is a collective punishment and not an individualizing (more humane) one. The vast majority of the Russian people should not be considered complicit in the war – by their actions. They did or do not invade Ukraine – they are working to feed themselves and their families. To pinpoint those complicit in the imperial invasion of Ukraine from Russia are Putin, his administration, the state controlled media that is pro the invasion, and the Russian military and soldiers deployed in Ukraine. Sanctions also mean wider economic instability and inefficiency in the international economy causing the wastage of tax money and contributing to rising prices in energy and essential goods and products. This contributes to the austerity capitalism we are currently enduring – hurting middle and lower classes even in First World nations.
Is NATO partly at fault? Ukraine is a NATO partner country. This signals a strong cooperative pledge and intention with NATO. However, this does extend to invoke the security guarantee in the alliance’s founding treaty. Since Ukraine is not a nuclear power, without invocation of the security guarantee of NATO, it leaves itself vulnerable to geopolitical aggressors like Russia, in this instance. If Ukraine had its own nuclear weapons, then it would have made the cost of war mutual obliteration, therefore acting as a deterrent.
Note: I am ultimately for global nuclear disarmament, but this must be done very carefully and be synchronous with genuinely politically progressive parties seizing nationalist power the world over with rank and file self-organised workers’ councils.
See my other blog post below on graded and measured political transitions to lib-com society/societies:
From a participatory economics model in the vein of Albert and Hahnel’s writings thereon, we could explore technocratic lib-com ideas as advanced and synthesized by the late Jacque Fresco. See my blog post which covers his contribution to political thought called Resource Based Economy:
Also find a Fresco synthesis congruent with determinism’s equality principle:
An informative, incisive and candid appraisal of war is in the following quote from Smedley Butler, a former Major-General for the U.S. military, from his book War is a Racket (1935), on ‘the nature of war’:
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/115545.Smedley_D_Butler
This racketeering nature of warfare, as Smedley Butler surmised, may be at least partially applicable to the current conflict in Ukraine – certainly there is at least some profiteering and state capitalist imperialism. Without doubt, the vast economic inequality in global capitalism – including both liberal capitalism and state capitalism – lays the bedrock for and causes perpetual war.
There are many more revelatory quotes from Butler on the nature of warfare and its corruption that can be found at the above linked website, quoting much from his infamous book.
Whilst, we need to deconstruct war politics, we must treat veterans with respect, as they had the courage to put themselves into harm’s way, and often have horrific memories and/or physical and/or mental disabilities from experiencing the atrocities of war first-hand.
For my concluding remarks, and possibly my most pertinent statements for this blog entry, is a more foolproof targeted way of getting passed this conflict1: to support with funds, materials, political and defensive military aid, to assist in generating, edifying and mobilising the working class, working class rank and file organising, and uniting progressive factions and forces within Russia capable of effectively opposing Putin’s murderous and extralegal regime2 from within – to topple Putin’s corrupt criminal warmongering and geopolitical state aggressor oligarchy. You will not hear this most effective, targeted and holistic strategy from any of the elitist war-brokers of NATO, as they simply do not represent the working class – neither respectively nationally nor internationally. Instead of mass mobilisation of the working class as an antidote to imperialism, leaders of ‘the free world’ generally prefer geopolitical perpetual war3; I wish this was just a sick joke, but that is the hard, cold, unadulterated truth of the matter. How many more lives will be destroyed, if capitalism, and state capitalism, is allowed to continue running rampant?
Cheers, folks!
Please leave an engaging comment and/or point me to further relevant information concerning issues raised in this blog post and/or contact me if you’d like to co-write any socially relevant pieces via the blog’s contact portal you can find at:
Or via email at:
henrywilloughby@henrywilloughbyssocialjusticeblog.com
- Aside from the moral impetus of Russian soldiers choosing suicide over the killing of innocent Ukrainian children, women and men. ↩︎
- “Because it violates the UN Charter, and is more than a minor border incursion, Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine has been qualified by legal experts as a crime of aggression under Article 8bis(1) of the Rome Statute”. Wikipedia, ‘Legality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine’, last accessed 4 December 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#cite_note-:5-62 ↩︎
- Even so-called well-meaning elites, that is if at the level of their unconscious they are seeing working class, both within capitalism and in post-capitalism, power as unachievable, it is just totally inexcusable and irresponsible political apathy. There is already a comprehensive social philosophy, in which all people need to contribute to, in technologically reified knowledge, to tangibly bring about more humane progressive politics. No excuse, just humane and nuanced self-fulfilling prophecy, please! ↩︎
Comprehensive Consent Training
Comprehensive consent training for young teenagers is absolutely vital. Consent training, in this way, must be the absolute crux of any sex education at school. Young teenagers attending school are learning how to put condoms on bananas, and even asking them what kinds of sex acts they may prefer. I understand the need to teach safe recreational sex (i.e. with protection), but exposing them to kink is not appropriate, just as access to pornography should be blocked until a person is 18 years adult.
A core and key part of comprehensive consent training must be promoting the need for unequivocal verbal consent to each potential sex act people may engage in with each other. This capacity for unequivocal verbal consent is what separates sexual consent in humans from animals who must rely on kinesic and/or vocal sound utterances without language forms of consent alone. Humans are blessed with the virtue of language based consent which should be used considerately and comprehensively, not leaving any doubt as to mutual consent of all parties to sexual interaction to each subsequent sex act engaged in; this must be immediately proximate and prior time-wise to a given sexual activity, e.g. to ask “what would you like me to do next?” or “I would like to do ‘X’ [sex act giving details thereof], would that be okay with you?” or “should we keep going?” or “should I keep going?” are/can/should be a part of asking for consent, and with restraint if verbal consent is denied. An ongoing dialogue is necessary.
We must not see this precise and respectfully a lot more fool-proof verbal consenting prior to each sex act – that is when consent is given, to be a ‘kill-joy’.
Respecting each other’s decisions around consent and when it is not granted or withdrawn at any time, will go towards humans becoming more truly wise (aka real homo sapiens), in this integral realm and bedrock of sexual relations.
Precise and comprehensive consent training would be robust enough so as men who consume pornography understand the need for nuances of consent in real, non-virtual, sexual interactions with others gaining consent and employing restraint when consent is not granted through verbal means. It is ample now to unequivocally dispel the myth that just because a male or man consumes pornography, that it prevents them from gaining and maintaining consent and restraining from acting where it is not given or is retracted in sexual interaction(s). This is a non-sequitur if consent training is necessarily comprehensive at a young age (when beginning puberty).
Whilst many universities require a comprehensive consent compulsory module or modules for their students, is very commendable, this is far too late. And, what of the peoples not enrolled in university or enrolled in an university that does not have a consent module? Comprehensive consent training should be earlier, before teenagers may become sexually active with each other.
Whilst there are objective standards and thresholds of what constitutes sexual assault and rape, consent can be on a continuum: that is why the highest levels of consent must be mutually attained, maintained and negotiated verbally as above. This will save us a whole lot of heartache, and will allow us to be more respectfully enchanted in our sexual relations with one another. Compassion is the answer!
Henry Willoughby's Social Justice Blog 