robbo203
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“How China Forgot Karl Marx
The Chinese Economy Runs on Labor Exploitation”https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/how-china-forgot-karl-marx
Wez
Yes, I think that’s a fair point you make about Hitler (the same could be said of Trump in the current situation).
I guess the important thing is not to deny that particular individuals can make a particular impact on the course of history, but rather to focus on the social context that allows them to do so. It is in this sense that “great men” are a product of the times they live in.
It is when you separate the individual from the social context that you succumb to the basic error of the Great Man theory, or what Plekhanov called an “optical illusion”. This is the belief that these individuals were almost, as it were, parachuted into society and that the accomplishments associated with them are primarily (or even entirely) a manifestation or product of their own personal qualities.
I’ve always had a liking for Plekhanov´s great essay
https://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/1898/xx/individual.html
I know we should have no truck with the Great Man theory of history, but this piece offers some fascinating insights into the Man-child (spoilt brat) that is Mr D Trump
Without the slightest degree of self awareness this is what that feckless Orange Blob said: ““I’m not worried about it,” the US president said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.”. Indeed, Mr President….now tell us who in the world possesses such weapons, eh???
This bit in the article ZJW linked to caught my eye:
By contrast, the work of Neurath is explicit in its criticism of a technocratic politics. Thus he opposed ‘what is called the ‘‘technocratic’’ movement’ which assumes there exists ‘one best solution with its ‘‘optimum happiness’’, with its ‘‘optimum population’’, with its ‘‘optimum health’’, with its ‘‘optimum working
week’’, with its ‘‘optimum productivity’’ or something else of this kind’ and
which asks ‘for a particular authority which should be exercised by technicians
and other experts in selecting ‘‘big plans’’ ’ (1942 [1973, 426–7]). The basis for Neurath’s scepticism about the technocratic movement can also be found in both of the key papers in Neurath’s engagement with the Frankfurt school, in
‘Inventory’ and in his unpublished reply to Horkheimer. In the first Neurath
develops a theme that was central to his contributions to the socialist calculation
debate, the rejection of any single measure, monetary or non-monetary, through
which one could arrive at a technically optimal social outcome.44 No such single
measure could adequately capture the multidimensional nature of welfare
concepts, such as standard of living: ‘The attempts to characterize the standard of
living are like those which try to characterize the ‘‘state of health’’. Both are multidimensional structures’I’m currently debating the question of democracy with some people on FB who are clearly sympathetic towards the ideals of technocracy (the Technocracy movement, which reached its peak in the 1930s, is still around, apparently, but contributed to the rise of other bodies like the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist movement). For such people, democracy is clearly an anathema, and the assumption seems to be that for any given problem, there is one universally agreeable solution that can best be left to the technocrats to arrive at, thus rendering democratic discourse redundant.
This, of course, presupposes a perfect world in which there are no conflicting views or interests to concern ourselves with – something that strikes me as completely implausible even in a socialist society (despite the elimination of class conflict and national rivalries).
There are still going to be issues to contend with, likely to generate disagreement (“should we build a hydroelectric dam and what is to become of the people living in the valley that will be flooded”, for example). Democratic decision-making provides the framework most conducive to conflict resolution and compromise. Technocratic top-down decision-making, though quicker, is likely to lead to the exact opposite outcome
Interesting post from PJ again. Since some people reading this might not be on FB I will copy and paste:
For a very long time now, I have described how one of the worst symptom tumors of modern life is Wall St. speculation, which is an umbrella term that embraces everything from stocks to bitcoin/cryptocurrencies, futures, and endless derivatives.
If the toxic nature of these completely unnecessary, meaningless, wasteful, and DEEPLY socially damaging elements were not bad enough, as a side effect of the sickness of market economics, a.k.a. capitalism:
Meet the Polymarket.
It’s a prediction market platform where people bet on the outcomes of real-world events—politics, economics, global crises, and more—based on what they think will happen.
Kinda might seem like an innovative way to aggregate public knowledge, as some argue… but no.
Step back, and it becomes a system that turns reality itself into a speculative asset. Human events—often serious, complex, and consequential—get reduced to binary wagers.
