/lit/ - Literature

Personally I've always felt a change in the air. I do think the world is about to change, but as for what direction and what will happen I don't think anybody can predict or know for sure. We can only be the players in it an hope for the best.

The death of printed literature, only skimming will be allowed in schools, all people will have built in forums in their foreheads

>>4805813
We had a radical transition. It was the judeo-masonic revolt of 1789 otherwise know as the French Revolution. Woodstock marked the funeral pyre of western civilization.
We are living in the end of times, there is a cultural revolution every 10 years.

>Just what we need – another economist with ZERO real work experience. The latest economist destined to destroy the world in the same manner as Karl Marx is Thomas Piketty and his new book Capital in the Twenty-First Century that is destined to perhaps kill more people than Marx ever did.

Oh my I have to read this

Oh OP is that like a radical left bro or is this just another "let's make capitalism REALLY work this time" type of dude

>>4806039
>>4806039
It's a 'there is one motherfucking huge divide in societies spoils and it is affecting the democratic process' type of argument

>>4806039
The latter

Complains about inequality and then suggests a global wealth tax to solve it.

>>4806039
His own solutions are pretty much a more pronounced version of northern european economies with the institution of a global wealth tax rather than a hodgepodge of national level property (and whatever else) taxes.

His solution is a non-starter and the book is more of a return to situating economics in the political-social realm rather than relegating it to some elevated, abstract realm of empiricism and hard science.

He also pretty much fundamentally disagrees with most mainstream economists on the principle of convergence (less inequality between states, classes), saying that the convergence seen in the post-war era was most likely a historical fluke that is now giving way to capitalism as it truly is (prone to huge gaps in income and wealth).

His analysis is nothing new. That mainstream media outlets and publications are publicizing the hell out of what amounts to a pretty good critique of capitalism is noteworthy. A 600 page tome on wealth inequality is sold out on amazon. That's a pretty big deal and I think indicative of a shift in the discourse.

>>4806039
Capitalism does work. People are just too pigheaded to believe that not every system has to be fair or equal.

>>4806327
I think it's kind of weird how the rhetoric of capitalism has changed from "better life, prosperity, check Cuba dude" to something like "shit isn't fair, deal with it"

The west is rotting rapidly into the slave-based imperialistic hedonism of the times of old.

Middle class is getting its ass heeled.

Millenials (and their boomer shitheads) are ont he whole extremely hedonistic and self-serving--who are contributing to the lowering of IQs.

The Chinese however have never been doing better. Japanese are in decline.

Anyway, attention spans are decreasing and corruption increasing.

Music, film, and art are quite possibly at the lowest they have ever been.

Pornography, though dispelling a lot of sexual anxiety, is causing a lot of damage.

Lax and permissive parentage is grooming prostitutes and beggars.

Perhaps nothing is changing at all and this is how it always has been.

Well fuck eh?

>>4806416
>Music, film, and art are quite possibly at the lowest they have ever been.
oh no

>>4806416
The West has simply aged. This is what happens to all cultures after about 1000 years. History is a pendulum that swings in 2 directions: birth and death. We're heading towards death, but it will be followed by a rebirth (alpha centauri if we're lucky)

>>4806400
It's grasping for straws it can't even justify itself to the basic human instincts of fairness and justice anymore.

the world is exploding at every instant. every letter a murder, every word a genocide.

the only movement is from death to death-transfigured :^)

>>4806416
wow what an interesting and original argument it's not like people have been saying this exact same shit for literally ~250 years

I think that our progress, due mostly to the technological slope we're on, is accelerating at such a rate that we don't have any more explosive big events, or at least haven't had one in quite some time.

I'm talking something comparable to the post WWII postmodern movement big, or turn of the 20th century. It's more spread out and faster, and we don't have any "great" wars or events to tie this progress to

>>4806416
>The west is rotting rapidly into the slave-based imperialistic hedonism of the times of old.

Not really, it seems more to me we are all nobility now because relative abundance and welfare concentrated in the west

>Middle class is getting its ass heeled.

Well the rich is better than ever before so someone is doing better so the sum is still 0.

>Millenials (and their boomer shitheads) are ont he whole extremely hedonistic and self-serving--who are contributing to the lowering of IQs.

Non-sequitur and basically every living human being.


