Greg Joly | Scott Nearing's Thoughts on Socialism
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- Greg Joly is an independent scholar who has lived in Jamaica Vermont since 1990. Due to his on-site nearness to people and documents related to the Nearing's time in Vermont, he has been able to amass a quality of information concerning the Nearing's sojourn in the Green Mountain state that might otherwise be improbable. He and his wife have homesteaded off-grid for the past 2 decades just seven "as the crow flies" miles from the Nearing's original Forest Farm, thus fostering a familiarization with the demands of Vermont homesteading. For the past 2 decades, Joly has been a Steward at the Good Life Center and has also served as its Chair Person of the Board.
References for the Speech
By Scott Nearing:
1908 - Economics
1920 - The Next Step
1944 - United World
Modern Sources of Interest:
Capitalism: A Ghost Story
By Arunbhati Roy
The Young Turks: Marxian Economics Vs. Capitalism
By R.D. Wolff
The New Basis of Civilization
By Simon Patten
Business as Usual: The Economic Crisis and the Failure of Capitalism
By Paul Mattick
The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, And the Future of the Global Economy
By Mervyn King
Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World
By Kevin Bales
Also, Some Recent Articles:
"Socialism, American-Style"
By Gar Alperovitz & Thomas H. Hanna
NY Times, Op-Ed, 23 July 2015
On the decentralization, anti-authoritarian organizational structure of The Black Lives Matter movement:
"The Matter of Black Lives"
By Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker, March 14, 2016, pp. 34-40,
My thanks to Greg for placing Mr. Nearing's work in context, especially as his neighbor. I hope I can attend one of his lectures in the future.
Scott Nearing was a visionary and lived in service to others! Unlike the government and establishment of the time, Nearing loved humanity. He reminds me of Peace Pilgrim.
Well done lecture...Scott and Helen were great influences in my life and this helped put it into context.
A very interesting talk. Thanks
Scott liked the idea of the USSR and did turn a blind eye to Stalin and his antics. Scott's own son lived and worked in the USSR for several years. When John Scott came home and started to write about what was going on in the USSR it created a divide between father and sun that never healed. When it was all said and done, Scott Nearing had not desire to go and live under the very system he so espoused.
Journey with Bernie!!!!
Smoke some more......
Yes. They planned it. But they had money to always fall back on if needed if the SHTF. THAT is the only problem I have with the entire message of the Nearings. It’s slightly contradictory and hypocritical.
When the allies got to Bagdad, the population did welcome them as liberators. Where is the capital suppose to come from to build the factories, if not from investment? This the first time I have ever heard of competition is wasteful. Is this advocating one product, take it or leave it. "Look at the eastern block." Yes, look at the eastern block, no competition, one product take it or leave it, Factories were govt owned and controlled.
Ahhh here we go, the Nearings made "capital investment" in the maple sugar business, he the workers work for a wage and supplemented it with a "profit sharing plan" in the form of a cut of the maple products, sugar, syrup, etc.
Great system that you advocate, just look at Cuba, and the dismal results of socialism in Brazil. Or maybe the great leader of Ceaser Chavez. Cuba has old '50s model cars buildings decayed and covered with mildew.
The way of life proposed and lived by the Nearings speaks for the value it holds to cure present day social ills.
What you have described is not the way of life Scott Nearing awakened to. You have described a kind of socialism which has been played out and is not all that much of an improvement. I would think the lack of improvement was the result of trying to maintain the Capitalist lifestyle of consumerism under a Socialist program.
Scott and Helen did not do that neither did they imply that it should be done. Instead they began to do something unique and beneficial to all involved in the commercial activity of the society they put to work successfully in their lives.
Any ideological differences between Socialism and Capitalism were accentuated due to the Cuban Embargo by the US and those differences were muted after 60 + years of crushing, economic starvation of the Cuban people and their government. Cuban people can be applauded for remaining in Cuba after the corrupt Batista regime was ousted - along with the pro-Batista Cubans who went into self-imposed exile in the Florida and NYC areas.
Neither Socialism, nor Communism have ever been practiced, in modernity, the way that they were written to be practiced. Greed and czar-like control by bureaucrats is always a plan for disaster.
It seems human greed and corruption undermines any system. Psychologist say that psychopaths sieze control and power. Or manipulate their way into control and power.