power and dreams

[gilbert]

hello
i just signed up to the list a few days ago and have enjoyed the many
digests that have arrived in my mail box.  many diverse and stimulating
topics for sure.  the most entertaining has been the discussion of
power, and its (supposed) abuse .   the latest round was great, god,
confucius, kant, marx, the left and the right, all marshaled in some
truly difficult to comprehend argument over the list moderators
actions.   my favorite part was how mencius was a socialist , having a
"belief that man is innately compassionate rather than self-seeking.
But this trait can receive expression only if men enjoy peace of mind
through material sufficiency.  Therin lies the philosophical basis for
socialism."  and yet thousand of years of chinese history show a less
noble side of man.  As another  ancient chinese philosopher, han fei
tzu, commented long ago,  men are controlled through two "handles", fear
and greed.  while someone may like to dream that the dao is socialism,
that "there is no difference between governments",  and that "Logic and
facts are useful only if one has no desire to break out of their
self-prescribing circle. Creativity and revolution, by definition, must
defy logic and facts in order to facilitate their own births."   this is
the kind of intellectual masturbation that drove me from academia.  can
we really masturbate ourselves into being?  do we dream the butterfly or
does the butterfly dream us? the daoist have been debating this
forever?   i would like to leave the realm of dreams and look at the
world economy around us.
in the last issues of the left business observer (or perhaps here) the
possibility was  raised  of the american  "bubble" bursting and creating
a truly giant  economic crisis.  i have been looking at, and thinking
about how the japanese "bubble economy"  crashed and  the serious
effects it had around asia.  it would seem that the same situation
presents itself to us today in america, fear and greed driving
speculative  schemes, with a crash ahead.  is this realistic?  in what
ways are there similarities (and/or differences)  between the two
situations?  it seems to me that the american obsession with the stock
market and carrying huge amounts of debt are setting us up for a even
larger crisis.  can the situation be resolved in   some other manner?
are fear and greed really driving the economy  beyond the masters
control? or is this the normal operating procedure of capitalism?
-gilbert