{"id":1736,"date":"2009-03-16T19:04:44","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T09:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1736"},"modified":"2009-05-08T04:55:37","modified_gmt":"2009-05-07T18:55:37","slug":"lust-gluttony-sloth-wrath-envy-pride-and-greed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1736","title":{"rendered":"Lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy, pride&#8230; and greed."},"content":{"rendered":"<style type='text\/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/comedycentral\/video\/assets\/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}<\/style>\n<div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><\/p>\n<div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url(\"http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/comedycentral\/video\/assets\/syndicated-logo-out.png\");'><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070;'>\n<div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http:\/\/www.thedailyshow.com\/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart<\/a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M &#8211; Th 11p \/ 10c<\/span><\/div>\n<div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http:\/\/www.thedailyshow.com\/video\/index.jhtml?videoId=220550&#038;title=the-money-honey-bee' target='_blank'>The Money Honey Bee<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'>\n<div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.thedailyshow.com\/full-episodes\/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes<\/a><br \/><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/shows\/important_things\/index.jhtml'>Important Things w\/ Demetri Martin<\/a><\/div>\n<div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor<\/a><br \/><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/blog.indecisionforever.com\/2009\/03\/13\/jon-stewart-and-jim-cramer-the-extended-daily-show-interview\/'>Jim Cramer<\/a><\/div>\n<div style='clear:both'><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style='clear:both'><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Yes, Shaun, There Is A Ruling Class<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lack of morality is at the heart of executive salaries, which no legislation can fix&#8221; says Shaun (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/opinion\/greed-without-end-20090303-8nd8.html\">Greed without end<\/a>, <em>The Age<\/em>, March 4, 2009). &#8220;DESPITE global economic calamity and enormous cost-cutting to his famously profligate sport, formula one supremo Bernie Ecclestone will take home a record fee from Victoria for the Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight. <em>The Age<\/em> can reveal that this year Victorian taxpayers will part with $47 million, simply for the privilege of hosting his car race. Formula one is the platform on which Mr Ecclestone has built his personal fortune, recently estimated at $5.2 billion&#8230;&#8221; notes Ben Doherty (<em>The Age<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/national\/47m-fee-a-formula-for-easy-profits-20090313-8xxq.html\">$47m fee a formula for easy profits<\/a>, March 14, 2009).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi oi oi!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to <em>Forbes<\/em>, which has just published its list of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/lists\/2009\/10\/billionaires-2009-richest-people_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html\">&#8216;The World&#8217;s Billionaires 2009&#8217;<\/a>, James Packer is ranked No.261 among the world&#8217;s wealthiest men and women, with a fortune estimated at US$2,500,000,000. Other Australian citizens in the Top 1,000 are:<\/p>\n<ul><strong>234<\/strong> \tFrank Lowy &#038; family (2.7 billion);<br \/>\n<strong>376<\/strong> \tGina Rinehart\t(1.9);<br \/>\n<strong>376<\/strong> \tAndrew Forrest\t(1.9);<br \/>\n<strong>468<\/strong> \tHarry Triguboff\t(1.5);<br \/>\n<strong>468<\/strong> \tRichard Pratt\t(1.5);<br \/>\n<strong>647<\/strong> \tKerr Neilson\t(1.1);<br \/>\n<strong>647<\/strong> \tJohn Gandel (1.1);<br \/>\n<strong>701<\/strong> \tKerry Stokes (1.0); and<br \/>\n<strong>701<\/strong> \tLindsay Fox\t(1.0).<\/ul>\n<p>So what? According to Shaun, the wealth gap between rich and poor &#8220;Above all, this is a moral issue. Executives and boards worked out some years ago just how much they can get away with. Legislation cannot, and will not, work. Unless and until these people know for certain that their greed appals society, they&#8217;ll keep their racket going.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;If life were a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And how.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, inequality is an economic, social and political issue, not a moral one. The accumulation of wealth is the core principle of capitalist society, and the division between capital and labour its principal contradiction. Or as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/weta\/thewest\/people\/d_h\/haywood.htm\">&#8216;Big&#8217; Bill Haywood<\/a> put it: &#8220;For every dollar the boss has and didn\u2019t work for, one of us worked for a dollar and didn\u2019t get it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, The World&#8217;s Richest and their numerous lackeys are worried: there is a financial &#8216;crisis&#8217;; a crisis of neo-liberalism, and possibly even capitalism. David Harvey (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/harvey03132009.html\">Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism?