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polydadI'm trying to read Joe Stiglitz's book "People, power, and profits", and I keep getting too angry to sit still and look at a book.
I met Joe at the Battle for Seattle retrospective last year, and schmoozed with him for an hour or so after he gave his talk. I wanted to talk about the cultural issues he only mentioned briefly in describing his book. He described himself as "a world-class economist, a second- or third- string politician, but this culture stuff really baffles me." And now I'm actually *reading* the book, and it really bears him out. Economics, fine, he's great at that. Politics, okay, he's entitled to a professional opinion, and he's not clueless. Culture could dance up to him in a bright purple tutu and bite him on the ass, and he'd look baffled and say "What?"
So far I've made it into chapter 8 of 11. So far that's been seven and a quarter chapters of "Oh, and here's yet another felony committed by a gang of Republicans/corporatists/industrialists, all in cahoots with each other." This brings into focus something I've known for a long time, but in a sort of fuzzy, unfocused manner: The Republican Party is a criminal organization.
The Democrats are no prize either, but there's a lot of difference between a criminal organization and an organization that happens to encompass a lot of criminals. The latter is like some of the bowling alleys my cousin Cory went to tournaments at when he was younger -- some of the leagues were largely composed of mafiosi, or yakuza, or whatever the gangster-flavor of that particular neighborhood was -- it's New York; they've got a lot of variety. But they were there to bowl, not to shake people down. I don't know, maybe some shaking down did occur out in the parking lot -- but that wasn't what they were there for.
And so the Democratic Party does have a lot of felons in it, and many of them are there so they can abuse their positions of power to steal piles of cash, rape underage girls, or what have you. But that's not what the party is *for*, and they know it, and they make reasonable efforts to keep it out of public view.
In contrast, the Republican Party *exists* to commit, further, and conceal felonies. That's the entirety of what they're about; there's nothing else there. Fine, if we get down to the individual party members who don't have an organizational role in it we'll find a lot of fools, whose only "crime" is an astonishing amount of gullibility. But anyone involved in the workings of the party is a felon, a fascist, or both. And possibly *also* a fool, those sets can overlap.
The Rethugs are going to do everything in their power, occasionally even straying within the bounds of legal activity if it furthers their purposes, to steal the election in November. Close the post office, purge the voter roles, close the polling places, anything they can think of. But at this point I think they've fucked up so badly they'll fail, even with all the cheating. Joe Biden will become President, the Democrats will have a skinny majority in the senate and a veto-proof House. Will this make everything better?
No. Biden is the Democratic Reagan; an amiable ventriloquist's dummy who can remember his lines and even on a good day improvise a bit. (Reagan was vastly better at the improv, tho'.) And his handlers, and about 3/4 of the Democrats in Congress, are the same kind of amoral opportunistic crooks as sit on the other side of the aisle.
Joe was trying to argue that the economic problem was also a political problem, and needs to be solved politically. He's right as far as he goes, but he doesn't go far enough. The political problems are cultural problems, and we have to solve them culturally before we can express those solutions politically.
We have allowed ourselves to degrade to a culture in which might really *does* make right, money can buy anything, and there's no such thing as human worth or dignity unless you can pay cash for it. This is a horrible culture, and it might be because all my friends are "poor" by Trump standards, but I don't know *anyone* who has anything nice to say about it, let alone approving of it. I am pleased to be able to admit to knowing half a dozen politicians here who know what their jobs are and are actively trying to do them -- admittedly, out of a sample size of about 30, and I can't say much nice about the rest of them. But that's a lot better than the national average.
If we build a better culture, we can build better politics. And if we can build better politics, we can use them to re-create a world class economy. Let's get started.
I met Joe at the Battle for Seattle retrospective last year, and schmoozed with him for an hour or so after he gave his talk. I wanted to talk about the cultural issues he only mentioned briefly in describing his book. He described himself as "a world-class economist, a second- or third- string politician, but this culture stuff really baffles me." And now I'm actually *reading* the book, and it really bears him out. Economics, fine, he's great at that. Politics, okay, he's entitled to a professional opinion, and he's not clueless. Culture could dance up to him in a bright purple tutu and bite him on the ass, and he'd look baffled and say "What?"
So far I've made it into chapter 8 of 11. So far that's been seven and a quarter chapters of "Oh, and here's yet another felony committed by a gang of Republicans/corporatists/industrialists, all in cahoots with each other." This brings into focus something I've known for a long time, but in a sort of fuzzy, unfocused manner: The Republican Party is a criminal organization.
