To pursue a so-called Third Way is foolish. We had our experience with this in the 1960s when we looked for a socialism with a human face. It did not work, and we must be explicit that we are not aiming for a more efficient version of a system that has failed.
quote by Vaclav Klaus
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In practice, socialism didn't work. But socialism could never have worked because it is based on false premises about human psychology and society, and gross ignorance of human economy.
quote by David Horowitz
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Foolish Life
What a foolish life I've lived!
I loved and failed...
and loved again and failed;
I tried to unlove but failed.
And what a foolish life to live!
I looked back to my wasted years
and knew there'd be no wasted tears
from you...from the only one
I tried to unlove but failed.
poem by Jessel Jane Tevar
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Happy Heathen: (With limited apologies to G.K.C.)
The heathen's not efficient;
He sits down in the sun
And doesn't care a tuppn'y dump
When the day's work's begun.
He works to eat and eats to live,
All day he'll dance and sing;
And if you mention overtime
He laughs like anything.
But we are most efficient!
And, goodness! Look at us!
Our nights are filled with restless dreams,
Our days with fret and fuss.
And we can have depressions
And modern things like that,
And monoplanes and motor cars
And trousers and a hat.
The heathen's not efficient;
He does not value gold;
And when we'd teach him of its worth
He simply won't be told.
He'll hang gold coins about his neck
For foolish ornament,
While half a bread-fruit or a ham
Bring him complete content.
Oh, we are most efficient;
We'd pile up heaps of gold
And leave it to ungrateful heirs
When we descend to mould.
But the heathen's not efficient;
He is lazy, free, unkempt,
And from the highly civilized
Earns nothing but contempt.
poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
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Liberal democracy - as you know, in the old days, we were saying we want socialism with a human face. Today's left effectively offers global capitalism with a human face, more tolerance, more rights and so on. So the question is, is this enough or not? Here I remain a Marxist: I think not.
quote by Slavoj Zizek
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In different places over the years I have had to prove that socialism, which to many western thinkers is a sort of kingdom of justice, was in fact full of coercion, of bureaucratic greed and corruption and avarice, and consistent within itself that socialism cannot be implemented without the aid of coercion. Communist propaganda would sometimes include statements such as "we include almost all the commandments of the Gospel in our ideology". The difference is that the Gospel asks all this to be achieved through love, through self-limitation, but socialism only uses coercion. This is one point. Untouched by the breath of God, unrestricted by human conscience, both capitalism and socialism are repulsive.
quote by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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The Poetic Experience
writing for me is like hammering
a nail... you keep pounding till
it's driven. what i have tried
to do, in collusion with others,
is to amass a body of work that
celebrates the human in human
beings... with all its pain,
suffering, turmoil, and all the
trials, the human experience is
still the eternal experience...
the only hope for humanity to
survive lies in turning inward.
until we know ourselves, we can
never have the god experience,
and can never truly interact with
others, can never even see others,
much less know them! we are mere
reflections of each other, mere
reflections of god... the sameness
that lies below our differences
is both deep, and wide!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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The only hope of socialism resides in those who have already brought about in themselves, as far as is possible in the society of today, that union between manual and intellectual labor which characterizes the society we are aiming at.
quote by Simone Weil
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Only Ones Guaranteed Jobs For Life
Don't you just love it,
When folks probe you
For what you know?
Only to apply 'that'
To their lack of knowledge.
Quickly believing experience comes easy.
AND without effort!
Only to fail at everything they do.
To question why a 'degree' obtained,
From 'whatever' prestigious school...
Does not automatically declare them efficient!
And a system 'employing' their academic achievements...
Is left in shambles!
With maintenance and cleanup personnel,
The only ones guaranteed jobs for life!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Good Institutions
Share whatever we have and dream prosperity for all
Respond generous humanity and calamity call
What keeps us united in all the circumstances?
Something must be believed in substances
Some thing said and not done, will not work
All good work done will be lost in smoke
We are here for upliftment of all classes
It is difficult task and not easy walk on roses
There is one conception dreamt about
Growth and happiness for all out
Equal participation in real terms
No communism, capitalism or socialism
The system which benefits all the communities
Number of welfare schemes with different varieties
No one is allowed to hold sway over others
Nothing is conceived in haste that bothers
Rivers are kept pollution free
No destruction of forests with trees
Equal rights for all human beings
No violation of any kind and simply undoing
Time has come to decentralize the powers
No higher rise buildings or towers
Little huts with basic amenities
A step forward for elimination of poverty
Socialism or any other “ism” dreamt in concept
Will not succeed if it lacks teeth with aptness
Poor may increase with lot more agony to add
We will have many more in waiting to be fed
Some kind of vigilant eye to keep watch over happenings
Certain steps to be taken for good beginning
It is not at all bad to dream and put in execution
That is how some of the change takes place in good institutions
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Corn is an efficient way to get energy calories off the land and soybeans are an efficient way of getting protein off the land, so we've designed a food system that produces a lot of cheap corn and soybeans resulting in a lot of cheap fast food.
