We are in a Conservative Revolution.

[cprise]

If you want to sow any good seeds in the next 15 years, it will need to involve political judo... redirecting those destructive energies into needed structural change. (Sorry, that was mixed metaphor.)

These are the power-centers (and pressure points) of the conservative revolution:

1) corporate compulsion for shareholder profits at the expense of everyone else (comes from the corporate charter)

2) corporate monopolization of politics (bought politicians)

3) commercial media cartel acting in the interest of the wealthy (there is no populist media to balance)

4) commercially-administered voting in large swing states (BBV)


Number 1 is that old problem. Without a reform of the corporate charter to account for the greater good, only a large moderately socialist political party can keep corporations in check. Liberalism alone (with its weak narrative of social responsibility) doesn't cut it. Charter reforms would have to be pushed through at the NAFTA/EU/MERCOSUR level and may become a major source of international tension.

Numbers 3 and 4 involve the front and back ends of the public consent cycle. Neocons' lock on these institutions is approaching absolute. BBV has to be outlawed; only a physical ballot will suffice. Eliminating Blackbox Voting is our best chance at progress in the near-term.

As for the media, forget cable. They are not using the public airwaves so let them do their yellow journalism to paying subscribers. Broadcasters (and the Fairness doctrine) are what helped get us in trouble in the first place and that 98%-commercial-plus-commercially-sponsored-PBS broadcast market has to stop. Other countries setup a large license-fee-based public corporation that is independant of both the government and private capital; the funding model ensures it is populist by nature and it positively changes the tone and culture of the entire news market just by doing its job. Sadly, this doesn't sell with Democrats because it is boring or something.

Number 2 has been sharply curbed! A bright spot and a lesson for us all that the political judo is possible. The new campaign finance law has nearly put neocons in a corner, and boy do they HATE it. Neocons' increased fervor is largely a result of the desperation they feel about being money-divorced from their conglomerate providers (so they are grabbing in other directions for power). We are 1/4 of the way there.


Any thoughts? :)

[snowbear]

1. I think your observations are brilliant !!

Now how do we change all that... :shrug:

Will there be a cracking point with (sane) Americans?

[cprise]

3. We could start by

...finding a common way to visualize those pressure points, so that we wake up with those targets in our minds every day... the way a beaver thinks about trees.

We are locked out of national politics (the media wants us to think otherwise, but they need to create the impression that their worker bees in Washington are part of a democracy).

BBV can be addressed at the state level: obviously starting with Florida and Ohio although everyone needs to get into the act. The voting issues forum here on DU would be a good place to see what is going on in your state. Bev Harris and her peers have laid a fine foundation for the anti-BBV cause.

Media reform eventually needs to happen nationally, but pockets of sanity and actual positive ideas (instead of just complaints) can be developed if 2 or 3 states or regional zones setup their own public broadcasting based on the BBC model. These would levy a small license fee paid by every TV owner (not from taxes). Imagine if Minnesota Public Radio had over 4x the revenue, and none of that money came from the state budget, corporate sponsors or charity. It would expand to run perhaps 2 TV channels and 4 radio stations.

Here is a sample of what true public broadcasting is like:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/newsnight_election_2005/4421655.stm

[cprise]

7. Found this: Media Reform Information Center

http://www.corporations.org/media/


This interesting one is also on the same site:

How to Overthrow Corporate Rule in 5 Not-so-easy Steps
http://www.corporations.org/solutions

[AuntiBush]

14. Excellent Links & Information - THANK YOU!

:hi: Thanks cprise... bookmarked, and emailed to everyone I know!

[AndyTiedye]

2. You Left Out a Couple of Big Ones

5) The Dominion, Opus Dei, Pope Maledict I, and associated pro-theocracy forces.

6) PNAC.

