Wikipedia identifies Bill Maher (pictured above) as an American writer, producer, political commentator, television host, political satirist, actor, media critic, and stand-up comedian. I notice that he will be in Santa Cruz, in this latter role, on April 19, 2015.
Maher has most recently been trying to legitimate "socialism." He has proclaimed that socialism created the American Middle Class, and a week ago, on Superbowl Sunday, Maher demonstrated that the National Football League is socialist to the core.
I have to say, stand up comic or not, I don't think Maher is joking.
I think he's right!
Maher notes that "socialism" means that we should approach things as though we were in this life together, and that when we do that, when we help each other out, and share, and utilize all of our common resources for the common good, we end up better off.
What a concept!
I think I'm a socialist!!
Image Credit:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/bill-maher-liberal-western-culture-not-just-different-it-s-better-1
He's also an anti-vaxxer. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2015/01/19/bill-maher-still-an-antivaccine-wingnut-after-all-these-years/
ReplyDeleteWhether or not Maher's vision of socialism is really socialism depends on your historic orientation.
ReplyDeleteSocialism, Marx and Engels style, is much more revolutionary than Maher's vision, seeking as it does the roots today's problems in the inevitability of capitalist collapse.
Murray Bookchin's analysis of socialism is far more revolutionary and environmentally inclusive, seeking the root of societies ills and drastic destruction of the natural world in mankind's domination of each other, women, people of color and much of the natural world. Bookchin sought a way to a society free of hierarchy and coercion, which is more anarchist than socialist, much to the chagrin of the few remaining socialists, perhaps even including Bill Maher.
Capitalists have no monopoly on destruction of the natural world. Utilizing all of our common resources for the common good leaves out all non-human plants and animals.
Only when "common" encompasses all life will we achieve a truly sustainable human society.
Any ecologist will tell you it's immensely supportive of the common human good to preserve biodiversity i.e. non-human plants and animals.
ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement with Michael that "capitalists have no monopoly on destruction of the natural world." And I think that the physics policeman has a point: "it's immensely supportive of the common human good to preserve biodiversity..."
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