quote by Michael Pollan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Failure
As we roamed under the star spangled sky,
Sharing many a trivial thought
I failed to voice my clandestine whim
Carefully structured within my mind's alcove
When words got suddenly broken up
With a lump forming in my throat
I failed to convey what I meant
In a language explicit for you to grasp
Gazing at each other, as we stood
Without uttering a word aloud
You failed to notice my saddened eyes
Glistening with tears, about to shed
At the end of a pleasant united jaunt
As our roads diverged in opposite tracks
We failed to say even a parting word
As a gesture of courtesy, due for both
Now in the twilight of the setting sun
When the past has dwindled slowly away
We remain in our own cloistered cells
Failing to forget what has transpired.
poem by Valsa George
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The system is the work of art; the visual work of art is the proof of the System. The visual aspect can't be understood without understanding the system. It isn't what it looks like but what it is that is of basic importance.
quote by Sol LeWitt
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I therefore believe that our system does not have a word for failed trial, and that is where the American public does not realize that our criminal justice system sometimes makes mistakes.
quote by Sam Sheppard
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Fundamental of Liar Chapter LXXX: Story
Story about future is called imagination
Story about past is called memories
Story about present is called reality
Story that becomes true is called prophecy
Story that becomes unfulfilled is called regret
Story that becomes no end is called boasting
Small story is called experience
Epic story is called history
Forgotten story is called lesson
Story that becomes obsession is called ambition
Story that becomes untold is called secret
Story that becomes go its own way is called life
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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Jeane
Jeane
The low-life has lost its appeal
And i'm tired of walking these streets
To a room with its cupboards bare
Jeane
I'm not sure what happiness means
But i look in your eyes
And i know
Oh ...
That it isn't there
Oh, we tried, and we failed
Oh, we tried, and we failed
We tried and we failed
We tried and we failed
We tried
Oh, jeane
There's ice on the sink where we bathe
So how can you call this a home
When you know it's a grave ?
Yet you still have that greedy grace
As you tidy the place
But it will never be clean
Jeane
We tried and we failed
We tried, and we failed
We tried and we failed
We tried and we failed
And we tried
Oh ...
Cash on the nail
It's just a fairytale
Oh ...
And i don't believe in magic anymore
Jeane
But i think you know
I really think you know
Oh ...
Oh yes, i think you know the truth
Jeane
Oh ...
No heavenly choirs
Not for me and not for you
Because i think you know
I really think you know
Oh ...
I think you know the truth
Oh, jeane
We tried, and we failed
We tried, and we failed
We tried and we failed
We tried and we failed
We tried
song performed by by Smiths
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We are, the great spiritual writers insist, most fully ourselves when we give ourselves away, and it is egotism that holds us back from that transcendent experience that has been called God, Nirvana, Brahman, or the Tao. What I now realize, from my study of the different religious traditions, is that a disciplined attempt to go beyond the ego brings about a state of ecstasy. Indeed, it is in itself ekstasis. Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, or self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.
quote by Karen Armstrong
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Most Beautiful Box (Response Number Two)
you can build
the most beautiful box
the world has ever seen.
you can line the walls
with fine jewels,
and carpet the floors.
you can adorn it
with beautiful pictures,
and have windows that face
the morning sun.
you can have doors
that open both ways.
still...
this box cannot hold
the sky, the wind, or the rain!
so it is with political systems.
no system can define freedom.
no system can define justice.
no system can define equality.
only the human heart,
grounded in love,
can do this!
poem by Eric Cockrell
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The Downfall Of Human Kind
The downfall of human kind it would seem to me
Are greed and corruption, homelessness and poverty
And patriotism and religion and National pride
All of these things lead to war and they are World-wide.
In a World where millions are dying of hunger and disease
The refugee camps are full of refugees
Millions displaced due to war and famine of great suffering they know
The people fleeing war zones with nowhere to go.
Even in so called wealthy Nations poverty is rife
And the ruthless look on the poor as the losers in life
Far too many homeless on poverty street
With nowhere to live and with little to eat.
Some grow wealthy and successful though they lie and cheat
The capitalist system has failed us complete
Thousands must grow poorer for every new millionaire
Do not tell me that the capitalist system is fair.
So much poverty in the big World out there
And so many are living in hopeless despair
But one falsehood with some sadness we recall
The lie we believed of a 'fair go for all'.
poem by Francis Duggan
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There are a few people, but a diminishing number, who still believe that Marxism, as an economic system, off era a coherent alternative to capitalism, and socialism has, indeed, triumphed in one country.
quote by Herbert Read
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If Socialism can only be realized when the intellectual development of all the people permits it, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five hundred years.
quote by Vladimir Lenin
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