Reply #82: Most who recognize the evils of capitalism . . ..

[defendandprotect]

fail to go far enough to recognize the suicidal nature of it --

Exploitation -- especially of nature -- is suicidal.

The powerful have always feared the masses and thus created devices, such as religion, to control them.

That is a subject which needs a great deal more discussion here at DU.

As Cheney was fond of telling us, the right wing creates our "reality" and we are forced to
deal with it. John Mitchell told us way back when, "The country is going to become so right
wing it will make your head spin."

I've tried at DU to move the issue of the fakery involved in the current right wing religious
movement -- and the concept of organized patriarchal religion as the underpinning for patriarchy.

The GOP gave start up funds to the Christian Coalition as their system of authority/patriarchy
reeled from the various movements for civil rights and social change - Youth Revolution of 1960's.
Scaife financed Dobson's organization -- other right wing wealthy funded Bauer's organization.

Don't forget some of this undermining of patriarchal religion was brought about by Pope John
XXIII and his Vatican II which sought to give a compassionate and humane face to the RCC.
Vatican II also acknowledged the right to personal conscience in all matters -- including
birth control. It essentially kicked Papal Infallibility in the ass.

The Youth Movement was a direct challenge to war and all authority -- a challenge to culture.

US/CIA also created the Taliban/Al Qaeda during the Carter adminsitration . . . in order to "bait the Russians into Afghanistan . . . in hopes of giving them a Vietnam type experience."

And, US created the VIOLENT Islamic writings and moved them into the Middle East.

More info on this, if you're interested --



Lots of interest to be discussed here re money/debt --

We moved our jobs out into China and Mexico -- and coincidentally they are financing our debt for wars and tax cuts for elites.

We've provided taxpayer subsidy for the Vatican's "faith-based" organizations ---
coincidentally at a time when they required money to cover their priest-pedophile lawsuits.
In fact, there is an ongoing investigation into whether the RCC has used that money to pay off
their pedophile lawsuits!

Agree the system has become dysfunctional -- corporatism blocks any true representation of
citizen needs/interests.


I did come upon some info which isn't directly relevant, but fairly interesting
for a quick scan -- see below.

And nice to see once again, some discussion of "Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness"
and what that really means --

That concept is being weeded out of our culture!!




--------------------------------------




Some interesting notes on Charles Reich/"Opposing the System" 1996 --

Re Justice Brandeis writings -- in one area where he is pointing to
the cause of the Great Depression being "the existing unemployment which is the result, in
large part, of the gross inequality in the distribution of wealth and income which giant
corporations have fostered; that by the control which the few have exerted thru giant
corporations, individual initiative and effort are being paralyzed, creative power impaired,
and human happiness lessened; that the true prosperity of our past came not
from big business, but thru the courage, the energy, and the resourcefulness of small men;
that only by releasing from corporate control the faculties of the unknown many, only by
reopening to them the opportunities for leadership, can confidence in our future be restored
and the existing misery be overcome; and that only thru participation by the many in the
responsibilities and determinations of business can Americans secure the moral and intellectual
development which is essential to the maintenance of liberty."

(Corporate power only increased afterwards --)


Here's FDR --

"The industrial revolution brought a new dream -- higher standard of living for everyone --
luxury within the reach of the humblest -- but, said FDR, there was a "shadow over the dream" --
"Along with the industrial revolution came giant corporations which threatened the economic
freedom of individuals to earn a living."

FDR ...

"A glance at the situation today, only too clearly indicates that equality of opportunity as we have known it no longer exists."

"Put plainly, we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there
already."

All of this, according to FDR, calls for "a reappraisal of values."
We need, he continued, to develop "an economic declaration of rights, an economic
constitutional order . . .

It is the minimum requirement of a more permanently safe order of things."

The Declaration of Independence, FDR said, puts the problem of government in terms of a
contract where those who are accorded power receive it subject to certain rights retained by
the people.

"I feel we are coming to a view... that private economic power... is a public trust, as well.
I hold that continued enjoyment of that power by any individual or group must depend upon the
fulfillment of that trust."

