Contention I: The Link
The ‘democratic assistance’ offered by the Affirmative’s case is simply a veil behind which
the neoliberal capitalism is able to expand.
Dixon 11 <doctoral candidate, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University>
Marion, Review of African Political Economy, "An Arab Spring,” 2011 http://dx.doi.org/
10.1080/03056244.2011.582766, SRM)
US claims of supporting democracy in.... hegemony of coercion and of consent.
Contention II: The Impacts
The impacts to this capitalist expansion are three-fold:
First, ecological destruction, whether in the form of species loss, resource depletion of
climate change, is a necessary and inevitable consequence of capitalism as the overuse of
resources is wedded to its productive imperative. Nothing short of a total replacement of
the system of capitalism can stave off environmental catastrophe.
Foster 2007
John Foster <Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon, Editor of the Monthly Review, “A New War on the Planet?” http://
www.indypendent.org/2007/06/09/a-new-war-on-the-planet
It is characteristic of the magic-bullet solutions... with the planet — and with other human beings.
Second, the system of capitalism has placed us on the brink of World War III. Resource
competition on a global scale has locked us into a death spiral where the interests of rival
capitalist powers will inevitably necessitate widespread war and devastation.
Socialist Equality Party 2007 <The Socialist Equality Party (US) is in political solidarity with
the International Committee of the Fourth International. The ICFI is the leadership of the world
socialist movement, the Fourth International, founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938. The ICFI publishes
the World Socialist Web Site.>
Socialist Strategy Needed to Oppose War and Social Inequality. http://www.wsws.org/articles/
2007/sep2007/apec-s07.shtml
This US drive for global supremacy is ... anachronistic nation-state framework.
The third impact is poverty. Poverty in society is intimately linked with capitalism through
its ‘reserve army of labor,’ which is the world’s poor. Having a market of underemployeed
individuals is a necessity to the capitalists profit accumulation.
Magdoff 2005
Harry < held several administrative positions in government during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and later became co-editor of the Monthly Review.> http://www.monthlyreview.org/0705magdoffs1.htm Approaching Socialism The Monthly Review Volume 57 Number 3
There is a logical connection between... wages for the lower echelons of workers.
The poverty resulting from the global capitalist system is an extremely harmful, unnoticed
form of structural violence that results in 13 to 18 millions deaths per year. Even though
our plant has enough resources and know-how to provide for each person on earth, our
economic system of distribution necessitates this form of structural violence.
Bucher 2005
Stefan <Tamkang University, Taiwan> Paper for the conference Cultures of Violence at the
University of Oxford. “Globalization and Structural Violence.”
I already indicated that structural... under the control of a single power.
Contention 3: The Solution
Our alternative we endorse is the abandonment of our belief in capitalism. Though not
ideal, rejection of docile political action within the prevailing capitalist system is the only
means to effectively solve for capitalism and poverty in the long run. Our individual
rejection has substantial transformative potential because capitalism’s existence is
sustained only by the willingness of individuals to believe in the system, and this desertion
is the first step to initiating a new socio-political reality.
Johnson 2004 Adrian <Prof Emory University> “The Cynic’s Fetish: Slavoj Zizek and the dynamics of belief” Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society”
Perhaps the absence of a detailed... decide to accept what they know.
Our alternative is a pre-requisite to any form of progressive change. Before we resort to
political action we must step back and analyze the system within which such political action
takes place. Any action within the hegemonic co-ordinates of capitalism will ultimately fail
to alter the kernel of production that makes all of our impacts possible.
Zizek 2004
Slavoj < Thinkin’ Person, Professor at the University of Ljubljana > Revolution at the Gates pgs.
169 - 171
Indeed, since the “normal” functioning ... political space and state apparatuses work.
This essential step back enables us to recognize the systemic violence that generates
the more visible forms of violence perpetrated by clearly identifiable agents. Our
alternative is the starting point to fight back against such violence.
ZIZEK 2008
Slavoj. Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Sociology, Ljubljana University. Violence
(pp1-2).
If there is a unifying thesis that ... subjective violence.
Contention Four: Ethics
Capitalism’s strength lies in its ability to conceal its relationship with widespread systemic
violence by making its assumptions appear both natural and inevitable. As a result, our
primary ethical responsibility as decision-makers is to unmask the fact that capitalism is
built on the exclusion of a vast majority of the world’s population.
Zizek and Daly 2004
Slavoj and Glenn <Thinkers> Risking the Impossible. http://www.lacan.com/zizek-daly.htm
For Zizek it is imperative that we cut... a "glitch" in an otherwise sound matrix.
But what about the others? If nobody else goes along with this rejection, doesn’t that mean
we should default to the pragmatic approach embodied by the affirmative? Absolutely not.
True ethical actions do not rely on an external other but are rather unconditional practices
that reject problematic systems. In this way, the presentation of the affirmative provides an
element of “uniqueness” for our alternative as we should reject their “solution” which does
little more than mystify the relationship between capitalism and global exploitation.
Zizek and Daly 2004
(Slavoj, professor of philosophy at the Institute for Sociology, Ljubljana, and Glyn, Senior
Lecturer in Politics in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at University College,
Northampton, Conversations with Zizek, page 18-19)
For Zizek, a confrontation with the obscenities ... exhorts us to risk the impossible
