EXPLOITED! and STEAMPUNK UTOPIA...

Steampunk an SL invention? Scroll down for the first in a short series of articles by Plot Tracer on Utopian SF Writers from the days of steam...


Remamber to visit the SLLU Factory Exhibition - in collaboration with Luna Box

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Isla%20Montevideo/234/88/33

Watch the stream and then enter the building for the exhibition about worker exploitation in the past and now!



After you have been to the exhibition, please go to the Tribute Garden on the island to place your tribute to the exploited.



The Tribute Garden is at the top left of the island...

PLOT TRACER Looks Backwards...
Click on slurl to go to Babbage - a "Steampunk" sim. Or alternatively click on the slurl below.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Square/207/204/32

Caledon: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon/255/128//

Steelhead -
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Steelhead/84/226/24

Looking Backwards

“Steampunk” isn’t new. The socialist science fiction writers of the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries were imagining utopian, steam driven worlds (with a bit of nuclear guess work thrown in) long before SL was dreamt of…

“Looking Backward” by Edward Bellamy, is a strange read and it is so for a number of reasons, not least being the fact that it was published in 1888 and is about the socialist utopia the writer envisages for the 20th century. In it he predicts credit cards, radio, television and covered pedestrian malls. Julian West, a middle class insomniac, employs the services of a hypnotist to put him to sleep at night. His manservant, Sawyer, is supposed to wake him the next morning with a special “reversal of the mesmerising process.” When he awakes, he finds he has slept over 100 years. It is the year 2000.

As well as being a critique of the social, economic and political situation of his own times, it is a romance and a science fiction fantasy. The ideas Bellamy wrote about, ie. the portrayed utopian society , influenced people such as Eugene V.Debs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs) , John Dewey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey) , Thorstein Veblen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen), and Norman Thomas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Thomas ).

Bellamy’s twentieth century is a time when everyone shares in a common wealth. It is a time when there are no wars, no private profit, no starvation, no class war, equality and retiral on full pension at 45 (so you can, just with that fact, see that his prediction was wide off the mark!)

His twentieth century utopia is a very nineteenth century idea of utopia. Bellamy – West in the story – explains that everyone in the twentieth century speaks in the way the educated middle classes spoke in the nineteenth century, the dialect of the working classes having been eradicated by equality and education. He also tells us that because the relationship between money and married status has been eradicated, marriage has become freer – people marry only for love rather than to keep status in society. This has in turn led to an equality of sorts between men and women – though his nineteenth century mind could only imagine an “imperium in imperio” organisation of the “weaker sex”. Women do work and are paid equally but their working hours are less, they have more frequent vacations and “careful provision is made for rest when needed,” because women are “inferior in strength to men and further disqualified industrially in special ways.” What women have, ie. an equality unimaginable in 1887, has been given to them by the men, “We have given them a world of their own, with its emulations, ambitions and careers.”

Bellamy gives the moral authoritative voice to a protestant minister - modernity in the nineteenth century middle class mind was greatly effected by the individuality the church was allowing capitalist venture. The sermon is written in a way that today we find grating. The minister takes ownership for the change in society for the church (perhaps this would be a way we could sell socialism to Texas?).

