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Syndicate
My fave taglines from the comments:
Hee hee.
The city of Chemnitz in the DDR was Karl-Marx-Stadt.
Cute.
This is what we are supposed to believe as proles - that anyone can buy property by the free market system. But it's mostly not true. Since John Locke and private property laws were established in England, most of the prime real estate and lushest farmlands were scooped-up long ago by the richest creme de la creme around the world. In Central America a handful of rich families still claim large tracts of the lushest farmlands by Spanish colonial laws still in-place today. In the democratic capitalist third world, 95 percent of people live outside of the capitalist legal system and own nothing except the rags on their backs and a few pots and pans. And globally, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny elite few is breathtaking. In the richest countries the superrich have managed to un-tax land and shift the lion's share of taxes to labour and on to the large majority.
The current global socio-economic situation is more typical of oligarchy than democracy. For centuries money chased power. Today the complete opposite is true. They can't afford to invade countries with standing armies anymore. Today the oligarchs are reduced to waging war by mostly marauding international capital. What will happen when they realize they can not dominate the large majority of human beings in this way is anyone's guess, but historically waning empires have proven to be dangerous ones.
For trying to turn this into a serious thread, I award Fidel top marks!
Some have said that my mind is just too intensths - two-tenths of everyone else's even. And I try to take it as a compliment.
Here's some fun Marx's:
Maysie, you're the Marxest!
This thread seems a bit vulgar to me.
Mastercard notwithstanding, at least it is a public Sparkasse.
And it's probably an expression of Ostalgia in more ways than one - after all, there is no better way to track your every movement than credit card records.
Could be a great business opportunity actually. Maybe next they'll get an Erich Honecker cellphone that plays the old anthem and only the old anthem, and a webcam that points toward the user..
The card seemed a bit vulgar.
Jokes aside (and yes, that Mastercard logo) I think it's fine.
It was the name of their city for 40 years, after all, and, the institution is a non-profit, similar to a credit union.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_public_bank#Sparkassen
The audience for Marx puns ain't what it used to be, I guess. I suppose it's immaterial...
Oh, that's very good CF.
You know though- vulgar, material, not exactly everyday speech....
But lots of value.
Yarg, a pun within a pun. You know, punning is the most simplified delivery of humour ...
ETA: badaboom!
Does he shop at WalMarx?
And using his MarxsterCard? Puh! I think Karl would have said nay to credit and demanded Canadian proles march to China, the USA, and Mexico to protest absentee owners of the means of production and seize the offshored factories! Okay maybe he wouldn't have said that.
I'm interested to see if Merowe has anything to say about this.
I'm still looking, but I find it interesting that the only local media I can find that is covering this as a story is the trashy tabloid Bild, part of the Axel Springer publishing group.
-oh, and lots and lots of western papers which seem to think it is a big deal.
Sorry, but the first time I passed by a sculpted part of a building and couldn't figure out whether it was Soviet Realism, Nazi realism, or something left over from the Kaiser's time, I realized that once a place has built up enough history, trying play the ideological purist is an exercise in futility.
It's a Karl Marx Mastercard. So what's my interest rate and credit limit?
What's the bigger contradiction, the card, or the fact that the real live Karl Marx had hired servants?
The worst crime of the bourgeoisie is crushing the sense of humour amongst its actors.
There is a great deal in common between Soviet and fascist realism [Italian, Spanish and German]. It oozes out of the architecture and the monuments.
Since the Soviets came first, presumably the fascists were the copycats. It isnt rocket science to pick out the common poular appeal being used.
Contrast that bust of Marx with those typically seen in the West... Highgate Cemetery among the hundreds of other places.
And speaking of the passing of Soviet socialism and Marx in Highgate- I spent the day there when the coup was mounted against Gorbachev. Lovely day it was.
I prefer to grind them between my teeth actually; I like the little crunchy sound they make.
But again, seriously here's a piece from a local newspaper, and the closest they come to any sort of attitude is the headline: "Pay wordwide with Karl Marx" . The story focuses more on the fact that over one third of Sparkasse members chose the famous Marx memorial sculpture for the card
http://www.freiepresse.de/LOKALES/CHEMNITZ/Weltweit-bezahlen-mit-Karl-Ma...
Oh, and the line "If you're talking about money: Marx" - speaking of puns.
"Just when you thought you couldn't pay with Marx anymore...." (my joke)
I suspect this is only an issue for media which presume to point out some sort of hypocrisy, when in fact there is a far wider historical context. Personally, I think it is good that that many people voted for him., rather than a castle, or factory.
I could also ask why there is a sculpture honouring Louis Riel outside the Manitoba Legislature, even though the Father of Confederation had to leave the country to avoid the mob in the guise of an army that Canada was sending in , and that as an elected member he had to sneak into the House of Commons to sign the register, and never was able to take his seat, and every agreement Manitoba and Canada made with him was broken.
We don't think about that, because it is local history, and it is complicated. It is no different over there.
That mustve been when Yeltsin called in the army to defend the new capitalist system against threats of democracy. The vote was 636 to 2 to impeach Boris. He took Maggie's advice to heart and dared to be a dictator whilst terrorizing Russia's parliament.
Truth be told, that country - the DDR - was sold over the issue of credit. It was the offer to trade East German marks at par with West German marks that ultimately passed that referendum to dissolve and join the West German vision of a Greater Germany.
Oh for crying out loud. This is simply superficial irony. Karl Marx Mastercard, har har har. End of. Save your class analysis for the threads that need it, Winston.
Sorry CF, but you are confusing me.
As in, I'm not the one shocked by this, but unless I am misreading there are people who are, and it certainly seems to be a serious issue for some members of the press.
Hey, that's not funny!
Im Namen der Republik, wer sind diese "Mitglieder"?
Something's missing in this thread.
I long for the days when a Spector was haunting babble.
I miss him, too. What happened to him?
Wieviel mitgliedern?
Well at least one, that I counted, and I wasn't the first to mention it.
But yes, clearly it is just a light-hearted joke, but I guess I'm not as punny as as the rest a youze.
Yes Spector would have them rolling in the aisles with this one.
Speaking of which, what do you get if you reunify East and West Germany?
An international monopoly of empty department stores.
Bah dump bump
Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism 2009
They've lived under both systems, and the majority of East Germans prefer Soviet communism.