Things in the world can be explained in the following ways,
…good…ok…not so good…bad…
…individualism…slight cooperation…cooperation…collectivism…
…capitalism…socialism…communism…
I am trying to make the point that ideas in the world reside on a scale. Society believe in certains things at certain marks on the scale.
Politics is a politician’s attempt at exerting s/his own will over the population by means of psychology, or subtle changes to society (slippery slope). Politics is about persuasion, not about truth. Politics is about passion, not facts. Politics is a brutal play of power.
The Greens vs Forestry workers - Saving the forest vs Jobs for the economy. The Greens is successful in raising social awareness on environmental issues and they have become more powerful for they gained more public backing. The Greens argue saving the forest is for the advantage of the planet. Forestry workers says no work means unemployment, bad for the economy. The state of things in the world is like a legal case in which both parties have a case, but the outcome depends on the power of persuasion, and has nothing to do with the merit of any side.
It is important to consider the historical context in which power plays occur. The state of society determines the success/failure of any social theory. If we were back in the days of 1800, just after the general strike. The Green’s message of today would have no resonance whatsoever, because back then, in England, the majority were passionate about the rights of workers.
But as society, especially economy developed, the living standards of living of people improved. The concerns shifted towards the environment. We can see from history, that we are conditioned by our environment, but we react upon the environment to change it, and in doing so, we changed ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings, our political alliances.
As I already advocated, and I am sure many of you already known, that the merit of a situation is a power play. Capitalism vs Communism is my guess a power play of employers against employees. The workers wants more pay, and the employers wants more profit. The workers says employers exploit their excess surplus value, and they form unions in an attempt to retrieve their surpluses. Employers can say their product benefit society and they deserve their just reward. Imagin the equations below.
From worker’s point of view
labour cost = Sales price - material cost - profit
From employer’s point of view
Profit = Sales price - material cost - labour cost
The equations are identical, but their psychological implication is not.
The workers believe their are entitiled to the surplus value for they generated the values. While the employers believe they are entitled to the surplus value because labour like material cost is just another factor of production.
Politics is Psychology.