Though these things are telling of the middle class Boston Bellamy is from, (he had studied law, though never practised and had become a journalist) his ideas on state capitalist organisation and equality were revolutionary enough to make the book the third biggest seller of its day after Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
One of the most interesting parts of the book for me comes towards the end when he revisits the nineteenth century. He takes a walk around Boston, commenting on advertising, the banking system and poverty. He then goes to his fiancés house where he sits at a luxurious dinner table. Someone in the company asks him where he has been and he says,
"I have been in Golgotha," at last I answered. "I have seen
Humanity hanging on a cross! Do none of you know what sights
the sun and stars look down on in this city, that you can think
and talk of anything else? Do you not know that close to your
doors a great multitude of men and women, flesh of your flesh,
live lives that are one agony from birth to death? Listen! their
dwellings are so near that if you hush your laughter you will hear
their grievous voices, the piteous crying of the little ones that
suckle poverty, the hoarse curses of men sodden in misery turned
half-way back to brutes, the chaffering of an army of women
selling themselves for bread. With what have you stopped your
ears that you do not hear these doleful sounds? For me, I can
hear nothing else."
He looks around the table and sees the guests are shocked and he tells them he was not accusing them personally of the weaknesses of the nineteenth system. The guests, rather than seeing his point became “angry and scornful. Instead of enthusiasm, the ladies showed only aversion and dread, while the men interrupted me with shouts of reprobation and contempt. "Madman!" "Pestilent fellow!" "Fanatic!" "Enemy of society!" were some of their cries, and the one who had before taken his eyeglass to me exclaimed, "He says we are to have no more poor. Ha! ha!" He is then thrown out. I don’t know about you, but I have been to parties like that.
After this revisiting of his former time he feels shame, “For I had been a man of that former time. What had I done to help on the deliverance whereat I now presumed to rejoice? I who had lived in those cruel, insensate days, what had I done to bring then to an end?”
Perhaps, using the same dramatic devices Bellamy uses to prick his 19^th century audiences consciences. I should ask myself the same question on behalf of my descendants, what was I doing while New Labour papered over the cracks while Bush plundered the world and promoted “poverty with servility?’ What was I doing when “governments were accustomed, on the slightest international misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizens and deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death and mutilation, wasting their treasures the while like water; and all this oftenest for no imaginable profit to the victims.” Bellamy makes a lot of metaphors – though I think his metaphor of the “prodigious coach” is his best. In it he describes society as a coach, the fortunates riding in the luxury seats – the unfortunates – the masses, pulling at the harness and driver, hunger. At times the road was bumpy and some might fall from their seats, but they tried their damndest to keep them and pass them to their children. He also says that those who sat in the seats were under the illusion that they were “made of finer clay” than those pulling the coach. He said that this illusion was quick to take hold of those who managed to climb up from the ground, “before they had outgrown the marks of the rope upon their hands, began to fall under its influence. Another telling line in this metaphor is when he says that the people up top can, “enjoy the scenery at their leisure or critically discuss the merits of the straining team”, something I feel, Bellamy is a tiny bit guilty of as he later pours scorn on the working class labor (sic) movements. He believed a solution could only come if the educated classes were persuaded are willing to do something. He believed class solutions were fragmentary narrow and the nation should unite patriotically to create the ‘ultimate nation’.
Bellamy’s ideas are not fully formed in this book. He talks about a loose treaty between nations who have adopted his socialist/state capitalist system and says that it is for future generations to sort out the future ‘unification of the world as one nation. Meanwhile, however the present system works so nearly perfectly that we are quite content to leave posterity the completion of the scheme’
Bellamy went on to write another book about this ‘time’ called Equality, in which he explores his ideas further. His ideas became the basis for a new political party in the US – The National Party.
This is an interesting read – giving an insight to the ideas that were being bandied about at the time and the belief that capitalism was in a state of imminent destruction. Bellamy was writing around the time when Marx’s ideas were becoming known to the world. Actually looking backwards, perhaps if all of those people with similar goals had come together and forced change perhaps a time-traveler arriving today would not see the increase of death, destruction and broken lives that has actually happened. Perhaps arriving today she wouldn’t know about the death and destruction happening in the name of capitalism as the capitalist press and capitalist politicians conspire to keep the west ignorant, but that is another story. Perhaps if all of the people with the same goal come together in our time, a time-traveler in 100 years will find a utopia were ‘long ago oppressor and oppressed, prophet and scorner, had been dust. For generations rich and poor had been forgotten words.’
Read Bellamy’s works online –

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Edward_Bellamy/Looking_Backward_From_2000_to_1887/

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a327
The Parable of the Water-Tank from the book "Equality" published in 1897 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Parable_of_the_Water-Tank
Edward Bellamy on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bellamy

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦

The Triglav Incident

SLLU are pleased to welcome new member and blog contributor Klaatu Congrejo, who has been exploring, in diary form, how her SL experiences relate to, and intersect with RL issues and experiences. This is her first SL diary extract we are publishing here, hopefully with more to follow...

