3mo ago

The Benefits of World Hunger

The article is actually decently well written good-faith satire meant to address how poverty and hunger are inherent to capitalism as a system. The title was just too bold lol

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So he's not defending/promoting "world Hunger", just arguing that it's not a bug but a feature developed to have cheap labor, and that the people in power don't want to end it
- Sounds good at a glance, but when you look at the way he reaches that conclusion (that the threat of hunger is the only reason people are willing to work), and his solution (for a class of "intellectuals" like him to take charge) however, are just neoliberal swill..
  
  Maybe they should build a city in the ocean where these intellectuals have full control. Maybe experiment with some cool drugs.
  
  Would you kindly come join us?
  
  Sounds positively Rapturous
  
  Lmfao, I'd pay to watch them descend in to chaos as they insist on ranking each other by importance or whatever arbitrary measure of superiority they choose, because they simply can't function otherwise, until they all end up dead from refusing to "lower" themselves to cooperate with "inferiors".
  
  There’s an event coming up in November you’re really going to enjoy.
  
  If only.. But I suspect whatever happens in November, it isn't going to be pleasing at all (to me as an anarchist, anyway), especially because it isn't themselves they consume, like the hypothetical "intellectuals" on the desert island would, but the rest of us, and those most vulnerable first.
  
  I imagine the UN wouldn't let an author publish something that calls for revolution though lol
  
  Sure, but they shouldn't be publishing this garbage either.
  
  That would be the first time the UN actually did anything.
  
  Usually most sane people go "Hunger is used to extract labour from people so rich people can make money, so we should change this state of affairs" not "this is good and how we should continue, in an evil usually the preserve of 19th century British Imperial officials."
  
  How does the saying go? When your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail?
  The only tool he has is what capitalism gave him - the idea that people will only work if threatened with starvation, homelessness, or other punishment.
  The idea that the benefit of a community and society at large, and by direct extension - our own, could motivate people, or to be more precise, the idea that society would benefit everyone not just a "select" few, doesn't even come in to consideration.
  
  his solution (for a class of "intellectuals" like him to take charge) however, are just neoliberal swill
  This is such a common pitfall that even self-described communists fall into it as well. When you hear people talk about a "dictatorship of the proletariat," what they're describing tends to devolve into "a class of intellectuals needs to guide the working class to the correct decisions" when questioned about what a "dictatorship of the proletariat" actually entails. Often they'll try to justify it by saying it's only temporary, but we all know how that pans out (see the USSR). This is why I consider myself an anarchist rather than a communist and regularly critique marxism-leninism.
  
  If i recall correctly, this is basically the entire premise to Animal Farm. Great book.
- Isn't this what Anarchists and other Anti-capitalists have been saying for well over 100 years? That despite having the ability for abundance, we use scarcity to extract labour from people to make rich fuckers money?
  
  Lenin made the clearest case for it in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Financial and Industrial Capital is exported directly to the sources of raw materials and lower cost of living, which is then hyper-exploited for super-profits domestically.
  Even within Capitalist countries, starvation is kept dangerous because Capitalism requires a "reserve army of labor," as Marx put it. It's the idea of "if you weren't doing this job, someone would kill for it" that suppresses wages.

113 comments