What ever happened to...

[Union Thug]

..."Another World is Possible"? Excuse me if this seems a dolefully indulgent, but we (the political left) were so much more idealistic and determined to bring about change 25 years ago. We now accept an economic system hardly more than a step removed from feudalism as the gospel, complete with invisible protagonists (even though we are collectively capable of so much more), we are much more docile and willing to accept income disparity and injustices in the world. Where my parents were willing to literally fight in the streets for rights in the workplace, we hardly exert more energy than it takes to write a letter to demonstrate our indignation as the Right dismantles everything our forbears sacrificed for. In the mid-80's, I remember throwing punches at scabs trying to pass picket lines (as well as a person creatively using butyric acid to clear out a shop) and though the RayGun years had been waging war on labor, there was still a general attitude among a large part of the population that you simply did not cross a picket. Now people hardly notice and arrogantly walk right by. It makes me sick.

Is it just me or have we simply lost momentum? Or worse yet, abandoned our souls?

Even at 42 years old, while so many of the people I grew up with have fallen into the American trap, I still try hard to hold on to my ideals and my lifestyle reflects them to some degree - I choose to live in a tiny little house instead of a self-indulgent McMansion, I have a small, economical car (though I am sometimes tempted by the marketing victim within me to get something else), I pay monthly dues to the IWW. I still dream about a day when we collectively simplify our lives and abandon the reckless, narcissistic consumerism that is tattooed like a scarlet letter on the face of American culture. I am not afraid of change (I welcome it), and I have confidence in the cooperative underpinning of the human psyche that helped to keep the species alive.

But I sometimes feel like Huxley really nailed it, and it is almost impossible to go back. Consumerism is the de facto religion of this country, and it is deceptive and sexy and contagious. Its paper thin veneer looks from a distance to be the antidote to discontent and so it spreads like a virus until it traps its victims into a inverse-ownership thralldom, where most people own nothing but the debt (and the responsibility for that debt) of their transient possessions. When possessing the latest fad product fails to bring happiness, it's on to the next one and so passes the inconsequential life of the American consumer.

I don't know. Pardon my babbling. I am feeling a little grim these days.

[Floogeldy]

1. What he said.

:)

[marzipanni]

2. You are not alone.

Is it time for a potluck picnic DU gathering? The internet is good, but the isolation isn't. :grouphug:
I googled "less is more" and found this, which sounds like a really good book. I 'm going to see if my library can scrounge it up.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/089281554X/ref=cm_cr_dp_pt/102-6328315-8068906?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
As for the imbalance of the world, Something's gotta give....as more are affected.

[Union Thug]

10. "Isolation"

Peter Werbe once said on his radio show that the point of today's media is to foment feelings of isolation and helplessness. I think he's right. Thanks for the link...I'll check it out.

[Robeson]

3. You are correct, Sir....

...I would only be redundant in repeating the worthy points you've already made....:thumbsup:

[hfojvt]

4. did it change with the fall of Russia?

Now there are no viable alternatives? Capitalism has conquered all in the late 1980s. I am 44 and I do not remember times of optimism, except perhaps Jesse Jackson's speech in 1984 which turned out not to be true. The "man from Hope" sounded like a Republican to me in 1992, promising to grow the largest, greediest and most wasteful economy in the world and saying things like "the era of big government is over". The S word has long been a dirty word to the American public, but in the 1990s it seemed like even the L word became a dirty word.

It is not just consumerism - buying the things you want, but it is also competetive consumerism - buying the things that your neighbors have. One big problem though, is that if we did not have consumerism, then millions of people would lose their jobs.

[Union Thug]

7. Personally, I think it was 10 years before the USSR ...

... "fell". And although there were a few Stalinist hold-outs within the organized labor movement, by that time, people had figured out that the USSR was "socialist" on the surface, and more of a state-capitalist engine drove the machine. More successful social-economies had formed in the Scandinavian region, which had done quiet well for their people. During the eighties in this country, Reagan/Bush escalated the class war. One of my most stark memories is watching my father, a blue-collar, union printer, fall from a relatively comfortable existance, to one requiring government cheese to get by during the war on unions.

Thanks for the comments on Competetive Consumerism. You're spot on. I also agree that rampant consumerism, and significantly, credit driven consumerism is all that keeps this economy from crumbling. Which is why, I still believe, in spite of the free-market propaganda that the entire nation seems to have accepted at face value, 'another world is possible' and that we can build a fair economy,an alternative. As the cliche goes, we can put men on the moon, but we can't find an alternative to an archaic economic system? I think we can.

[NMMNG]

5. Did you forget to take your Soma?

A gram is better than a damn. :P

[Union Thug]

9. Oh, I won't forget my soma...but it's not...

the marketing soma that I'm supposed to be ingesting. :-)

<insert bob marley cut here>

[billyskank]

6. The left is dead

Socialism and solidarity are dirty words. The fight needs to be fought all over again.

[Union Thug]

8. "...all over again..."

THis is what is so depressing. So much has been lost and continues to be dismantled that you're right.... we're pretty close to being back to where we were in 1929.

[mdmc]

11. we have one party, under corporation

ever since Clinton and the DLC rode in to town.

We could fight against Raygun... It was impossible to fight against Clinton.

Thanks for the rant, thug... I really enjoyed reading it.