THE TRIGLAV INCIDENT

Here in Second Life, just as in Real Life, there are daily struggles for 'human' (avatar) rights, ideologies, beliefs, freedom from poverty, freedom from oppression and environmental protection issues.

A few days ago I took part in a stand-off against a group of fascist griefers who, through intimidation and threatening behaviour, were trying to force an SL citizen to remove her building structures and give up her land.
On August 28th, through the IM chatline of Arbor Project (a group that buys up tiny blocks of land and plants trees to prevent that land being taken over by advertisers), I was alerted by a panic call from a Group member:

"Help, they have guns and they are threatening me" said Meredith.
Instantly, there were half a dozen people on line asking 'Whats wrong?', 'Where are you?',
'Who's threatening you?', etc.

Another Arbor Group member from the same location sent back: "We're here (LM enclosed) surrounded by a group of people in uniform, carrying guns and claiming to be SL Police."
Within seconds at least ten other Arbor Project members and myself had teleported into a block of land at Triglav sim. We saw a young female avatar, Meredith, and a large crow avatar, Deadcrow Sands, surrounded by about a dozen large muscle-bound male avatars in blue uniforms. Some of them were carrying rifles - ALL of them had pistols.

Apparently, Meredith had recently built walls with pictures of trees on them to block out the unsightly ads floating above the land next door. One of the 'police officers', the owner of the ad land, claimed he was acting on behalf of Linden Labs and told her to remove the walls and lower her ban lines. She complied, and within minutes her land was swarming with police carrying weapons with the intention, it seemed, of intimidating her and forcing her off her land.

As more Arbor Project people arrived some of the police disappeared, but it was at least half an hour before the last of them left. When questioned about why they were there they simply replied "We're just exploring a wonderful second life and making sure all is good with everyone", and other similar comments.

While one of the Arbor Project members walked around taking pictures of what was happening, another member was making a complete transcript of the conversations taking place. We tried contacting the Lindens to invite them to come and see what was happening but, as is always the case in these siuations, there were no Lindens on line at that time!

We told the 'pretend police' that we were all lodging AR's (Abuse Reports) to Linden Labs about their intimidating behaviour and misrepresenting LL by claiming to be acting on their behalf. We also informed them that the second charge (of misrepresentation) was regarded as a VERY serious offence by LL that could result in them having all their lands confiscated.
This information soon saw all but two of the police disappear.

These two remaining policemen - 'Gandi Benelli' and 'joethehand McMillan' (I kid you not, that was his name!) seemed determined to wait around until we had gone. Then one of the Arbor Group members shouted out: "Since we have so many members here I suggest we all sit down and have a group meeting - now any suggestions for an agenda?".
As we started our meeting Gandi and joethehand soon got the message that we weren't going anywhere so they decided to leave.
We all filed our AR reports and, to date, we're waiting for Linden Labs to investigate.

I think 'The Triglav Incident', as we call it, is a perfect example of solidarity overcoming oppression - as has happened so many times throughout RL history. And it's encouraging to see that here in Second Life too a group of people standing together in peaceful solidarity can overcome oppressive and intimidatory behaviour.

PEACEnHARMONY -KC:))


Remember: if YOU have an article you would like to submit to the blog, about your SL experiences, and how they relate to RL issues, please submit it on a notecard inworld to SLUL Revolution or higgleDpiggle Snoats.

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦

A reply... Pornography.

This reply is from a friend of the SLLU. He also recommends this addition to the debate: http://www.dsp.org.au/dsp/porno.htm

...the extract below seems to conflate the experiences of women in pornography with that of children.....althought the quote provided from Jensen only refers to women.

There is undoubtedly similarities and some "intertwining" - but I think there is a case to separate discussing pornography involving adult women ( and men ) and that exploiting children.