Yes. It’s just about as grotesque as it can get.
The root idea traces back to the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when some “genius” proposed that there might be a kind of emergent intelligence in collective betting behavior. The theory was that if people could gamble on things like possible terrorist attacks or geopolitical instability, the market might actually predict them.
This is the same mythology that underpins Wall Street: that markets are somehow intelligent, that speculation produces truth, and that the aggregation of self-interest leads to meaningful insight. But what it actually produces is an abstraction layer where human suffering, instability, and even death can be reframed as $opportunities.
The only possible “positive” in this structure is if someone were using it to track insider knowledge—if bets reflected real, privileged information about events before they occurred. But even that collapses under scrutiny. If that were widely understood, no one with real knowledge would risk exposure just to participate. The system would undermine itself.
So what remains?
A feedback loop of detached, indifferent speculation. A culture where everything—war, elections, disasters—can be converted into a position to take. It doesn’t matter if the outcome is good or bad. The only thing that matters is whether you were right—and whether you made money.
This is the deeper issue. Gambling platforms like this, and financial markets more broadly, don’t evaluate reality based on human well-being or long-term progress. They operate on a completely different metric: selfish, narcissistic profitability. And once that becomes the dominant lens, everything else is secondary.
The incentive structure oriented around this kind of thinking is beyond psychopathic
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1491426675680919&set=a.255266979296901
This is quite an interesting take on the war by Craig Murray
The attack on Iran was always planned by Trump. He was not “bounced into it” by Israel. It had been in gestation for months. That fact had been held within a very tight circle to avoid both political opposition and institutional opposition from the US military and intelligence community.
…
Trump’s naval blockade of Venezuela’s oil has secured a US monopoly of its sale and distribution. As with Iraq, only US-approved contractors can buy the oil and payments are made to a Trump-controlled account in Qatar, from which revenue is given to the Venezuelan government entirely at Trump’s discretion.This audacious imperialist grab of the world’s largest oil reserve further insulated the USA against the effects of the forthcoming closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Again, the narrative is being spun that Trump did not foresee the closure of the Strait by Iran. That is plainly a nonsense – every commentary on a potential Iran war for half a century has focused on the Strait of Hormuz. The only possible explanation is that Trump does not mind the closure.
…
Trump’s thrashing about to articulate objectives for the war in Iran is performative, a blind to cover his true and steadfast objective – simply the annihilation of Iran as a functioning state, the infliction of the maximum amount of death and infrastructural damage, the reduction of Iran to the condition of Libya.
…
Destruction of Iran on the scale envisaged will take years of hard pounding. Again, it is planned – you don’t ask Congress for an instalment of $200 billion for a war you plan to wrap up in a month. Again, Trump’s taunts about having already won, objectives being achieved and about possibly finishing soon, are all just smoke and mirrors. The scale and horror of what is planned for Iran has to be obfuscated to limit a public revulsion that would be echoed in parts of the state apparatus.Netanyahu yesterday revealed an interesting part of the endgame – construction of an oil pipeline that brings Iran’s oil out to be shipped from a Mediterranean terminal in Israel. That is a breathtakingly audacious plan, but absolutely aligns with Netanyahu’s and Trump’s actions.
Are we still saying this is unlikely (both Iran and Ukraine cases) to become a third world war?
I suppose it depends on what you mean by a world war. The world has always been at war ever since the last “war to end all wars”. At the moment there are roughly 30–35 active wars and over 50 additional armed conflicts/insurgencies
I think a tighter definition of a world war would be an open, direct and declared war between the major powers or superpowers – notably, the US on the one hand, as the world´s powerful military and Russia/China and would involve dragging in their respective allies.
I don’t think a world war in this sense is imminent. Probably, the Ukraine war will end quite soon when Russia has taken the whole of Donbas (there is still a bit left to do) and possibly also Odesa. Ironically, the Middle East conflict might accelerate this by diminishing military support for Ukraine
There is also China, but the latest US intelligence reports suggest China is not really interested in a military invasion of Taiwan. Even if that happened, I doubt if the US would step in to support Taiwan. Nor after what has just happened in Iran
You have to chuckle at the comments below. We live in a madhouse that is called modern global capitalism, and the lunatics have taken over the asylum….
