h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is also a grass-roots effort in Bangladesh.

And in some areas of México. The killing of those students seems to have inflammated people more than usual.

an article on that topic:

http://roarmag.org/2014/12/protests-2014-global-uprisings/

More hope:

This writer speaks words of wisdom, it´s about the book market but the idea applies further.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/ursula-le-guin-speech-challenges-the-inevitability-of-capitalism/

"Books, you know, they’re not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words."

Re. post 60
@Maria

Maria, it is not a matter of being dark or feeling no hope. I am merely convinced that crises make a few people very rich and since these very people are the ones who can manufacture such crises, they will. And maybe we should not even blame them. If only ten out of one hundred people give in to their greed, there will be more than enough to bring about the next disaster. You will find such 10% in any section of the populace: among teachers, among doctors, among the very poor, among the very rich, among bank costumers, among bank managers. (Mind you, that would leave some staggering 90% of people being actually good folk!)

The capitalist system is based on growth, on the notion that making money, creating wealth is best for the majority of people. Given that framework, it is actually the bankers' duty to have a mind that is set on becoming ever richer. Combine that with the idea of 10% crooks, and you are right on the move towards the next crisis.

Those 10%'s mindset will have to be taken as a given. It is part of human nature. No need to vilify them. Who knows how I, you, or 2legs would react if placed in such a situation? It is therefor the capitalist system that needs to be modified.

Such modifacation cannot be brought about by appealing to the good in all of us. Only firm legislation can do that. Therein lies the problem: the ones in financial power tend to have a hold on those in political power - or more and more often, they are identical.

Adding to that the impression that more and more people are either too busy just surviving or too busy installing new apps on their phones to actually take to the streets, I come to the conclusion that this jumping from one crisis to the next is far from being over.

Y.

"Only firm legislation can do that. Therein lies the problem: the ones in financial power tend to have a hold on those in political power - or more and more often, they are identical."

during 2014, as the link on global protests says, there have been more uprisings than ever. And history shows that all our basic rights were achieved through that way, at least it was the basis.

Ordinary people still have the vote as another tool to get to power and make that firm legislation.

There are already active groups everywhere, just in the UK there are a lot, they exist, despite the media omission.

Ordinary people are so fed up that sooner or later they will wake up and look at the tools they have in their hands, the vote and the protests.
All you say it´s true, people seems too absorbed with every day life, and even with fetishes of consumism, maybe they need another avalanche of shit to start seeing things clear, like the TTIP, (Transatlantic trade and investment partnership)

I'm sure there must also be quieter revolutions that don't involve high-visibility demonstrations.

Yes Paulh, there are.

In Greece for instance, within the huge chaos, and probably because of it, many workers have taken over the collapsed enterprises they were working in and have transformed them into workers cooperatives. In Athens there´s a whole district self-governed by workers. And it´s not just the only one.

That´s called direct action. To be completely honest, since I still have a bit of a gloomy feeling about political elections, direct action is my sound hope for future.

People are already working this way, in a silent way, they have formed banks of time and social coins. Cooperatives of any kind are rising.
But this really works in small communities, where the idea of horizontal democracy works naturally, as well as the idea of "to each according to their need and from each according to their ability"


I´ve just read this analysis-prediction for 2015. I like it.
http://motherboard.vice.com/en_uk/read/endless-growth-part-1

>>as well as the idea of "to each according to their need and from each according to their ability"

I have never understood why I should work to the best of my ability so someone else can reap the benefits. I have always worked to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, sometimes the occasional toy is a perk.

If the roof and food were guaranteed, why would I bother?

Just a question, not a challenge.

F S

You might bother even if the roof and food *were* guaranteed. There is something inside many people that impels them to make their mark on the world. This was the guiding theory, apparently, of Summerhill School. Granted, the something that is inside a person might not be anything worth encouraging .

"I have never understood why I should work to the best of my ability so someone else can reap the benefits."

That´s called exploitation and abuse, nothing new, just what has been going on so far in most places.

In the context I use that sentence, small communities and cooperatives of workers, nobody reap the benefits . People share and provide for those in need, who probably also have something to offer to the community.

We are social animals, cooperation and empathy comes naturally to us.

I think the ethos would be that everyone *does* work to the best of their ability. Abilities are pretty diverse. In a circus, even if you're too old to sweep up after the elephants or walk the tightropes, you can still sell tickets. I can think of several groups of early settlers for whom the rule was, "If you don't work, you don't eat." Frankly, I would stop short of letting even the laziest person starve, especially if that person was bedridden. Nowadays, so many people who want to work can't find jobs, at least full time ones that would earn them enough to pay their rent. I'm reluctant to think that the system we have now is the best that we could have.

Paulh knows what he's talkin' about.

Thanks.

In 2015, viral crazes will reach a new level of stupidity.

3D-Printers will develop into full-on Replicators, but sadly not for food.


(Star Trek technology IS coming. It's only a matter of time.)

New levels of stupidity, just what we need!

A north american producer, inspired by The Interview film, will fund a series based on the assasination of foreign leaders or/and helping hand for coup détats, repression, etc., where US has been complicit.

They will start with South America, problably with Salvador Allende.

The film maker will say:
"it will be safer, no one will make an attack like the one on Sony

The tone...yes, comedy, what else?"

Is this going to be a documentary?

The investigation into historical institutional child sexual abuse will get going, and one of the institutions it will investigate will be the Royal family.

Ha!

Not really, of course. They're truly untouchable and entirely above the law.

Predictions for 2035: we won't have a Royal family any more, certainly not in the form it exists currently. See above.