Extract from Blog -
"Consent and choice have been central notions in debates around wider commercial sexual exploitation of women and children (pornography, prostitution, lapdancing, trafficking and so on), and are at the forefront too, with regards Second Life. Both concepts are intertwined, and, as Robert Jensen, in his book
'Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity' notes,
"A meaningful discussion of choice can't be restricted to the single moment when a woman decides to perform in a specific pornographic film but must include all the existing background conditions that affect not only the objective choices she faces but her subjective assessment of these choices.".
__________________

These are serious issues to address , but I don't agree with quote from Catherine McKinnon about all (adult) pornography

And this quote from Catherine Mckinnon-
"Pornography is the perfect preparation - motivator and instruction manual in one - for sexual atrocities" Catherine McKinnon.

Personnally I think a much deeper discussion needs to take place on issues relating to sexuality rather than just demanding the eradication of all pornography and prostitution.

DM.

Some extracts from DSP ( Australia ) pamphlet on Pornography and Censorship

Sexual images can be both positive and negative. They can challenge the old stereotypes of women as passive and sexuality as dangerous, presenting instead erotic imagery of women's sexuality as pleasurable and active. Pornographic images can also represent violence, abuse and degradation.

How to deal with the two sides of sexuality and its imagery in today's society has been hotly contested among feminists. Is censorship of pornography the most effective strategy or does it only deal with the images and not the acts of violence directed against women? Or does censorship throw the baby out with the bathwater — sweeping away positive explorations of sexuality through the imposition of a new repressive morality and bolstering the campaigns of the traditional conservative opponents of women's liberation?

..........Both Dworkin and MacKinnon have also argued that women who participate in or enjoy pornography or have heterosexual sex are brainwashed or programmed into these activities by men. In order to maintain this view they have to virtually obliterate the idea that women are active agents in the choices they make about their lives and their sexual activity. Dworkin and MacKinnon instead reinforce the idea of women as victims, as passive and helpless, needing to be guided into an understanding of the "errors of their ways" by those who "truly" understand the nature of sexuality.

.............Arguing against censorship of pornography does not mean condoning, ignoring or de-prioritising campaigns around the often violent and usually misogynist portrayal of women in capitalist society. We have a responsibility to counter in the most effective way images which are exploitative and sexist — not by seeking to have them banned, but by initiating a much more wide-ranging debate about sex; by campaigning for better sex education in schools; and by creating more informed and responsible social attitudes to the expression of sexuality.

However if we are going to effectively fight sexism we can't just focus on sexually explicit portrayals of women. The establishment media, advertising, education system and other institutions, as well as the right-wing moralists who also campaign against pornography, all reinforce women's traditional roles. All objectify and degrade women.

..........We need an analysis of violence that empowers women, not one that reinforces the view that women are inherently powerless, timid, non-aggressive and submissive. Feminism should be a critique of this society, of a society that promotes violence against women in many forms, not a blame-the-indvidual, knee-jerk reaction that looks to the capitalist state for the solutions. Instead, we need a mass, feminist movement that allies itself with all those fighting the system of social relations which perpetuates violence, competition and oppression.
link to full document -
http://www.dsp.org.au/dsp/porno.htm

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦

NEWS

MORE EXCITING NEWS FROM SLLU!

We have been given the opportunity to purchase our own land, which we can then use for a group project. We can buy this land with the money we have in the coffers at the moment which amounts to L$37000. In order to keep this land and our current projects we will need people to donate regularly - donation boxes can be found in the new coffee shop.

Comments about this offer can be made to SLUL Revolution. We have a deadline of Tuesday 3pm GMT - so comments before this please!

Please make your comments on a notecard entitled "SLLU Project Land"

thanks everyone!

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦

CALLING ALL LEFTY CR8-tive TYPES!!

You Cre8tive lot! The photo below shows some of the Cre8 garden tributes you have left in memory and in tribute to the victims of globalisation/capitalism.

All you lefty creative types - the ongoing Cre8 Garden

(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Isla%20Montevideo/49/220/36)

has proved that the left have the artists! Well done to all who have taken part and all of those who are going to.

SLLU are now working towards aquiring our own land for a new and exciting ongoing proposed project - details of which to follow later in the week.

