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Capitalism in crisis is a sight to behold. Most of the time the system seems to hum along quite nicely. Oh, maybe a passel of people loses their jobs when some big-headed suit at the top decides to up and move on to a cheaper labor market. And maybe a city or two, or even a whole region, goes bankrupt and destitute, shops boarded up, ghosts in the street. Maybe a generation of young people ends up poorly educated because nobody could figure out how to turn a decent profit schooling ten-year-olds, so it slid down to the bottom of the priority list. Maybe there's an aberration here or there, like the positive incentive to filling up prisons. But overall, the thing has the reputation of the proverbial well-oiled machine, humming along and delivering the greatest good to the greatest number. And besides, it's the only machine in town.
But then it breaks down. Spectacularly.
And it turns out that this highest possible form of human development has more than a few foundational flaws, the relevant one at the moment being that it is subject, inevitably and constitutionally, to periodic, devastating crisis.
At such moments the verities of capital are called into question, and not by the closet Marxists and nostalgic revolutionaries. No, the capitalists themselves, in deed if not in word, are heaving great chunks of their ideology overboard. Invisible hand of the market? Heave ho. Limited government intervention in business? Heave ho. Self-correcting system? Heave ho. Whatever it takes to re-stabilize the system, let's do it. Principles be damned.
The pragmatic and temporary abandonment of core ideological beliefs is a great unmasking. And behind the mask -- fear, befuddlement, bravado.
The lords of finance live in a universe in which they are rewarded for being both insatiable and delusional. With maximizing profits as their single imperative they toil daily at the task of turning every human relationship and every form of matter -- animal, vegetable or mineral -- into a monetized asset. The only limits on how many ways that monetized asset can be reconfigured and repackaged; the only limits on how many times it can be resold; the only limits on how many ways profit can be wrung out of it are the limits of the imagination. We're human; our imagination is without limits. We've figured out how to buy, sell and lease the air space above buildings and the wind blowing across the plains. And here you thought "inherit the wind" was just a metaphor. But at least the air is a substance you can feel and hear and, on a crisp fall day, smell. Our boys are way beyond that, having long since abandoned the molecular to trade in the entirely immaterial.
So those are the rules they've been playing by. Did the current crop of players make up those rules? No, they are the rules of the reproduction of capital and the current players just happen to be in the game at a time when, abetted by the information superhighway and in the context of globalization, they've triggered a crisis that may yet turn out to be steeper, wider and deeper than any in recent history. As anybody standing on the corner could tell you, don't hate the player, hate the game.
And the rest of us? What are we to them? We are the human embodiment of the capacity to carry and pay off debt. That's it, that's all. We are our credit scores. We might as well have them flashing on an LED display implanted in our foreheads.
We've been suckered, cajoled, manipulated and coerced into joining them in their world of delusion, ensnared as bit players in the grievous overproduction of imaginary wealth. And while the realm of the fictitious expanded infinitely, the realm of our real lives contracted and shrank. Our wages flatlined or fell; we lived in fear of acquiring an uninsured health problem; our mortgages turned into a leaden ball and chain. The loans and debts multiplied and the interest rates kept rising. One administration after the other enabled a regime of trickle up profits and trickle down pain.
So while they're frantically hustling to salvage the system, let's stop for a moment to consider where we stand.
We collectively face three major, inter-related crises: the global crisis of capitalism; the crisis of planetary sustainability; and the crisis of war, militarism and empire.
The crisis of capitalism will be temporarily resolved. On our backs, to be sure, and it will undoubtedly take a while, but the markets will stabilize, borrowing and lending will resume, and profit-taking will be back on track. The mask, now in the repair shop for a custom remodel job, will be back in place, firmly affixed to once again show the face of capital triumphant. And capital triumphant will have firmly in hand the one chunk of ideology that was never tossed -- there is no alternative, or TINA.
Which brings me to the fourth crisis, hardly acknowledged and barely discussed, at least here in the U.S.: the crisis of the political impotence of the left.
We stand at the brink of multiple disasters in the howling absence of an alternative vision for sustainable, people-centered human development, or an alternative platform for deep reform, or an organized base capable of challenging and shifting power.
And so this moment -- the great unmasking -- should serve as an urgent reminder that we have a multi-generational project at hand. That is, to construct a viable politic and effective organizational forms capable of acting on the belief that it is possible to build a society that lifts up that which is generous and creative and humane while curbing the greedy, the short-sighted and the predatory. There must be an alternative.