Broadcasters (and the Fairness doctrine) are what helped get us in trouble in the first place

The Fairness doctrine stood us in pretty good stead while it was in effect.
Unfortunately, Reagan did away with the Fairness doctrine, and the
media has been pretty much all Repub-all-the-time since then.

and that 98%-commercial-plus-commercially-sponsored-PBS broadcast market has to stop.

PBS was fine until they put right-wing goons in charge of it.
Commercial TV mostly sucks, but so many people like it that you'd
never be able to simply take it off the air.

Other countries setup a large license-fee-based public corporation that is independent of both the government and private capital; the funding model ensures it is populist by nature

Only if it really is independent, which happens like, never.
Even the BBC has been forced to cave in quite publicly lately, and
the BBC is as good as it gets for that funding model.

Sadly, this doesn't sell with Democrats because it is boring or something.

It wouldn't sell with their constituents for the same reason.

[cprise]

5. Fairness doctrine asks the impossible

...for commercial corporations to present views that are against their shareholder's interests. We relied on it for the 'truth' and what we got was obsequeous compliance that muddled every point of view with an alternate WHACKO point of view. We got burned. And 2 sides to each issue? No wonder we can't see beyond Republican/Democrat, Black/White even here on DU. Equal Time for political campaigns is fine, but it shouldn't go beyond that and some breakups (pry broadcasters away from industrial conglomerates).

The major change in media temperament came after Clinton deregulated them to the extent that conglomerates could form, and local monopolies built. THEN they nailed that fool's feet to the floor with any silly scandal they could find.

The BBC 'caving in' was nothing but a public gesture. It hasn't prevented them from breaking more damning stories about Tony Blair. It is not perfectly independant, true, but this model is far and away the best I've seen. A competing public broadcaster is being considered, which would be an interesting innovation. If Americans cannot see the genius of this market structure in a culture so close to ours, then we are in very deep trouble; self-absorbed and myopic would be kind terms.

Number 6 is part of a pattern of militarization (for resource grabbing, not defense). It is a result of the agressive profit motive from number 1.

Number 5 is -- yes Virginia -- shrinking in this country. Fundamentalism is on the decline (and this has them freaked out) and the soft-pedaling you see is just that. Christianity is not the fastest growing world-view on the planet today; humanism is (whether its secular or religious). In our country it is pervasive, even if it has become rather shallow. Fundamentalism will evaporate with proper institutional changes (and Fundie leaders know this -- which is why they want public welfare administered by the church and not a secular authority).


Thanks for the input.

[KT2000]

4. You make some good points

I thought that the charter already specified that the corporation must serve the greater good of the citizens of the state.

They would make the case that money is the greater good (trickle down) and most people would accept that. There needs to bo some number crunching to prove that corporations are in fact NOT serving the greater good. I think people only understand money now.

ex, cost of ill health from pollution, cost of the uninsured, cost to society for having to clean up pollution with tax dollars etc.

[cprise]

6. Number crunching is done for the most part

For an intro to the issue of corporate predation, the documentary film "The Corporation" is tops:
http://thecorporation.tv

Also, Marjorie Kelly is a good authority on the issue, and Josh Farley with respect to the causes of environmental abuse:
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2003/04/09/the/index.html

Look for publications that criticize 'GDP' as the main economic indicator.

The message of "money is the greater good" can easily be shown as dehumanizing, but the proto-fascist organs we now call 'media' won't let you without a good smear then segue to kidnapp-bride. Also, money is not the root problem... it's just one of humanity's motivational tools. It's the pattern of its flow that is crucial. You and I and also millions of working poor get up every day and bust our asses to maintain the value of the stocks and currency which mostly lists as the top 5 percent's "property". So money can only exist with all that work backing up a government-maintained artifact-- Money and wealth as we know it spring from a social contract! But the powerful want the illusion that the contract is a one-way street. It is not and some democratic control over wealth is naturally implied by its greenback form.

I think the understanding problem you mention is mostly limited to the US. Reading non-US sites is very refreshing. The Guardian is a good example.

