REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

'There's no such thing as a free lunch' ... and other right-wing fallacies

POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Sunday, October 7, 2012 13:38
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 594
PAGE 1 of 1

Sunday, October 7, 2012 12:26 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


A free lunch is something you didn't work for, getting more than you earned.

If there were no such thing as a free lunch life would be impossible. I could only eat the calories I'd expended to find them. Anything else would be 'free', and, supposedly, non-existent. But I would die under those circumstances. I couldn't carry the overhead of just being alive, or of growing, repairing, or reproducing. Even plants, viewed as being the only non-consumption form of life on the planet, and so the basis for all other life, are making use of the abundant free energy shining down on them for the having.

The entire 3.6 billion years of continuous life on this planet is a continuous process of having more than you 'earn'.

And yet, the idea of this planet and its life being meager and hostile is a widespread social assumption, used to justify the brutality of one human against another, and of humans against the planet.

Social Darwinism is another assumption. It assumes that life is a deadly fight between individuals and groups, that winning the fight is key to survival. Another is that capitalism is a natural system, rather than man-made.

These ideas do fall before simple observation and logic. And yet, we believe them, structure our society on them, react to them as if they were real. And so we do what we do. Which leads me to ...


http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=53226





NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Sunday, October 7, 2012 1:38 PM

FREMDFIRMA



Well hell kiddo, Kropotkins MUTUAL AID blew that one up some time ago, too bad so few have read it.

On the "Free Lunch" note though, I totally owned some jerk at a cafe in Ann Arbor over that one, he was on that ramble, rather vociferously and obnoxiously if the reactions of the folks at the table with him were any indicator, and I crept up behind him, waited for a pause in the ranting, and softly said "I call bullshit." and placed my brown bag on the table next to his elbow and waltzed away as the folks he was ranting to had a good laugh.
Not only a free lunch, but a good one too - organic no-transfat peanut butter and real jelly with no HFCS on bread with no HFCS, fresh fruit, yadda - I sincerely hope he enjoyed it, though I doubt it moved his preciously held beliefs an inch.
Was worth it to me though, just for the look on his face.

-Frem
PS - HFCS.. in BREAD??!!!, seriously WTF?!
I had a bit of a meltdown in the bread aisle over that one, but finally found some hot dog buns without any, argh!

NOTIFY: N   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

YOUR OPTIONS

NEW POSTS TODAY

USERPOST DATE

OTHER TOPICS

DISCUSSIONS
In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
Wed, May 22, 2024 13:05 - 3748 posts
End of the world Peter Zeihan
Wed, May 22, 2024 13:03 - 73 posts
Elections; 2024
Wed, May 22, 2024 10:07 - 2523 posts
Olympics. Good idea, bad idea?
Wed, May 22, 2024 09:57 - 46 posts
Obama's Bioweapons Lab in Ukraine
Wed, May 22, 2024 09:43 - 25 posts
Electoral College, ReSteal 2024 Edition
Wed, May 22, 2024 09:33 - 8 posts
Matthew Perry Drowned in Jacuzzi
Wed, May 22, 2024 08:26 - 26 posts
Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
Wed, May 22, 2024 08:13 - 6528 posts
Vaccinations, Pt 2
Wed, May 22, 2024 07:51 - 167 posts
James Carville figures out on his 80th Birthday that he doesn't matter
Wed, May 22, 2024 07:42 - 6 posts
An example of why we're all gonna die- meanwhile back in Fukushima
Wed, May 22, 2024 07:40 - 78 posts
Hollywood exposes themselves as the phony whores they are
Wed, May 22, 2024 07:24 - 20 posts

FFF.NET SOCIAL