Otherwise we, and generations to come, will remain at the mercy of the players and their game.
45 Comments so far
Show AllThere IS an alternative, and it has been around for a while but is still practically invisible. It is the Green Party. Even though its platforms are the best for everyone,a political Nash Equilibrium,it is still mostly unknown. During all the hoopla on MSM about a woman in the White House,did anyone mention that BOTH the Greens are women? Hopefully, now that Greens have had enough voters in the last 2 elections to appear on the current Sample ballots sent out, people might notice and Google the Green Party.And if progressive voters in non-swing states vote Green Nov.4, it will help move us away from the 2-party fascist state. Note: the best understanding of fascism can be gained by reading a speech by 1944 U.S. Vice Prez Wallace. Google: Wallace fascist
And finally AmeriKa is still half awake, in a drunkin stupor!
AmeriKa deserves what they got! YOU asked for it, and deserve every damn bit of injustice, immorallity, abuse, etc due to the Apethetic Chicken-Shit American Attitude which I consider the worst generations combined into a cesspool of ingnorance. Half you fellow piece of crap Americans can not even find Iraq on a map! And of course most of you can not even do division, which I shall explain is in a subject called MATHEMATICS! Now that must be a NEW CONCEPT! 700 BILLION will pay for IN FULL (PITI) 2.8 MILLION FUCKING HOMES AT AVG PRICE OF 250,000.00 each! Each SIDE bought this subprime lending pity and fell for it, hook, line, and sinker! It is not the SUBPRIME MORTGAGEs, IT IS DAMNED DERIVATIVES and HEDGE FUNDS!
Coffeelover,,,,,,,
skidog
Predictably,the MSM (AOL on my homepage)says the prez 'race' is tighting,have to prepare the ground for our 3rd consecutive STOLEN 'election'.The following comment section was sooo...CREEPY as one wing-nut after the other derided OBAMA as:A SOCIALIST,MUSLIM,TERRORIST.
Meet the NEW BOSS same as the OLD BOSS.
oH WELL...ski season is COMING!
Self-interest is a good motivator for the markets. It is a mistake to conflate self-interest with greed.
No, the corpoRAPE of America is not about human selves' interests.
The market of itself is BLIND to the externalities of collective ( life-cycle ) risks and benefits, w/o the encroachment of laws and regulation imposed from "above". CorpRAPE self-interest is a poor motivator even more so when the markets is falling down on it's face, although generally it works OK when things are growing well.
The environmental impacts and REAL costs to society ( end of human suffering, illness, hunger, … ) and the Earth, are hidden when pure profit is the ONLY consideration, so … unless the true life-cycle costs are used as improved metrics to encourage conditioned responses in the best possible directions -- we are doomed to the devastations of unbounded avariciousness.
The GNP and other fake measure of "growth" or negative approximations of human repercussions ( CPI, unemployment, … etc ) are ALL imperfect metric gauges of what really is occurring and what possibly we could become.
If the system uses a garbage indicator to drive the system's feedback to attempt to correct for erroneous results -- we get GIGO -- GARBAGE IN -- GARBAGE OUT.
[____ C H O O S E __ B E T T E R ____ ]
Namaste
&YYY&
It seems that nations of power practice forms of game theory
Using rapacity, ruthlessness, and readily deployed superiority.
The aim of the game, until all the resources of the world are gone,
Is to get the most for oneself, so all Vampire States must be strong.
To take other nations hostage or slaves, because of relative inferiority.
Now Nuclear powers hold sway, with ultimate weapons of fatality.
Gaia gave us a chance to live in gardens of Paradise, and a Curse,
Our evolved intelligence, so we might learn the language of the universe.
Instead every state , nation, family, religion continues to breed,
Continues to fight to consume the life giving water, meat, fruit and seed,
Each unit of human kind has now developed into a fatal Homo-cidal drive.
To maintain an Economy for the very rich, and to burn up oil and coal to survive.
It does not how many species die, or how much carbon into air and oceans we spew.
Never mind the great ice sheet melt, and the increase in environmental poisons too.
Unless we kill each other in orgy of military excess, and our numbers grossly depleted,
very soon, the last suicidal Sapient game, will be Gaia's gifts completely defeated.
Perhaps the global system will collapse soon with famine, disease, or mutual atrocity.
And so altogether now, continue the trend, this typical case of human reciprocity.
Still hopeful, but much more unlikely, is that we change our thankless ways.
And learn the universal language of living with Gaia for the rest of our days.