<\/a> The Crisis and the Consolidation of Class Power, <em>Counterpunch<\/em>, March 13\/15, 2009) asks:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Does this crisis signal the end of neo-liberalism? My answer is that it depends what you mean by neo-liberalism. My interpretation is that it\u2019s a class project, masked by a lot of neo-liberal rhetoric about individual freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, privatisation and the free market. These were means, however, towards the restoration and consolidation of class power, and that neo-liberal project has been fairly successful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/davidharvey.org\/\">Harvey<\/a>, a Marxist, makes brief reference to anarchists in his article, with one of their principal and distinguishing features &#8212; opposition to state power &#8212; forming an obstacle to the kinds of social reforms required in order to safeguard working class interests:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is also a big problem on the left that many think the capturing of state power has no role to play in political transformations and I think they\u2019re crazy. Incredible power is located there and you can\u2019t walk away from it as though it doesn\u2019t matter. I am profoundly skeptical of the belief that NGOs and civil society organisations are going to change the world, not because NGOs can\u2019t do anything at all, but it takes a different kind of political movement and conception if we are going to do anything about the main crisis which is going on. In the United States the political instinct is very anarchist, and while I am very sympathetic to a lot of anarchist views their perpetual complaints about and refusal to command the state also gets in the way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Time to go Greek on this shit&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, anarchists in Europe, especially in Greece, have been busy little bees of late.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2009\/03\/03\/europe\/EU-Greece-Train-Attack.php\">Attack destroys Athens subway train carriages<\/a><br \/>\nThe Associated Press<br \/>\nMarch 3, 2009<\/p>\n<p>ATHENS, Greece: Masked arsonists forced passengers off an Athens subway train and then set it alight, police said Tuesday. Several carriages of two trains were destroyed, but nobody was injured. The attack occurred at a subway station that is above ground in the northern suburb of Kifissia shortly after 1 a.m. (6 p.m. EST). Police said a group of people wearing carnival masks forced the handful of passengers on one train to leave, and then doused the carriages with gasoline before using Molotov cocktails to set them alight. They also attacked a second, empty train&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Greece: Youths with sledgehammers smash stores<br \/>\nThe Associated Press<br \/>\nMarch 13, 2009<\/p>\n<p>ATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 Dozens of youths carrying sledgehammers and iron bars have smashed cars, banks and storefronts in an upscale district of central Athens in the latest outbreak of violence in Greece. Several dozen stores and cars were damaged in the daytime attack, which sent shoppers and bystanders in the city&#8217;s Kolonaki area fleeing in panic. Leaflets scattered at the scene Friday identified the attackers as members of local anarchist groups. A similar attack also occurred Friday in the northern city of Thessaloniki, leaving three banks damaged. Violence involving anarchist youths has escalated following riots last December that were sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As a result, a call has been made to The Yard:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthtimes.org\/articles\/show\/259941,greece-to-quell-political-violence-with-help-from-scotland-yard.html\">Greece to quell political violence with help from Scotland Yard<\/a><br \/>\nDPA<br \/>\nMarch 15, 2009<\/p>\n<p>Athens &#8211; Experts from the British police organization Scotland Yard are to aid Greece in battling an ongoing wave of violence and crack down on radical leftwing underground organizations, the <em>Kathimerini<\/em> newspaper reported Sunday. The help from Scotland Yard, the first of which is to arrive in Greece on Monday, comes after contacts at the highest level between the governments in Athens and London, the report said. Greece has been plagued by political violence since December 2008, including automatic weapons attacks on police, and almost daily bombings and arson attacks on banks and multinational businesses. On Friday, around 40 masked rioters ran through central Athens with axes and iron rods, destroying shop windows of more than 50 businesses and damaging dozens of cars. According to the Greek