In order that we can expand, and connect with as many people in SL as possible, we are now looking for content-creators who are interested in participating in our new ventures. Currently, we are in the process of setting up a space where we will give away creations, donated by members, to residents of SL, who can then contribute a voluntary donation if they wish (or not, as the case may be!).

SO! if you are a content-creator, and are interested in donating content you have made, and having a venue to show-case it, be it overtly politically-themed, or just playful/dorky/useful/experimental - whatever! please get in touch for further details, and/or send your full-perms content to either myself (higgleDpiggle Snoats), Eremia Woodbury, or Plot Tracer.

thanks again for your continuing support!
higgledpiggle snoats

OUR CHARTER:

The SLLU seeks creative, non violent means to foster revolutionary social dialogue. We oppose capitalism, as well as racism and sexism as a part of capitalism. Our goal is to develop socialism in order to maximise left activity and thought on SL.

SLLU originated from members of the Scottish SSP, and is now part of a world wide left unity movement in SL. We are a diverse group, united around social justice and anti-capitalism. We are a democratic collective.

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦

Second Life Left Unity PRESS RELEASE

Photos of Cre-8 Garden and Demo at Linden Mansion

(Thanks to Dissdent Vollmar for some of these photos)

Over the past few days, groups on SL opposed to Globalisation have organised demonstrations against the G8, whom are at the present meeting in Rostock, Germany. There have been G8 demonstrations outside Reuters and other places. Tonight there will be a mass demo at the Linden Mansion.

SLLU have set up a "Tribute Garden" for people to go place either a flower, a candle - or a tribute of their own choosing on the site in memory of the millions of victims of globalisation
Isla Montevideo (41, 185, 32)

SLLU commend all of those who have organised and have taken part in these demonstrations against a cabal of self elected owners and distributers of the worlds assets. This cabal have tried to "sell" off some of the poorest countries water resources to the highest bidder. This is shameful and has led to demonstrations across the world.

A concerted effort by British campaigners has meant that Nepal's water system is safe, for now, from the profiteers.

Vicky Cann, the World Development Movement’s water campaigner said:

“Time and again water privatisation has failed to connect the poor in the developing world to affordable drinking water. That’s why the WDM joined campaigners from Nepal in calling for Severn Trent to withdraw from this contract.

“It is shocking to now learn, from media reports, that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is threatening to terminate its multi-million dollar loan if the privatisation element of the project is not fulfilled. It is yet another blatant example of a donor trying to bully a poor country into doing what it wants. It is good to see that the minister in charge will not be railroaded by the ADB into privatising Kathmandu’s water supply before reviewing more options.”

Gopal Chintan, coordinator of the Water and Energy Users' Federation-Nepal said:

"People in Nepal are against multinational companies taking over Nepal's drinking water supply and we are pleased that Severn Trent has withdrawn its bid. What Kathmandu needs is public investment in its water supply and management - to cut the 40 per cent plus leakage rate and upgrade the water supply network served by the many small local rivers, springs and ponds,"

ENDS.

PLOT TRACER

Second Life Left Unity

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦

Group Press Release: Free Speech in Second Life and the Anti-Front National Protests

The presence of the Front National in Second Life currently makes the whole issue of Free Speech within this virtual world a highly relevant one. So we would like to take this opportunity to define SLLU's position in relation to some of the difficulities surrounding this matter.

Our group's current position regarding 'free speech' within SL is outlined as follows:

We do not feel that residents have automatic 'rights' of free speech as such in SL other than those granted to us by Linden Labs. Those rights do not seem to be democratically decided by the community at large, and are subject to change at any time. So, as far as we are aware, there are no constitutionally enshrined rights to free speech within SL that are equivalent to those which exist in RL societies which aspire to democracy. Also, the fact that (as we understand it) all chat and IMs are accessible and able to be monitored by Linden Labs at all times, makes the entire concept of 'free speech' in SL very different to the concept as it would normally be applied in RL.
In principle at least, therefore, the idea of SL residents having a 'right' to free speech is somewhat illusory since it must by definition operate within what is potentially an authoritarian and non-democratic social structure - in practice, this is inconsistenty regulated, at Linden Labs' staffs own discretion.