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“So let me get this shit sandwich straight. Donald Trump, the 79 year old senile real estate failson who said he’d end wars and lower fuel prices, just approved an Israeli airstrike on the largest natural gas field on planet Earth. Iran retaliated by blowing up Qatar’s main LNG hub. And now Trump’s on Truth Social at 10pm pretending he knew nothing about it. Writing in the third person like a deranged king dictating a scroll to his court scribe while the castle burns behind him.
“The United States knew nothing about this particular attack.”
Mate. Axios reported, with confirmation from a US Defence official, that the strike was coordinated with and approved by the Trump administration. Netanyahu and Trump discussed it beforehand. The Israeli PM’s office and the White House planned it together. Hours earlier, Trump himself was doing a fucking victory lap on the same platform, posting that Iran was “the NUMBER ONE STATE SPONSOR OF TERROR” and “we are rapidly putting them out of business.” That’s a bloke standing over the body with the knife still in his hand going “never met the guy!”
But then Iran hit Qatar. Missiles into Ras Laffan Industrial City. Extensive damage. Fires. The largest LNG processing hub on earth, and it’s got holes in it now because Donald Trump thought he was playing Command and Conquer with real countries. And suddenly, the guy who greenlighted the whole operation doesn’t know anything about anything. He’s got the memory of a goldfish with a head injury. Except he doesn’t. He remembers exactly what happened. He just can’t admit it. Because like all toxic fucking malignant narcissists, now he’s even trying to throw Israel under the bus because he’s realising he has completely, catastrophically, cataclysmically fucked up. Bigly.
Read the language. “Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out.” Violently lashed out. He’s describing a coordinated military strike that he personally approved from the White House like it’s a toddler having a meltdown in the cereal aisle. This is the man who was doing fist pumps when the bombs dropped, now rewriting history in real time because Qatar, the country hosting America’s biggest military base in the entire Middle East, is on the phone screaming what the fuck. Qatari officials were ringing Steve Witkoff and CENTCOM commanders demanding answers before the fires were even out. And Trump’s response? Classic. Wasn’t me, Israel went rogue, but don’t worry Qatar, daddy’s here now, I’ll protect you. From the consequences of the thing I told them to do.
That’s not diplomacy. That’s a drunk driver offering to call you an ambulance after he’s run you over.
And the threat. Oh, the threat. He’s threatening to “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field.” The entirety. Of a gas field that holds 8% of the world’s proven natural gas reserves. That’s shared with Qatar. The country he’s pretending to protect. He’s threatening to destroy Qatar’s own shared gas field to defend Qatar. That’s like saying “don’t worry love, if he touches your car again I’ll blow up the whole street. Including your house. You’re welcome.”
The man has the strategic intelligence of a fucking house fire.
Now let’s talk about what this genius has actually done to every single person reading this post. Because while Trump’s playing tough guy on his little safe space social media platform, the global economy is bleeding out on the floor.
Brent crude hit $110 a barrel yesterday. It was $70 three weeks ago. That’s an 80% surge in 19 days. Dubai crude, the benchmark for Asia, hit an all time record of $153.25 a barrel. That’s higher than the 2008 peak that preceded the Global Financial Crisis. The Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20% of the world’s oil and gas traffic, is effectively closed. Middle Eastern crude exports to Asia have collapsed 32% in 3 weeks. The IEA released 400 million barrels from emergency reserves, the largest release in the agency’s 50 year history, and it’s done precisely fuck all. Wood Mackenzie is now saying $200 a barrel is “not outside the realms of possibility.” Two hundred dollars. A barrel. Because a 79 year old man in a diaper and a red hat thought bombing Iran would make him look tough.
And those refineries and gas facilities that just got blown up in Qatar and Iran? They don’t get fixed with a phone call and a strongly worded Truth Social post written at the reading level of a year 4 book report. We’re talking months to years of repair work on some of the most complex industrial infrastructure ever built. Specialised components. Global supply chains for parts that don’t exist on shelves. Engineering teams that have to work in active conflict zones. This isn’t a tap you turn back on. This is long term, structural damage to global energy supply. And every single day those facilities stay offline, the price of everything you buy goes up.
