Obama is running on his hope and change platform again. He hopes that people will just forget about his last four years of stomping the gas pedal to tyranny and accept him as a freedom loving president who supports the rights of individuals. When his campaign is having protesters arrested that message becomes a bit more difficult to swallow:
Though the NATO summit won’t officially begin until later this week, police have already ramped up their presence in downtown Chicago and, on Monday morning, they made a number of arrests at President Obama’s campaign headquarters.
After a group of demonstrators rushed into Prudential Plaza, the building where Obama’s re-election campaign is based, eight protesters were led away in handcuffs when they refused to leave the building’s lobby, the Chicago Tribune reports. Police said the arrested demonstrators would likely be charged with criminal trespass.
The group was organized by the Catholic Worker movement and, according to Fox Chicago, was attempting to open up a dialogue around ending the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. The action is part of what activists are calling a “week without capitalism.”
While those protesters may never get their wish of ending the occupation of Afghanistan at least they’re getting their goal of a week without capitalism. As I’ve explains the only alternative to capitalism is force. Instead of mutually beneficial relationships built upon voluntary trade those protesters are getting a taste of the alternative, the force of the state, and they don’t seem to be enjoying it.
Capitalism is a beautiful system that achieves mutual benefit by relying on self-interest. People are compelled to help each other because by doing so they are also helping themselves. If you make shoes and you need bread then you and the baker can make a mutually beneficial trade, shoes for bread. Those who perform the job of satisfying fellow individuals are rewarded so they may expand their operations and satisfy even more individuals’ needs. Capitalism stands as a stark opposition to the state’s violence where mutual benefit doesn’t arise because one party, the state, steals from the other party. Instead of mutual cooperation you have threats and acts of violence.
You want a world without capitalism? Good news, we already have it and it’s called the state. There is no need to protest or demonstrate because that goal has already been achieved. Instead of entering voluntary agreements with your fellow people you now have great portions of your wealth stolen from you so that it may be redistributed to those in the state’s favor. No need to trade for the people of Afghanistan exists because the United States government is there forcefully taking the desirable natural resources. Do you know what the best part is? You don’t have to limit yourself to a week without capitalism, you get to suffer your entire life without capitalism. Congratulations, your deepest desires have been fulfilled.