"The greater social contract .... terms of which are as old as the Republic, and as new as the new
economic order." FDR described the new social contract --

"Every man has a right to life; and this means that he also has a right to make a comfortable
living. He may by sloth or crime decline to exercise that right; but it may not be denied to him.

We have no actual famine or dearth, our industrial and argricultural mechanism can produce
enough and to spare. Our government, formal and informal, political and economic, owes to
everyone an avenue to possess himself of a portion of the plenty sufficient for his needs,
through his own work."

This requirement FDR said, is a responsibility of those who control the great industrial and financial combinations which dominate our economic life.

"They have undertaken to be, not business men, but Princes of Property.
I am not prepared to say that the system which produces them is wrong.*
I am very clear that they must fearlessly and competently assume the responsibility
that goes with the power. We must fulfill "the new terms of the old social contract,"
Roosevelt concluded, "lest a rising tide of misery, engendered by our common failure, engulf us."

1944 Annual Message to Congress & Fireside chat that same evening -- 1/11/44 --

FDR provided a more complete version for the new social contract --

"We have come to a clearer realization of the fact, however, that true Necessitous men are
not free men. People who are hungry, people who are out of a job, are the stuff of which
dictatorships are made."

Therefore, Roosevelt continued, as these economic truths have been accepted as self-evident, we must accept the justice of "a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and
prosperity can be established for all -- regardless of station or race or creed."

The new social contract, FDR said, must provide for security, and for human happiness and
well-being.

The new economic order would include the RIGHT TO . . .

- a useful and renumerative job

- earn enough to provide adquate food and clothing and recreation;

- of farmers to raise and sell their products at a return which will give them and their
families a decent living

- every businessman, large and small to trade in an atmosphere of freedom, from unfair
competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad

- every family to a decent home

- adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health

- adequate protection from the economic fears of aold age and sickeness and accident
and unemployment

- right to a good education

Meanwhile, an immense new growth of inequality, never imagined in FDR's time, took place.


The new economic edifice built after WWII created a society in the image of the corporate
hiearchy. The economic hierarchy became a social hierarchy. It creaed well-defined social
classes. Positions of privilege are dependent on educational advantages that only the privileged
can obtain. Worse yet, is the fact that the "losers" are disparaged for their condition.

Inequality has also come to mean a loss of freedom as well as a lack of wealth.
The lower a person is on the economic scale, the more the coercion takes the place of freedom.
People are driven by necessity, not choice.

We should recognize that economic coercions is really violence in slow motion.

If we are trying to find the causes of rising violence, we should recognize that economic coercion is on the rise, and it teaches people to do exactly what the system does - use force when they want something badly enough.

The new inequality is both an unbearable injustice and the source of an explosive combination of
fear and anger.

Today, we have forgotten the reason for the growth of government because we deny and repress the fact of corporate governmental power. It is big business, not big government, that primarily
regulate the lives of ordinary Americans.

And, it is in the area of control of knowledge and ideas that the merger of government and
corporate power reaches its apex. At the same time that government began to change from a neutral protector of the public interest under the New Deal to a partner of corporate America, an elaborate program was instituted to cleanse government of anyone who believed in the New Deal vision.

(Mc Carthy Era .... an attack on the ideals of democracy.) My comment --


Loyalty oaths, background checks, no independent thinker was allowed to hold a government job.

As government became more clearly allied with business, the legal system lost whatever
neutrality it possessed and became a pliable tool of power.

A crucial illustration of how governmental powers intended to strengthen democracy were
transformed into vital supports for corporate power is the story of how radio and TV licenses
were distributed. Originally, it was intended that licenses be allocated by the FCC to a broad
variety of community groups and interests representtive of American pluralism and obligated to use their broadcasting privileges to further "the public interest."

What has happened instead is that corporate giants, especially those already in control of other
forms of mass communication such as newspapers, gathered the lion's share of the licenses, often
controlling multiple stations. In addition, the major networks and stations have been given over exclusively to commercial use, so that they are dominated by large corporate advertisers.
Despite the fact that these broadcast licensees neither share their profits with the public, as
owners, nor perform any but the most token public services.

As great as is this givewaway of wealth, the giveaway of power is even more significant.
It means that corporate America completely dominates the public airways, and nothing that is disapproved of by corporate America is likely heard by the public.