>The Chinese however have never been doing better. Japanese are in decline.

China's bluffing, japan has always been shit.

>Anyway, attention spans are decreasing and corruption increasing.

Ability to multitask is increasing. Hard work is a thing of the past anyways.

>Music, film, and art are quite possibly at the lowest they have ever been.

That's a matter of taste.

>Pornography, though dispelling a lot of sexual anxiety, is causing a lot of damage.

Elaborate?

>Lax and permissive parentage is grooming prostitutes and beggars.

Non-sequitur, I actually think there's a correlation between abusive and negligent parenting and prostitution and homelessness.

>Perhaps nothing is changing at all and this is how it always has been.

Probably but not for the reasons you've stated.

>>4806515
I guess what I mean to say is there is no slowdown so there can't be any explosion to off set it. It's the norm now

>>4806490
>muh Spengler

I really am starting to come around to Marx's entire emphasis on the base economic structure's important and determination of all else.

Conflict in the first half of the 20th century was a conflict of industry, of mass mobilization of factory workers along with intense agricultural production. Wars were basically determined by the nature of the international economy.

The past 25 years is the age of IT economics structured warfare. High skilled, flexible agents working in niche markets that can function in disparate parts of the world. A growing amount of conflict between great nations is entirely information technology based.

I'm mostly worried about the way IT has permeated our identities though. Lack of economic and employment stability has created a generation of directionless twentysomethings. We regress into fractured historical pastiche rather than proceed towards some teleological end. Our sense of selves have been completely fractured, defined by whatever different economic niches we engage in.

Advanced IT economies are schizophrenic societies. I don't know how people manage to keep sane for the most part.

Well assuming high energy society can endure in some form (and I'm increasingly hopeful that it can), I have to say I sympathize with the >>4806490 position, but not in the same way. History DOES move on a pendulum, and that pendulum is swinging.

But not between birth and death, or not between birth and death as such. Rather, I believe history swings between periods of great certainty and periods of great uncertainty. For example, the Roman Empire provided great certainty for almost a half-millennium in Europe. This was followed by a swing towards deep uncertainty as the empire in the west dissipated. And then again, there was a period of uncertainty for another half-millennium, at least, when Christendom was the order of the day in Europe.

This 'certainty and uncertainty' is not merely about political institutions. It is reflected in artwork, philosophy, social structures, and even graffiti.

We seem to be leaving a period of certainty now and entering a period of uncertainty.

>>4806591
*period of CERTAINTY for another half-millennium, rather

>>4806416
I 100% agree with this post and i'm only 9

that was a joke please don't ban me creative license and such

>>4805905
>judeo-masonic
oh boy there we ggo

>>4806504
~250 years? Try ~2500000 years, when the invention of language made it possible to use the word "degenerate".

>>4806504
250 years? That shit has been repeated as long as western civilization has existed, dude.

I guess you can say this trend did in fact

...

start with the greeks

>>4805813
The East will rise, the West will fall

The world may return to how it once was before during the Dark ages


The two worlds are already differenciating daily

>>4806416
Almost everything this guys has stated is Western orientated

Hell, even Eastern Feminism in India and Saudis Arabia for example are improving the countries and not resulting in inept arguments on social class

>Yfw you look at China

>>4806416
Every generation says the same thing, that everything is going south during their time, and that everything was better during the years before their time, then they grow old and everything about the new generation is shit and then theirs was the best. Maybe things are really getting worse, or we are just not really welcoming to the changes in our culture.

Never heard that opinion on pornography, what you mean it causes damage?

>>4806519
>Well the rich is better than ever before so someone is doing better so the sum is still 0.

Wait. So, if one person gets everything and everyone else gets nothing, is the sum still 0? The average income or wealth and quality of life remain the same even if only one person has food? What a lovely way to see things! Fair and balanced.

>>4806852
It hasn't got worse or better it has just allocated itself differently. Why do the middle class not deserve to starve but the poor do?

>>4806874
Right, that's what I'm saying. If there is the same amount of (food, money, oil, whatever) in the world and it is all held by one person, then the average amount of food per person is the same. Which is fine. Let the one person eat. Why does anyone not deserve to starve? Why shouldn't everyone except the one guy just fuck off and die? It's just a different allocation.