press, the police were taken completely unawares and had no plan on how to react with such actions. In mid-December, the worst riots Greece had seen in decades were triggered by the fatal shooting of a teenager by police in central Athens. The Greek capital and dozens of other cities around the country were crippled for days by arson and looting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Scotland Yard is also concerned about protests at the upcoming G20 summit, scheduled to take place in London in early April. Police generally are concerned, and to help allay their fears, Gordon Brown has declared &#8216;No Photos, British Or Otherwise, of British Police&#8217; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/dickinson03062009.html\">On Financial Fools Day<\/a>, Michael Dickinson, <em>Counterpunch<\/em>, March 6-8, 2009):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The new amendment [to Section 76 of the United Kingdom&#8217;s <em>Counter Terrorism Act<\/em>], which came into law on February 16th makes it an offence to \u2018collect or make a record of information about members of the armed forces, intelligence services and the police force, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.\u2019  &#8216;Record&#8217; includes a &#8216;photographic or electronic record.&#8217; Prime Minister Gordon Brown supports the police in their right to restrict photography if the need arises. \u201cThe law applies to photographers as it does to anybody else in a public place,\u201d he said.  \u201cThere may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations or raise security considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Intimidation by police in Britain of photojournalists has been on the increase with surveillance cameras turned on them at political demonstrations; the demanding of name and address from photographers despite their showing of presscards, and innumerable occasions when police officers have demanded photographs to be deleted. Under the new law officers may allow photographers to keep taking pictures in some cases, or ask them to stop and threaten them with arrest in others. Those who refuse to stop after a warning face arrest and the possibility of detention for several days without charge, followed by unspecified fines or up to 10 years in prison.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>*sigh*<\/p>\n<p>La lucha contin\u00faa&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul><a href=\"http:\/\/www.g-20meltdown.org\/8.html\">MELTDOWN MANIFESTO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Can we oust the bankers from power?<br \/>\nCan we get rid of the corrupt politicians in their pay?<br \/>\nCan we guarantee everyone a job, a home, a future?<br \/>\nCan we establish government by the people, for the people, of the people?<br \/>\nCan we abolish all borders and be patriots for our planet?<br \/>\nCan we all live sustainably and stop climate chaos?<br \/>\nCan we make capitalism history?<\/p>\n<p>YES WE CAN!<\/ul>\n<p>Closer to home:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Greens protesters promoting rising tide of crime<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Joe Hildebrand writing in <em>The Daily Telegraph<\/em> (March 14, 2009) anyway. EXCLUSIVELY. Joe refers to the fact that, since December 29, 2006, the Rising Tide Australia website has contained a list, described as &#8220;a dynamic and growing list of the actions you can take to stop climate chaos. It was inspired by <a href=\"http:\/\/risingtide.org.uk\/pages\/resources\/fifty.htm\">Rising Tide UK&#8217;s 50 things you can do list<\/a>. If you have any suggested additions, leave a comment at the bottom of this page. If it&#8217;s genuine, we&#8217;ll probably add it. Let it never be said that &#8220;there&#8217;s nothing I can do to fight climate change!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The list has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.risingtide.org.au\/dynamicactions\">removed<\/a> from the site since Joe drew the world&#8217;s attention to it. However, the invitation to participate in an action on Caturday, March 21, still stands:<\/p>\n<ul>You, your family and friends are invited to<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.risingtide.org.au\/peoplesblockade\">&#8216;The People&#8217;s Blockade of the World&#8217;s Biggest Coal Port&#8217; # 4<\/a><br \/>\nSaturday 21st March 10am &#8211; 5pm<br \/>\nHorseshoe Beach, Newcastle<\/ul>\n<p><object width=\"445\" height=\"364\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/QTFLp2A7bBA&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0&#038;color1=0x5d1719&#038;color2=0xcd311b&#038;border=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Daily Show With Jon StewartM &#8211; Th 11p \/ 10c The Money Honey Bee Daily Show Full EpisodesImportant Things w\/ Demetri Martin Political HumorJim Cramer Yes, Shaun, There Is A Ruling Class &#8220;A lack of morality is at the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1736\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anarchism","category-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-s0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}