ALB
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Actually, while other animals don't lack pain, they do lack "reason" in the sense of being able to think abstractly through symbols. Only humans can do this. That doesn't mean that we can treat other animals as we please. On the contrary, it means that we are the only species that can assume responsibility for other animals getting a better life..
Quote:In sum, it was St. Thomas Aquinas who allowed the guilt-free usage of animals.Isn't this putting the cart before the horse or, in Marxist terms, the superstructure before the base? In Mediaeval Europe animals were used as essential means of production and as means of consumption. Aquinas's views were an ideological reflection of this basic material fact. It wasn't because he taught this that animals were used for human ends but the other way round.
Just heard someone on the radio say that bitcoins were better understood as a "crypto asset" than as a "crypto currency", so I looked up "crypto asset". Clear explanation here:https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@cryptoassets/what-are-crypto-assets-and-how-do-they-workLike this articel, the person on the radio said bitcoins were more like gold than money, "digital gold" if you like which, like gold, people can use as store of value and speculate on its price going up (but it will go down as well of course).Made sense to me.
Vin wrote:troobele – arsole, moron, cretin, nob, imbecileThat won't work because he's a "knob", hardly a "nob".
From last weekend's i paper. Difficult but the answer is the Party case:
Quote:Worker left after a long time in progressive movement (4,5)Oh dear, John Oswald isn't going to like this title:http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/we-are-human-beings-not-animals.html
In her Notebook column in yesterdy's London Evening Standard Lo Dico said she had met a "crypto-currency idealost" who claomed that
Quote:had Karl Marx seen the power of computing he'd have seized on Bitcoin.I don't think so.Meanwhile there's an article on blockchains in this month's Socialist Standard also out yesterday:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2017/no-1360-december-2017/pathfinders-rattle-blockchains
The John O'Neill who will be one of the speakers is an ex-Party member whose writings show some evidence of having been influenced by passing through us:http://www.lifewithoutmoney.info/authors/john-oneill
But the opposite is not true, i.e a world without monarchies would not necessarily be a "just" world. Look at France which abolished it. Look at the USA which never had one or, rather, has an elected one since the US Constitution is a democratised version of the 18th century UK constitution with the Senate as an elected House of Lords and the President as an elected King (and Trump doing a good impression of George III). A "just" world would be a world without states and heads of state, whether hereditary or elected.
This is still the best analysis of Bitcoins:https://antinational.org/en/bitcoin-finally-fair-money/ A pontless attempt, and waste of energy and ingenuity, to recreate the anomynity of notes and coins. I'm sure we can think of a more socially useful way to use blockchains in socialism.
By the way, if there's anybody out there who has some time to devote to Party admin work there is one important post that needs to be filled — Standing Orders Committee. This is the committee that prepares the agenda for Conference and ADM. There is currently a vacancy. The work can be done electronically from home (and currently is). The printing and sending out of the agendas can be done by somebody else at Head Office.There is also a vacancy for Central Branch Secretary which can (and was) done from home. This involves keeping the branch membership list up-to-date, reminding them to pay voluntary contributions, and welcoming new members,
robbo203 wrote:It doesnt surely take that much for the committee to enlarge its brief to carry out a second survey using the data on the computer system and perhaps a third survey with regard to the companion parties.I am afraid it is not as simple as that. The data on the computer system was out of date and incomplete and had to be completed by trawling through emails from members to Head Office, application forms, and asking branch secretaries. There has been no email list for communicating with members individually.Nor can the committee change its brief just like that. It was set up in response to specific resolutions voted by Conference this year. The survey is only the first part of its brief. There have been surveys in the past but nothing concrete has emerged from them. This is why this committee's terms of reference include making specific proposals to amend the Rulebook.For the record, here's what its terms of reference are:
Quote:A. To consult the membership on the current and future organisational structure of the Party, in particular on how Party members and sympathisers can participate, including electronically, in setting priorities.B. To look at the implications, in terms of amendments to the rulebook, decision-making procedures and workload at Head Office, should the Party become a national membership organisation.C. To submit a report to the EC in time for it to be presented to 2018 Annual Conference.As you can see, the survey is only the first part of its work. The second part is equally important. Changes to the way the Party makes decisions, e.g. converting branches into "activity groups" or allowing any 5 members to propose motions to a general meeting of members, electronic voting, or whatever, will require a change to the Rules, which can only be done by a vote of the membership.