>>4806874
>>4806899

I have a buddy finishing up his economics degree at a top tier university. We got on the subject of this book and capitalism in general. This guy is by no means a communist but he pretty much agreed that a universal basic income would be both feasible and economically sound.

Economics has sadly been clouded by ideology on both sides of the spectrum and that means a lot of economically sound and egalitarian, progressive policies get drowned in a sea of "marxism/libertarian/anarchism/liberal/socialism".

>>4806679
>Dark ages


only retards believe in memehistory

>>4806972
Medieval Era then you revolting plebian

>>4806929
That's a function of class society, not just some evil ideology appearing clouding the truth. Economics as a discipline was created to cut out political economy and ignore the Marxist challenge to capitalism by sidestepping the question of power.

Picked it up and been flicking through it since Das Kapital is the tome that redpilled me and dominated my political thought for the past decade.

>‘Like his predecessors, Marx totally neglected the possibility of durable technological progress and steadily increasing productivity, which is a force that can to some extent serve as counterweight to the process of accumulation and concentration of private capital.’

Well, into the trash it fucking goes!

What the fuck, WHAT THE FUCK!?

Do any of these mainstream critiques of Marx ever FUCKING READ DAS KAPITAL?!?!?!
How is this nonsense getting good reviews and how are people saying this is "demolishing Marx"? This is just fucking absurd.

>>4805813
>watered down marxism for mass consumption

late capitalism at its finest

>>4808867
Except Capital in the 21st century DEBUNKS Marx by totally using the magic of handwave over his capital accumulation theory.

It's literally Keynes 2: Electric Boogaloo

>>4808833
>redpilled
I guess you're either being ironic, or you're a state capitalist

>>4808908
I'm just using 4chan lingo.

I'm not really anything really. I sympathize with left-libertarianism, but I haven't seen any left-libertarians really explain a pragmatic way to transition society into socialism, so I find Marxist thought much more pragmatic.

>>4806400
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI6a7WySFsU

>>4808910
Marx didn't write much on economic transition to socialism.

>>4808921
First Internationale.

>>4808938
It didn't involve any in depth theory for economic transition afaik, which makes sense since Marxism is a science. Without empirical testing and support, it would just be hypothesizing.

>>4808949
What I mean by I think Marxist thought is much more pragmatic, I think Marx's theory of state control to be a much more pragmatic idea of how Socialism will be implemented, rather than the more decentralized way of the Bakuninists/Kropotkinists.

If you can provide a pragmatic way of explaining how Socialism will come into being, without some sort of state based reorganization of society, I would really love to hear it, every time I ask Anarchists they just call me a totalitarian Leninist.

>>4808982
Marx didn't advocate a wage system to my knowledge. Central planning, perhaps, but not with a priori certainty.

I think there should be a state, but pretty much everything should be self-managed aside from stuff like healthcare, and that self-management can be brought about by the state. I am against central planning, but I open to trying Luxemburgism, just not Leninism. Regardless,I totally oppose a wage system.

White kids who are in college now for arts and CS commit suicide at 30 as the final thing on their checklist of things to do before they die. The Minecraft Party is then established as a bastion for LGBT rights, atheism, and weed legalization but is quickly beaten out by some obnoxious Greek-named movement consisting of people who have 6 months work experience and played sports in school.

A new generation of art pops up where everything has to have a clear message or great technical skill or else it is disregarded and mocked.

China and Russia soon decide that America is too far gone and wipe it off the face of the Earth. EU is in turmoil with immigrants and becomes the new America thanks to absorption of its culture. Entire EU is soon annexed. Mudslimes play in their own dirt country and blacks are imported as novelty in China and Russia.

Then God sends a messenger and who knows what happens next.

>>4806679
>the east will rise
lel - call us when you have a culture with an orientational mode of infinity

bump

bunp

That book is so ridiculous, it jumps to conclusions without proper justification constantly.

Its well researched, but there are fatal flaws in much of the analysis combined with invalid assumptions that form the foundation for many of the arguments and conclusions.

What is the cause of R being greater than g? He posits that, "that's just what economic history shows", and so we need to do what he wants.

Nevermind the fact that equality is a false god in and of itself.

>>4806416
We're a society of medicated patients. No one is allowed to fix cut the cancer out and recommend a healthy life style.

