Stephen Lewis - Closing Remarks, AIDS/06
The content was so tragic and the eloquent oratory so impassioned that he brought tears to my eyes.
posted by That which is called Darren at 3:40 PM
Friday, August 18, 2006
The Reality Check
Canada's weekly podcast that explores a wide range of controversies and curiosities using science and critical thinking.
Follow Me on Twitter
Tweets by @dbcmckeeFollow Me On Facebook
Help Me Reduce Suffering
Donate to the Against Malaria Foundation using this link, and I will match your contribution up to a total of $25,000 CAD by the end of 2013, effectively doubling your donation.
2 Comments:
"...In truth, our leaders and propagandists know very well that liberal capitalism is an inegalitarian regime, unjust, and unacceptable for the vast majority of humanity. And they know too that our "democracy" is an illusion: Where is the power of the people? Where is the political power for third world peasants, the European working class, the poor everywhere? We live in a contradiction: a brutal state of affairs, profoundly inegalitarian–where all existence is evaluated in terms of money alone–is presented to us as ideal. To justify their conservatism, the partisans of the established order cannot really call it ideal or wonderful. So instead, they have decided to say that all the rest is horrible. Sure, they say, we may not live in a condition of perfect Goodness. But we're lucky that we don't live in a condition of Evil. Our democracy is not perfect. But it's better than the bloody dictatorships. Capitalism is unjust. But it's not criminal like Stalinism. We let millions of Africans die of AIDS, but we don't make racist nationalist declarations like Milosevic. We kill Iraqis with our airplanes, but we don't cut their throats with machetes like they do in Rwanda, etc...."Alain Badiou
Why does democracy get protected in scare quotes and capitalism get scapegoated when he dissects American politics in search of its evils? Didn't people vote for Bush? Don't electorates prefer politicians who bring home the pork? It seems to me the problem is we are letting people decide for themselves. We should just give Alain Badiou all the money and all the power so he can distribute it fairly.
The problem he is pointing to is self-interest and that is not an affliction of capitalism. That is an inherent part of human nature.
Post a Comment
<< Home