It's worth seeing just about anything Paddy Chayevsky wrote because of the speeches and/or soliloquies.
The clip is from Network (1976), and it's been a favorite for me for a very long time.
"We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies. The world is a college of corporations inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business - the world is a business, Mr Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime..."
I like to say I'm a Capitalist because god is a Capitalist, and that I believe strongly in Regulation because god believes strongly in Regulation.
I think Capitalism is the closest analogy to the way the biosphere has evolved to operate.
As an organism, I have to take in enough calories to build up something of a surplus, so I'll have the energy necessary to make the effort it'll take to go out and get my next meal - income vs outflow; profit and loss etc.
But I also have onboard mechanisms that're there to regulate the functioning of my system. Blood sugar (eg) is a good thing, but my pancreas is there to regulate it so I get the benefits without it reaching levels that're harmful to me. Bunches of other mechanisms of regulation are built into my system as well. I have a hypothalamus to help regulate my body temperature; my brain stem does all kinds of nifty things like regulate my heart rate and my breathing and my eye-blinks etc etc etc. Regulation is what works to keep me in healthy balance with myself and the world around me.
So, to be a little clearer, I don't have a problem with Capitalism. I only have a problem with Capitalism when it's allowed to go crashing thru people's lives as it speeds toward the Logical Extreme (aka Unfettered Free-Market Capitalism) - which is where we get Feudalism and Slavery and Conquest and Authoritarian Rule and all of the really shitty ways of running things that America's supposed to be the exception to.
Always always always remember - a business is not a democracy.
The clip is from Network (1976), and it's been a favorite for me for a very long time.
"We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies. The world is a college of corporations inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business - the world is a business, Mr Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime..."
I like to say I'm a Capitalist because god is a Capitalist, and that I believe strongly in Regulation because god believes strongly in Regulation.
I think Capitalism is the closest analogy to the way the biosphere has evolved to operate.
As an organism, I have to take in enough calories to build up something of a surplus, so I'll have the energy necessary to make the effort it'll take to go out and get my next meal - income vs outflow; profit and loss etc.
But I also have onboard mechanisms that're there to regulate the functioning of my system. Blood sugar (eg) is a good thing, but my pancreas is there to regulate it so I get the benefits without it reaching levels that're harmful to me. Bunches of other mechanisms of regulation are built into my system as well. I have a hypothalamus to help regulate my body temperature; my brain stem does all kinds of nifty things like regulate my heart rate and my breathing and my eye-blinks etc etc etc. Regulation is what works to keep me in healthy balance with myself and the world around me.
So, to be a little clearer, I don't have a problem with Capitalism. I only have a problem with Capitalism when it's allowed to go crashing thru people's lives as it speeds toward the Logical Extreme (aka Unfettered Free-Market Capitalism) - which is where we get Feudalism and Slavery and Conquest and Authoritarian Rule and all of the really shitty ways of running things that America's supposed to be the exception to.
Always always always remember - a business is not a democracy.
No comments:
Post a Comment