The world wants to know if a currency is democratically-managed and if its flow has room for average people to prosper. When they sense it has come under the control powerful people playing shell-games, they switch to more democratic currencies (like the Euro these days). Its instinctual and has rare exceptions, but it is a reflection of truth.

[sweetheart]

8. 5. financial corporate media

There is a very tight oligopoly in corporate media dominated by
reuters and bloomberg. These media inform all financial institutions
as to what is going on in the investment world with real-time pricing
and other data about corporate behaviour.

Inserting another media company in to this mix, that reported the other
stuff these crony-firms are not reporting, would serve your #1 & 3,
and of course 2 given that such a firm could make public the voting
and bribery trends in lobbiest firms and who finances them.

Using capital market media to report on pay, unions, long term credit
concerns, underfinanced pensions, abuse of water resources, shifting
taxable funds offshore, sweatshops and all that, as a corporate format
of reporting to show shareholders the real story behind teh charade,
would empower shareholders to even have a conscience, as even if they
do, there is scarce information in the market today to use as a
proper guideline for such investing.

[cprise]

9. Interesting observation.

Although they are mostly just doing their job by protecting their commercial interests. A true public broadcaster would push its way onto their turf starting with worker and regulatory related news, and working outward.

Bloombergs and Reuters' will always exist. But they have no public-interest competitor in this country so their coverage is irresponsible. I do not believe, however, that they even bear much responsibility for shareholders' conscience. Most shares are overwhelmingly owned by a small number of very wealthy people who are also very resourceful. These people have access to good data and feed or starve their conscience as they see fit. Their conscience is not our problem.

The real question is whether the middle and lower classes can be lulled into accepting their bullshit; Our conscience is our problem. For a long time the corporatists' lullaby was a wall of noise and cool hipster camoflage. But the internet age makes things inconvenient, so now we get noisy pompous neocon activism; they are losing control at the wheel and it is scaring people away so we aren't so lulled anymore.

Saving TV and radio by restoring balance and direction:

*** Move 1/3 of the broadcast spectrum to license-fee-based providers as a way to restore the public interest.

*** Equal Time for political candidates (not Fairness Doctrine)

*** Bust 'em up: No more local monopolies, and no more cross-ownership of broadcast media with other industries (conglomerates)

[sweetheart]

12. framing our conscience... ontology of propaganda

This is the ontology of news. If an index were prepared and discussed
about labour exploitation and comparative worker enslavement, it would
"put" the subject in to the viewer-mind. As well, a war-index showing
complicity in supporting violence and war, that persons wishing to
invest and support non-violent businesses would be debating the choice.
And same same for undermining civil rights, carbon emissions, womens
equality, gay rights, child labour, and so many things, that if
people were merely exposed to a cnbc-style analyst presenting the
alternative conception, the public awareness and "conscience" would
rise.

[libertypirate]

10. What about a new type of news....

The one thing they are afraid of is if someone creates a better mousetrap. They control the market but people are hungry and are looking for the next big thing, they want it to be the blogs because there is still a distributed market that they control.

I always thought that news could be source driven, not filter driven. If we made people own the information that gets reported I think they would be less likely to try and tell us a plane that has a max load of 1700 lbs can carry 2000 lbs of explosives.

It could even hyperlink source specific details like the max load weight of the plane in the recent boogey man story. I also think that the news could become more concise in this format.

I have been thinking also along the lines of how perception is more important then reality. With that in mind came to the conclusion that Americans might not be as Bush happy as they painted us out to be. They won't show the memo why, because they know that it will be the tipping point for most people who are on the edge of pissed off.

Think about it all they need is the perception they don't need us to really know what others are thinking. Why don't they have support from the middle republicans? They seem to find people on the far edges as their support not the center of their own party. It is a major scam that needs to be unfolded and handed out door to door. We just need to foot soldiers to do it, we might even have the numbers of people to do it, we just don't perceive that we do!