Here’s the history lesson. Strap in. Every major oil price shock in modern history has been followed by a global recession. Every. Single. One. The 1973 OPEC embargo. Recession. The 1979 Iranian revolution. Recession. The 1990 Gulf War spike. Recession. The 2008 oil surge that preceded the GFC. Recession. You want to know what all of those had in common? None of them involved the simultaneous destruction of production infrastructure, a closed Strait of Hormuz, and a US president actively making it worse by the hour. This one has all 3. This is the oil crisis All Stars. The greatest hits album nobody asked for. And Trump’s in the producer’s chair wearing headphones going “this is tremendous, really fantastic sound.”
Because crude oil isn’t just petrol. It’s the bloodstream of modern civilisation. Plastics. Fertiliser. Pharmaceuticals. Synthetic fabrics. Food packaging. Freight costs. Aviation fuel. Asphalt. Medical equipment. When crude goes up, everything goes up. Your bread. Your milk. Your kid’s school shoes. The cost of getting stock onto shelves. The cost of flying anywhere. The cost of building anything, manufacturing anything, transporting anything. It’s the base layer of the entire global economy and Donald Trump just took a sledgehammer to it because he thought a war with Iran would distract everyone from the Epstein files and the fact that his tariff regime was already crashing markets before a single bomb dropped.
And here’s the part that should make you want to flip a table. He signed off like it was a body corporate email about the bins. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.” This stupid, dangerous, delusional old man just threatened to commit what would constitute a war crime under international law, the deliberate destruction of civilian energy infrastructure on a civilisational scale, and he closed it out with the energy of a passive aggressive note sellotaped to the office fridge about someone stealing his yoghurt.
77 million people voted for this colostomy bag. Twice. The guy who was going to lower your fuel prices just created the conditions for the worst energy crisis since the 1970s. The guy who was going to end wars just started one that’s killed thousands, shut down a fifth of global oil transit, bl@wn up allied infrastructure, and is dragging the entire world economy toward a recession that will make 2008 look like a slow Tuesday. The guy who was going to make America great again can’t even keep Qatar’s gas terminals in one piece.
But sure, Donald. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
You senile, dangerous, narcissistic fuck.https://www.facebook.com/groups/340311026577406/?multi_permalinks=2063978770877281
Capitalism overrules Trump and his nationalist agenda
“The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.”
It is good to see John O Neill is an advocate of calculation in kind. This is the answer to the economic calculation argument, not labour time accounting. A single universal unit of accounting, like labour time values or money, is only required for the purpose of commensurability (and thus exchange) and is not required in a non-exchange system of production which is what socialism will be
It doesn’t look as if the various Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait et al , despite being targeted by Iran, are going to join in strikes against Iran as the American regime had intended. This particular piece seems to capture the mood of these Arab states.
https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/03/09/2140733.html
You have to wonder if Trump has seriously miscalculated. Iran is not Iraq in 2003. Apart from being much larger and more populous, the terrain is much more hostile to a ground invasion. Even though it is lacking in air defences, it seems to have no shortage of missiles and drones. It is also significant that military decision-making has become much more decentralised in Iran,
Despite its overwhelming military superiority, it is increasingly looking like the American regime is in for a severe bruising, and global capitalism is going to suffer the knock-on consequences of this war for some time. Some oil and gas production has already been halted, and it will take a while for this to be restarted even if the war were to end tomorrow
Interesting, if flawed, article I came across on the potential of AI. Of course, the Chinese ruling class has no intention of moving beyond capitalism, whatever the author may think
The CCP affirms the “decisive role of the market in resource allocation” because the market has been proven more effective than any other ways of resource allocation in the past. Even so, it is possible for AI to come up with a more superior way of resource allocation than the market.
While the market will still be a part of economic life, it will consequently abdicate, so to speak. It will no longer sit on the throne playing the “decisive role”. When that happens, Western neoclassical economics and the ideology of liberalism that comes with it will depreciate…
https://www.thinkchina.sg/politics/utopian-post-capitalist-world-we-can-create-ai