Ms. Burnham,
Your thoughts are well-distilled and "on the money". You said:
And the rest of us? What are we to them? We are the human embodiment of the capacity to carry and pay off debt. That's it, that's all.
I think this is a little off the mark. The moneyed aristocracy considers 95% of Americans ('murcans) to be a vast product dump (tobacco, Viagra, giant plasma TVs, sub-prime loans, etc.) and a vehicle to provide cover, with the aid of a few votes, for election fraud.
Pelosi blew it by taking impeachment off the table. Maybe we could have averted this unfolding economic crisis as well as reinforce the point that no one is above the law. Now, we have a precedent in place that the Administrative branch not only is above the law; they actually can make law.
New investment CW: invest in garden seeds and ammuniton. "The times, they are a-changin'."
leisureguy; Dear Ms Birnham,
What we may be lacking here, as the alternative to the capitalist motivation based on the desire to amass wealth, please allow me to characterize as the 'leisure motivation.' That is, we should spread the idea that if everyone had the basics of survival (shelter, food, clothes, etc.), then we could all spend lots of time having fun, albeit in a style many might call excessively low-budget. It doesn't take nearly as much human effort to create those basics as the capitalists want us to think. There are so many more of us struggling to meet the capitalist standard than there are capitalists that I'm sure there are plenty of strategies people know of to remove the financial-profit portion from the picture and substitute the leisure-profit portion. I think many such strategies would fall under the general category of co-operative economics (I prefer the term 'leisure economics'.) I'm sure you've heard the story about the fisherman who catches enough fish to feed his family for the day and doesn't listen to the capitalist who tries to urge him to go back out and catch more fish,so that he will make a 'profit.'
Nothing wrong with capitalism so long as it is well-regulated and recognized as an inappropriate approach to achieving certain important goals, such as education, health care, and governance of public resources (including natural resources, such as petroleum, water, and natural gas).
And let's not forget that what we've had is NOT capitalism, but a rigged game more akin to no-limit poker, where the difference in stack size eventually becomes more significant and determining than the cards one is dealt.
Real capitalism allows a competitive marketplace, so when you build that better mousetrap, Global Rodent Detention Systems LLC can't sue you down to nothing then pick up your intellectual property for pennies, if your ideas ever see the light of day at all.
Real capitalism means risk IS risk. None of this "too big to fail" BS. If our economic well-being is that tied up in an industry's fortunes, then they cease to be private enterprises, since the risk extends beyond the actual shareholders. We all become shareholders, meaning we get to regulate.
"...Nothing wrong with capitalism so long as it is well-regulated ...."
- Yes there is something wrong with it, even if it's regulated. Namely, the minute it's regulated, the capitalist class sets about undoing the regulation.
Since the capitalist class is the real locus of power in society, sooner or later, it will always be able to throw off these hated impediments to wealth accumulation. It doesn't matter if this takes 30 days or 30 years. Capitalists will never sit still and passively accept government restrictions on their wealth accumulation. If they have to buy the whole government, and create dozens of pseudo-academic think-tanks to churn out pseudo-academic position papers, one may be certain that sooner or later, they will succeed in undoing all regulation.
That's how we got to where we are now -- despite the Great Depression, FDR, & the New Deal, & the consequent reining in of business. The capitalist class merely regrouped, & waited for the first feasible moment where they could reverse the entire New Deal. When that moment came, they were ready.
In other words -- under capitalism, regulation can never be more than temporary.
But do you really want your rules and regulations set in concrete?
How do you restict, restrain, or contain the corporate lobyists without reducing the people's access to and influence over government at the same time? That is the question.
The struggle to keep life humanly and environmentally responsible goes on forever.
I don't quite understand what you're asking. The corporate lobbyists NEVER have any trouble gaining access to, & influence over, government. By contrast, "the people" DO have such trouble. Different rules apply to the 2 groups.
It's not as if the "only reason" corporatists get access is that they cleverly exploit rules which were beneficently & wisely designed to give "the people" access. It's simply because in a capitalist society, capitalists make all the rules.
RichM, I agree that what you say is the status quo. But do you think people will just suddenly reject this one day and create another system? Surely we need to maintain action on the issues to raise people's awareness of the nature of the system whilst striving for change on each specific issue. And one day if and when the system collapses or or if it is fundamentally overthrown, is that going to be the end of it? No, that would only be the beginning of a further struggle to bring about something better. Surely any fundamental change one day will still have the problem of groups with economic and/or military clout striving to have more influence than ordinary people. The struggle for change goes on both before and after any possible demise of the capitalist system. It is not an all or nothing situation now or in the future.