Don't dare accuse society of being awful, its this way because of something, but we don't know, so we're going to treat you with this stuff, but we don't know what it will really do to you, although we do know it helps some people, but harms others.

There are no longer problem solvers, but problem creators, and the problem creators..they are giving you the fix you need to go on, staving you of your life for their greed. I'm a victim of it as well, addiction to games, porn, sex, love. This world is bent of corrupting people so that we can normalize corruption

Read Evola OP, you will understand.

>>4806787
They were talking about now you damned fool. The end is nigh. Just look at the last major world conflict. It was horrendous, look at the weapons we build and posses now.. You can starve a nations electricity, water supply, communications, and all with the stroke of a few keys.

We've yet terrorism on infrastructure and when it hits, God help us all.

>>4808833
>Do any of these mainstream critiques of Marx ever FUCKING READ DAS KAPITAL?!?!?!

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/30/was-marx-right

Prepare for rage.
Make a "debate" on if Marx was right.
Ask no Marxists to participate.

This "debate" was ripped to shreds by Marxist economists seriously within like the day it was posted.

MSM just can't admit that Marx was pretty much right for the most part, so they have to skirt around with "Marx was wrong about many things, but...."

Marx was wrong about many things? What? give real analysis.

>>4808982

Hi. I'm a Left-Com, but also think the answer to your question lies in Nihilist Communism (google the manifesto - by Monsieur Dupont.)

Basically it seems that successful movements toward revolution or toward socialism only ever occur during times of economic collapse and revolution - "consciousness" is not something that can be taught, but rather is an outgrowth of material desperation. I mean, it kind of kills agency, but it's the best reasoning I've found so far, and it explains the failures of decades of pro-revolutionary movements.

>>4809480
>Read Evola OP
>read evola
>evola
why would anyone want to do that

I don't know about olden days, because I wasn't there, but I have grandparents who tell me very innocent stories and point fretfully at things nowadays asking "Are you happy? Does it not make you sad?" and so on. Of course it's the news they're pointing at for the most part. Their lives weren't so filled with death and destruction as ours are, it was all just a big green pasture for them. All the same, though, I doubt they escape the darkness so well but that perhaps they were just allowed a quieter delusion. We're living in the apocalypse, by most accounts.
As regards change, well, there's communism and that's about it. We've certainly refined madness these days, I think. Take your millionaire soccer players, for example, and we sing "capitalist innovation" to the heavens, but it's all just blatant extravagance. Porn? Where to even start? The surrealist is a crippled human being, he has no justification for anything. How can a man who spends his days wanking to the bodies of others be any sort of revolutionary? There's always bullshit behind it, he's just another murderer, selfish beast like the rest of us, and so on, and so on. Did any of you catch that thing where that Wu-Tang member cut his dick off and tried to commit suicide lately? He felt "blessed" afterwards according to his Facebook. And it's the same reason Heath Ledger committed suicide, I think; having so owned the monster that is the Joker; in a denial of his own selfishness, a common suicide.
"God is Power," Orwell writes, and what else is there? Back to porn once again, though: I think the psychology of it is fascinating. I mean there's a rationality to preference, as much as some would like to deny that (Americans have always been big on denying stuff like that, it robs them of their justification for their warmongering). I see things like traps and bukkake and double penetration and it all screams of men wanting better brotherhood, albeit in the *odd* fashion that they have. You see the same with drug culture: "ecstacy is love", "we own the night", meeting god on psychedlics, etc. The brain builds with what's put into it, we haven't evolved to meet god on drugs (or that's not just what drugs do, in any case), and then what's all of this? It's hard to find an intelligent man for conversation who isn't a cynic these days, but they're not too far gone from all of this.
Basically, who fucking knows? Are we moving towards something like world communism? It certainly seems possible, but just who knows. Maybe we'll all just burn up in misery.

>>4811490
Hey, perhaps porn will open our eyes for us and we'll all end up just one great....uh, sweating mound of flesh? Weird thought. Damn this flesh anyway! We're dying, let's all be bastards!

Meh. I'm gonna stick to be a good dude anyway. Fuck god and his death.

>>4806416
hello nick land

>>4806554
>schizophrenic societies
hello deleuze and guattari