OK only punch Nazis where it is legal to do so, and I’m likewise a little fuzzy on invading fascists, but I’m assured that those both have long legal protections.
And somehow in all the years I have been doing this blog and the several times I have posted remembering D-Day I never tagged the day. OK fixed.
Today is the day we remember the Allied invasion of Nazi Europe on the beaches of Normandy, which is a phrase the is just packed. Nazi Europe was basically occupied territory that had been taken over by a literal invading army of Fascists to force a change of government to a more corporatist stance. You want to know why Post-war Europe was so close to becoming Communist? Nazis are why Post-war Europe almost went Communist. That’s how bad the Nazis were, they made Communism look really, really good. And that’s why we landed at Normandy to free Europe from the Nazis. Because they were that bad and also that whole invading and subjugating thing.
Getting back to the Communism thing, the Nazis were that bad that Soviet-style Communism looked fantastic by comparison, which is why we went with the Marshall Plan, to demonstrate the superiority of Capitalism. Didn’t work in the long run because most of Europe went with Democratic Socialism, which tempers the worst of Capitalism with the best of Communism so that “The People” come out ahead of the game, but the capitalists don’t do bad at all. It’s a compromise and like all compromises nobody got all they wanted, but everybody got something and it basically works out good for everyone except the multi-billionaires. Basically if Democratic Socialism works right there are no billionaires, much less multi-billionaires, because taxes are such that hoarded wealth is taxed out of existence to keep the economy going.
And how that works is a consumer economy only works when workers have the money to spend on things so that money stays flowing and people make things and get paid for making things and selling those things so that people can make more things and buy more things, ad infinitum. At some point people will get paid for turning old things into new things, because you can’t just use virgin materials forever because you run out. The only way we can keep the circus going is to start putting the old stuff in the spot we have mines and refineries now in the process. Not that we are going to put recycling centers where we physically have mines now, that would be silly. But recycling to bring the materials back to the beginning of the process is not silly, it is vital.
And I’m getting ready to play Shadowrun in a few minutes, so I’ll do the recap of the session tomorrow.
Witch on a Bicycle 