Capitalism is NOT ORDAINED by God, no matter what the repugs tell you. Our economic system is and has been one that is built by humans and is based on greed as well as the desire to obtain needed materials in an efficient and timely manner. Socialism if structured properly, can do the same. But greed will have to be a part of the equation as altrustic motives do not appear to be sufficient for the "masters of the universe" or the investment bankers and executives in the financial industry.
We need more government oversight. Especially of executive compensation for financial institutions accepting government money; the healthcare system, which is better run, despite all the problems, has some limits on compensation. Bankers are a dime a dozen, doctors are not! Doctors care - bankers don't.
We need a fair wage and benefits plan; not one that rewards the players at the top for FUCKING UP! No golden parachutes; when they leave, especially for failure to perform, let them stand in the unemployment line like the rest of us.
We need judicial oversight and review for possible criminal behavior. What is good for the workers, is more than good enough for the bosses.
We need universial healthcare, so being sick or hurt does not bankrupt a family or individual.
We need transparency in mortgage standards, so those that are not responsible with money or credit, are not taken advantage of by unscruplous financial industry morons. AND, if these moron make "bad" loans by ignoring the standards, they should have to pay back the ill-gotten gains, if the receivers of these mortagages default in the first 3 years.
Term limits on the idiots in the Congress would go a long way towards getting a little backbone in the legislature, irrespective of political idealogy.
DeColores,
Rockerbabe1
For years the propaganda has been so effective that "socialism" or "socialist" have long become and still remain terms of abuse for vast numbers of Americans. Until other terms are invented to represent caring and sustainable policies and practices, and until these terms become well known and used, a genuine democratic challenge to Capitalism would only be dismissed as "Socialist". The reality is economics is NOT divided into either "socialist" or "capitalist", just as it isn't divided into "Good" and "Bad".
Were fucked. The robbery is complete and electing Obama or Lenin is only grabbing the barn after the horses have been jacked. It's over Great depression time and then a new fascist regime to complete the job BV$H and his team have very carefully almost completed. These guys set out in 2001 to destroy Amerika from inside and they've done a helluva a job BV$H!
For the next 4 yrs. Obama and team will be blamed day and night by Fox, ABC, AP and talk radio day and night. The right has a very very effective media org. now and will get them back in the saddle easily again. Think on the fact that they got BV$H in in 2000 after yrs. of prosperity and a Pres. that leaves office with a pop. rating in the 60% area and a nice budget surplus. No problem they still managed to sink his VP didn't they? I feel sorry for Obama /Biden they're coming in with an Int'l economic depression in the wings , 2 wars too fight or not and no real solutions that they'll really be able to institute over the heads of the bought and paid for flunkies of the right in both parties.
The only way to be heard is to stop using abstract nouns like socialism and talk about issues. For example housing. Also expose the right's hypocrisy. If you can't stand the Democrats call yourself an Independent.
Here's two radical proposals that would be anathema to the Right but which might get a hearing in the months and years ahead.
One - housing.
House prices must fall. But there is a difference between an orderly decline and systemic one.
If mortgages cannot be gotten and empty houses and repossessions rule then in some areas there could be an overshoot of the required 30-50% drop that is needed to get shelter costs in line with real wages.
A really clever government would turn the 20% overstock into social housing at bargain prices - fuck the banks for ten cents on the dollar for bailing out the toxic stuff and set up a National Social Housing Trust.
Just as bridges, libraries, roads etc are national wealth and not subject to speculation so should a percentage of affordable housing.
It is looked at that way in other nations and this is the opportunity in the US and UK if we could only nail the "free market" bull.
Rental incomes can easily provide a forward cashflow for the Trust.
The key is to make sure it's not ghettoized.
This program also provides the labour mobility that is critical to a changing economy as people know they can move and have reasonable rental accommodation.
Switzerland - only 30% own - there is an inverse correlation between unemployment and home ownership.
The rental stock provides a brake on speculative pressures as well - people can sit out a spike.
Societies would not allow their roads, waterways and bridges and schools and other vital infrastructure to be speculated on and held hostage - the same thinking needs to apply to housing.
I suspect forward cashflow on rental will be very attractive on large enough funds.
The housing situation COULD be a long term benefit - requires some wisdom and long term thinking.
The effect would be that the Fat Cats would have paid for a national housing stock :clap: ( mortgages that fail generally have little equity of the owner )
In return they get their capital ratios restored for future business - hopefully with more sober management.
