>
>The capitalism vs. socialism discussion is very relevant to this list,
>as I explain below, and I'd like to pursue it further:
>
> > And for those who think socialism is a better way than capitalism, I
> >think you can now purchase an airline ticket to Cuba; one way.
>
>Socialism -- Cuban or Russian or Chinese style -- is not the only
>alternative to capitalism. There is a growing body of literature
>worldwide which represents a range of alternatives which does not
>subscribe to the Marxist-Leninist principles of Cuba, etc. For want of
>a better term, I'd call them the Green alternatives. They reject the
>highly monopolistic "free" market approach of capitalism as well as
>the centrally-planned "people's" dictatorship of socialism. You can't
>have missed these...
>
>The Green alternatives differ from the socialist one in several ways
>at least:
>- we prefer decentralized to centralized approaches, and consider the
>community as important a locus of human activity as the nation, if not
>more;
>- we recognize the spiritual as much as the material aspects of
>reality;
>- we don't look at nature simply as raw material for production but as
>our common ecological home with other living things.
>
>>From the Green viewpoint, socialism and capitalism are two social
>expressions of what might be called industrialism, which is focused on
>large-scale material production in pursuit of progress.
>
>This discussion is very relevant to ecological agriculture, because
>industrialism approaches agriculture in the same way it approaches the
>manufacturing industries. In doing so, it misses the core difference
>between industry and agriculture.
>
>Industry involves transforming raw materials into finished goods
>through the application of human labor (often enhanced by machines).
>Industry is really about dead matter. If the raw material is alive, it
>often has to be killed before it becomes suitable for the industrial
>process. Typical operations include: cutting, sawing, melting,
>punching, etc.
>
>Agriculture is about living matter, which goes through its own process
>of living growth independent of human intervention. The farmer's role,
>unlike that of the worker, is simply to enhance, take care, support,
>etc. a living process. Industrial agriculture applies to living
>processes methods which are suitable for dead matter and therefore
>runs into all kinds of problems. This industrialist approach to
>agriculture is a common feature of both capitalism and socialism.
>Genetic engineering is a further development of this industrialist
>approach to agriculture.
>
>As for Cuba and the U.S.A.: it is true that more Cubans want to go to
>the US than vice versa. But the comparison is somewhat unfair because
>Cuba has been a target of a cruel economic embargo for decades and can
>only rely on its own limited resources. The embargo, coupled with the
>mistakes of the Cuban socialist regime (like relying on the former
>USSR and on sugar exports instead of building a self-sufficient
>economy), puts the Cuban people through a lot of hardships which many
>understandably want to escape from. The U.S., on the other hand,
>benefits from American control over huge resources outside their own
>borders. Through their unsustainable use of these resources, many
>Americans artificially, though temporarily, enjoy a better life than
>others. If Americans had to rely purely on their own resources as much
>as the Cubans do, the American smugness about their superior standard
>of living might dissipate quickly.
>
>In fact, the decades of U.S. blockade against Cuba has forced the
>Castro regime to adopt "Greenish" policies in some areas. It would be
>interesting how things would turn out if a socialist country like Cuba
>abandons socialism but transforms itself into a Green society rather
>than back to capitalism.
>
>Finally, on democracy and the "free" market: at the core of today's
>global capitalism are the corporations, many of which are economically
>larger than most of the world's nations. Internally, a corporation is
>as top-down and dictatorial as you can imagine. Internally too, the
>corporation is a centrally-planned economy, not a free market. There
>are more similarities between a corporation and a one-party State than
>initially meets the eye.
>
>Regards to all,
>
>Roberto Verzola
>Philippine Greens
>
>
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