Apech

Not really. Why do we have to rely on 19th century solutions in 2018? Being a marxist now is like rebooting an old movie franchise instead of producing a new one.

Capitalism grew out of feudalism. Feudalism invests wealth and power in a few by not only ownership but heredity - the sons of Lords are Lords - so there is no or very little social mobility. The only way you could loose your position (theoretically) was war with other dynasties. It was not all completely bad though as a serf - provided you had a benign Lord, living off the land in your village you could be quite well looked after (obviously no guarantee of this). In the UK at least what really broke this down was the double pressure of the industrial revolution (1750 - 1850) when the double effect of agrarian reform (the Enclosure Acts) and the move to urban living and factory working - had the effect of drastically reducing the living standards of ordinary people, health, housing and so on. So capitalism in this period produced massive suffering. It wasn't inequality (which always existed and may have actually reduced) but just poverty. In equality in wealth is actually a kind of false indicator - for instance if you have enough for food, housing and a reasonable lifestyle what does it matter what your neighbour has? Apart from jealously it doesn't really affect you if your neighbour has more than you. Marxism and socialism arose in reaction to the terrible conditions in which the working classes were being forced to live. Not only their physical degradation but also their lack of freedom - being tied to the factory shop and so on. Marx, Engels and so on rightly condemned this situation. They rejected the Liberal solution of charity coupled with legislation to control the worst aspects (eg. Factory Acts and so on) and said that the only way to cure this inhumanity was a radical redesign of the system by changing the relationship between people and capital and labour. Part of this (the backbone) is the ownership of the means of production by first the state and then communally by people themselves (socialism and communism). Unlike Marx himself we can now say that this does not work - in fact attempts to implement it in history have led to some of the worst examples of despotism and inhumanity in the 20 century. So we can discard Marxism as a failed experiment (Stalin, Mao etc.). In the West we have never had socialism properly, what we have in Europe is various forms of governmental social policy used to address issues such as healthcare and welfare, but based in a free market economy or at least a mixed economy. This is what pertains in the UK, Scandinavia, France, Germany and so on. The exact balance between the market and the public sector grew organically in each nation dependent on the conditions they faced and were introduced through democratic means. the most successful models such as say, Denmark and Norway - are social democracies and not 'democratic socialism' as if often said. For many decades these models have functioned as the best way to live and be - but are currently under threat. I think the threat comes because for various reasons the centre, the liberal centre (both right and left) has lost its bearings and we have factionalised into far left and far right, although the centre itself seems to have shifted left, into a weird moralising neo-marxist intersectionalism which dominates the media and academia and public life generally.

Hey stop picking on lazy people - I'll take it personally.

Hello!

Oh yeah, prove it!

... executing a marriage partner ... (corrected for you)

In recommending the I Ching I was suggesting that the principles by which the changes operate and so on - is very helpful to studying Daoism. Most people say that if you only have one copy of the I Ching then it should be Wilhelm as he is still considered accurate and so on. I wouldn't get too bogged down with the meaning of individual yaoci and so on - but just look at the gua and bagua and the principles involved. The I Ching is very old and pre-dates the TTC for instance; and there are debates about when Daoism first arose some of which put it back to pre-history of shamanism rather than the classic period.

Start with Wilhelm and Huang for the I Ching in my opinion. Richter is good but it is bare bones.

If it's by Cleary then treat it with caution.

I think most people who practice Tai Chi also do some qi gong - so its not really an either/or but a both/and. You might like to check out books by Damo Mitchell on qi gong and nei gong - which include meditation techniques. I would also recommend spending some time to study the I Ching - which is the great classic text of all (or most) Chinese traditional thought and philosophy.

You can't trust those other people.

You are not you.

We are all one (with obvious exceptions).

He's a bit green.

We are all one (except Marblehead who is legion).

We are all one.

History is bunk.

Its free online - the Times, Telegraph have pay walls.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/05/facebook-declaration-of-independence-hate-speech

What's soccer? Of course I want America - who else including Canada of course http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/material

Triggered!

No if you read the Wiki first paragraph it says 'Americas or America' - it all depends if you distinguish North from South or not. The Great in Great Britain does not come from the idea that we think we are great (as in Make America Great Again) but simply from the geographical fact that the island is larger than Brittany in France - as both were originally the home of the Celtic tribe of Britons - so Brittany = Land of the Britons and Great Britain = Larger Land of the Britons. That's it - no other reason. I have no idea who Magid Magid is. And although I have been to Sheffield and have brother who lives there I don't know why he calls himself 'Lord Mayor and First Citizen' but I agree it sounds ridiculous. But then I think Donald should call himself Trump Trump it has a kind of ring about it. Rather like Humbert Humbert in the Nabokov classic Lolita. Sheffield is ok but a bit of dump to be honest so he's not missing much. I don't agree with this ban Trump business as, no matter what you think of him, he is the President and leader of the free world, and he made a bit of fool out of Macron over Iran so its all good as far as I'me concerned. I imagine all the Guardian readers will be marching against Trump when he comes - but see that there is also a support counter demonstration which pleasing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americas

We have got one name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island. Your country is the United States of America - America is the continent.