As long as SL is structured as it is - we find it hard to envisage how the right to 'free speech' in the RL sense of the term would be technically possible to achieve. We do however think it is in Linden Labs' own interests to not be seen to excessively restrict freedom of residents' expression, even though they may theoretically have the power to do this, and we think it is currently residents' responsiblity to act in their capacity as a consumer pressure group and SL citizens and lobby LL to ensure that any restrictions on their freedoms of expression are kept as minimal as possible. We believe the successful future of Second Life depends on this balance of power being kept in check.

We would argue that the RL controversy surrounding Front National is grounds enough for the Lindens to consider whether LL wants to allow them to be represented in a PG zone, or whether what they stand for in SL is identical to what they stand for in RL, and thus incompatible with LLs own Community Standards. In RL They are associated with xenophobic violence within France, and advocate the enforced repatriation of immigrants. We interpret this as being rooted in a historically dangerous and inciteful nationalistic and racist ideology, even though the Front National are nowadays apparently fairly careful and eager to officially distance themselves from any such overt associations. However, the reality of what is and isn't enforced within PG is somewhat inconsistent, and we don't know of any previous precedents where LL has removed groups or individual residents from PG zones, based on their real life actions or political affilliations, because they have anticipated that they could pose a threat to the upholding of PG standards in the community. Therefore, we think the stronger case would be to look at removing them from PG, based on their actions inworld - which will need to be closely monitored - and to seek for LL to take seriously the existing reports of FN group members harassing residents and businesses in the area where they were originally based in Porcupine.

We do not as a group, seek an outright ban of FN from SL before their actions inworld merit it - because, as abhorrent as we may find their policies - we don't think an ideology can be extinguished merely by being conveniently pushed out of sight. We believe that now that this real-world political problem has been brought to wider attention amongst the SL community, it would be better for such an ideology to be combatted within SL by means of a counter-information and education campaign, and that this would be more likely to have beneficial knock-on RL consequences in terms of fully utilising this medium to raise awareness of RL political issues and conflicts.


To those who would criticise us for applying the term 'neo-fascist' to this organisation as empty rhetoric, we would argue that since neo-fascism implies an ideology with nationalistic, xenophobic, intolerant and extreme far-right tendencies, it's usage is justified. Furthermore, due to the extremity of of FN's proposed policies regarding immigrant repatriation, and because of their leader LePen's history of and conviction for 'holocaust minimisation', and his ties with Mussolini's daughter, for example, we do not think the parallels with historical European Fascism are unwarranted, or over-exaggerated. We also urge people to remember that although Second Life is popularly perceived as 'a game' - it is now increasingly being used as a platform for real-world political parties to campaign. The FN in SL are *not* gamers - they are seeking to represent and recruit for a real-life destructive political ideology, the implications of which should not be trivialised.

Regarding free speech within our organisation - we are a very diverse international group of people, and obviously none of us have totally identical views. It is important for us to debate and discuss these within the collective, and to act on the issues where we are able to achieve a measure of consensus.
It is essential for us, and we believe, for all people as human beings to be able to express their own views freely. We are strong believers in healthy dissent! But we also realise that if we, as individuals, are of interest to outside parties, because of our belonging to a particular group, we have a responsibility not to misrepresent our own views as being those of the entire group membership.


We do object to being personally sought out and approached, as individual group members, to give individual views which are then intentionally used to give a distorted picture of the group as a whole. On any matters where we have achieved group consensus, we seek to send out group-compiled releases, so that the distinction between the inevitable individual divergences, and areas where we are in majority agreement can be made clear.



Signed: SLLU

The SL Left Unity group was set up by members of the Scottish Socialist Party in November 2006. It has outgrown it's original kernel of SSP members into a world wide left unity group comprising of people from many countries and all walks of life who are interested in social justice and whom are critical of the current world wide neo-conservative capitalist system.

♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves♦ ♦Stumble This ♦Reddit ♦ Slashdot it♦