The Democrats are no prize either, but there's a lot of difference between a criminal organization and an organization that happens to encompass a lot of criminals. The latter is like some of the bowling alleys my cousin Cory went to tournaments at when he was younger -- some of the leagues were largely composed of mafiosi, or yakuza, or whatever the gangster-flavor of that particular neighborhood was -- it's New York; they've got a lot of variety. But they were there to bowl, not to shake people down. I don't know, maybe some shaking down did occur out in the parking lot -- but that wasn't what they were there for.
And so the Democratic Party does have a lot of felons in it, and many of them are there so they can abuse their positions of power to steal piles of cash, rape underage girls, or what have you. But that's not what the party is *for*, and they know it, and they make reasonable efforts to keep it out of public view.
In contrast, the Republican Party *exists* to commit, further, and conceal felonies. That's the entirety of what they're about; there's nothing else there. Fine, if we get down to the individual party members who don't have an organizational role in it we'll find a lot of fools, whose only "crime" is an astonishing amount of gullibility. But anyone involved in the workings of the party is a felon, a fascist, or both. And possibly *also* a fool, those sets can overlap.
The Rethugs are going to do everything in their power, occasionally even straying within the bounds of legal activity if it furthers their purposes, to steal the election in November. Close the post office, purge the voter roles, close the polling places, anything they can think of. But at this point I think they've fucked up so badly they'll fail, even with all the cheating. Joe Biden will become President, the Democrats will have a skinny majority in the senate and a veto-proof House. Will this make everything better?
No. Biden is the Democratic Reagan; an amiable ventriloquist's dummy who can remember his lines and even on a good day improvise a bit. (Reagan was vastly better at the improv, tho'.) And his handlers, and about 3/4 of the Democrats in Congress, are the same kind of amoral opportunistic crooks as sit on the other side of the aisle.
Joe was trying to argue that the economic problem was also a political problem, and needs to be solved politically. He's right as far as he goes, but he doesn't go far enough. The political problems are cultural problems, and we have to solve them culturally before we can express those solutions politically.
We have allowed ourselves to degrade to a culture in which might really *does* make right, money can buy anything, and there's no such thing as human worth or dignity unless you can pay cash for it. This is a horrible culture, and it might be because all my friends are "poor" by Trump standards, but I don't know *anyone* who has anything nice to say about it, let alone approving of it. I am pleased to be able to admit to knowing half a dozen politicians here who know what their jobs are and are actively trying to do them -- admittedly, out of a sample size of about 30, and I can't say much nice about the rest of them. But that's a lot better than the national average.
If we build a better culture, we can build better politics. And if we can build better politics, we can use them to re-create a world class economy. Let's get started.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-21 11:36 am (UTC)American culture is a culture built and run (via proxy) by billionaire robber barons, and that's largely all you need to know about it to understand where it's problems come from.
It's express purpose is to fleece the majority for the betterment of the few, and to keep that majority so divided and distracted that they don't notice they're being ripped off, and as a side colliery, to keep them feeling so dis-empowered and apathetic that they don't do anything even if they do notice.
It's a pile of long cons, shell-games and gas-lighting of staggering proportions.
The solution is to tackle the problem at source, because if you don't then the elitist f**ks who benefit from it, will fight you tooth and nail to keep the status quo.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-21 05:56 pm (UTC)An America "built and run by billionaire robber barons" would be a much simpler, easier to deal with problem than what we have.Yes, we have robber barons, yes, they are a problem, yes, they are a source of many other problems -- and we have a lot more going on.
I like to use metaphor as explanatory tools, and I'm having a hard time coming up with one for this. The thought immediately on my mind is that America is like an 80 year old man who has been carrying a tumor for decades, and the tumor has finally metastasized. Yeah, the tumor has been with him a long time, and yeah, it's killing him -- and if he hadn't been a two-pack-a-day smoker for twenty years as a young adult, maybe it'd all be fine.
It doesn't fit entirely, because America is the emergent property of all available Americans, and some of us are as gifted as others of us are toxic. Shooting all the billionaires would give us more room to work, but would not solve the underlying problems -- neither the ones created by the billionaires themselves, nor the other incidental problems that come from disparate causes.
So yes, let's get to work and tackle the problems at their sources -- and do note the plural.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 04:12 pm (UTC)When the/a discussion starts with a faulty premise, nothing following is useful.
The country, if not a major portion of the world, is indoctrinated with the idea that "Capitalism" is a god-given, wonderful thing.
It's not.
It's what allows and enables the grifters to claw their way up the heap.
If they want corporations to be people (Mitt Romney, et.al.), then those people all need to use the exact same tax laws and forms the real, breathing people use.
Notice that's not how things are?
Why?
Because that's what the grifters want.
It's their rules in the playground they've dragged us into.
Stop buying into their lies.
Until that whole meme changes, you're doing nothing but putting on band-aids.