It's not about reality, I think that is lesson number 1.

[sweetheart]

11. framed news

I could totally see a frame put around a news channel, with
comments from a site like DU appearing in real-time chat beneath
the video frame, and mobile comments to the right of the frame...
that way the news would have contention, opposition and
discussion to frame it.

Its not rocket science technologically, as part of the window is
reserved for the video feed, and the rest is a software application
like DU, or even, for that matter, a forum on DU of live-media
comments by channel... Cspan, faux, cnbc, nbc, cbs, al jezeera,
why not?

[libertypirate]

13. To have a revolution you must have a reason.

What is their reason for revolting against the United States?

Is it they don't like to play by the rules...

Is it they think the rules are silly....

Is it God gives them the right to do it so why not...

What are these fucks revolting against?

[cprise]

20. Secular humanism

...the core value system of a can-do, humane society and the basis for all liberal/left movements. It attempts to value each person equally, making the old heirarchies seem nonessential or unethical.

What makes them want to 'revolt'? The order of their 'natural' heirarchy has been violated: Consider that they have a high divorce rate. And they have been divorced from their 'tribe' too (having to live near people who don't look like they do). They see government as betraying their heirarchies and CAUSING the divorce and immigration. So they go running back to 'father' (Christianity or the corporate world), insisting the rest of society is not paying enough respect to their new family.

WE blame corporatism/consumerism for our feelings of dislocation and alienation (lack of closeness or quality relationhsips). People grabbing for the car culture, the products and the nice lawn, and fleeing close urban neiborhoods that dominated life before the 50s. People letting too much 'stuff' get between them.

Pour cheap energy into a mostly-urban society with tons of space around it, and you're bound to get an explosion. We are left with tenuous or fractured communities and families that are easily dominated by corporations.

[Tux]

15. RSS News

Yahoo! and Google News use RSS to search news outlets for articles. I prefer Google News but there is no bias other than the writers of the articles. I can filter out conservative crap or I can find it. We should try to get people there since no one controls where the info is coming from. Comparing articles for news is great. I like having a choice of 60 articles on the refound ivory billed woodpecker for example.

[cprise]

21. Leftists just end up retreating into individual cocoons that way.

Meanwhile the right has control of the communal channels of communication (public airwaves).

Relying only on self-selection as a way to protect yourself will lead you straight to a ghetto.

[gorgan]

16. *Devolution* you mean

[autorank]

17. Excellent! Ever hear this: "Sell on the news!" They've peaked.

Don't assume we're fighting a guerilla campaign, retreating into the woods. Fuck them. They had their chance, they screwed it up and our nation is lunging towards unviability and the world hates us. Pretty good for government work! It's time for them to go and it's time for people to let it rip.

[cprise]

22. Problem is, they're destroying the popularity of OUR airwaves.

So the question is, how do geographic communities share information and common experiences? Should we go back to newspapers?

Your tagline is spot-on. The wealthy already had an advantage through a 100% commercial media. By pushing voting as a commercial service they try to grab both ends of the public consent cycle.

[autorank]

24. I totally agree. 100%! But they're now desperate. Just out of

curiosity, why do you think Ridge made the statement he made about bogus security alerts?

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Swamp Rat]

19. It's "Bushevik Revolution"

They aren't real conservatives. They are reptiles from outerspace.

[cprise]

23. The way I see it

...their sole institution of production is the corporation, and their sole instrument of social welfare is the church.

But the corporation and their version of church are misanthropic; they compulsively undermine humanity's future.

That leaves government. An inclusive democracy inherently leans toward humanistic values and reduced heirarchy, which gets in the way of using the military to grab resources like cheap labor and energy.

[paineinthearse]

25. Ted Kennedy's words from this afternoon's teleconference

"Reversing the rules of the Senate is a reverse revolution, returning us to a time of kings and absolute monarchy."