The houses are built, the need for affordable shelter is there ( providing a cash stream ), the incentive is there....is the leadership to do it there?
Two: Tax and regulation
It is inevitable that taxes will have to go up at some point to pay down the debt run up by the boys playing funny money games in the City and on Wall Street. Unless tax havens are terminated the super rich and leading corporations will be able to refuse to pay their fair share and the burden will fall on the working middle class. Furthermore it will be impossible to regulate the finance industry effectively as long as the offshore world exists in its current form.
It was the great nineteenth century Judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes (a Republican) who said that taxes are the membership fees of a civlised society. Those at the top of the table can damn well pay up - otherwise they are steagling from the rest of us.
As to how to crack down on the offshore world click on this link:
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2008/10/05/the-next-step-neuter-tax-havens-secrecy-jurisdictions/
Obama has expressed his distaste for tax havens and he might well take action unless he is got at by the special interests. Lobby senators and congressmen on this issue, especially if the Right threatens to filibuster reform in the Senate. Americans do not love paying taxes at the best of times but the fury at Wall Street is a once in a generation chance. Pay for lower taxes on the middle class by forcing the economic royalists to pay their dues. This is potentially one hell of a populist message.
This guy's got some good ideas about housing.
"Good Ideas about Housing" -
Why doesn't someone organise mass occupations of evacuated housing.
There is a housing shortage and yet at the same time there are these ever increasing numbers of vacant houses boarded up. The people still living in the remaining houses in such evacuating neighbourhoods would surely be happy to see new people move into their street. Perhaps the new resident could pay something into some kind of fund. This could all be done on a variety of levels of legality depending on what various authorities can live with.
Can anyone tell us what they think of such an idea?
Good essay,however those hucksters of failed capitalist idealism were always pragmatic. Their lust for money zeros in on any justification. I see the capitalist behaving just as they always do; whats in it for me and how much! The tragedy, for common man, in this story is the recognition of the lefts impotence, not of ideas or correct reading of social and economic realities, but of a viable political avenue to correct the inequities. The U.S. constitution must be updated so that the many voices within the population can be aired and given muscle via a viable multiparty state.
.
http://nader.org/
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
Statement of Ralph Nader September 16, 2008 Before the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on “Restoring the Rule of Law”
Mr. Chairman and members of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony on the important and fundamental topic of “Restoring the Rule of Law” to the workings of the Executive Branch. I ask that this statement be made part of the printed hearing record and I commend you for taking the initiative to explore what steps the next President and the next Congress must take to repair the massive damage that President George W. Bush has done to the rule of law and our democracy.
(continues on site)
.
"But then it breaks down. Spectacularly."
It didn't break down. This is disaster capitalism at its best. It was engineered to unlock the Treasury's doors and remove the guards... and to strap the burden of those acts onto the backs of American taxpayers.
There was nothing happenstance about this pillage.
Two trillion and counting...
humans are animals unwilling to be...
Calling "impotence" a crisis is a bit of an oxymoron, reminiscent of Donald Rumsfeld carrying on about how the absence of evidence does not constitute proof that some fearful threat out there beyond the horizon does not exist.
Impotence is a chronic, inactive condition that is not life threatening in and of itself.
Cardiac arrest or cancer, now that is a crisis.
I entirely agree with Ms. Burnham that we are collectively facing three major interrelated crises: "the crisis of global capitalism, the crisis of planetary sustainability, and the crisis of war, militarism and empire." If a jolt of leftist Viagra can somehow be conjured up inside the United States, the first step in fashioning a broad cure for what critically ails us should be the elimination of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
If we can take the toys away from the boys, then the path opens up to fashion swords and spears into plowshares and pruning hooks.
Bill from Saginaw
Pondering the depths of this predicament, I come to disturbing conclusions.
There are an infinite number of models of reality one may hold. The rational are not at first upset by this realization, as there are methods to winnow out the less reliable and the more contradictory (such methods providing great value in enabling scientific progress). The problem is that there is an infinite subset of possible models that cannot be ruled out by simple observation, by logic or reasoning, or by scientific experimentation, particularly in fields of knowledge far removed from the hard sciences (e.g. social sciences, including economics and political science). And the dominant group in society (in the US the corporate elites) will do what they can to come to agreement on a model that serves their interests, and then use their resources to convince the masses to accept that model.
But what is really disturbing is the realization that it is highly unlikely that any opposition can form that can agree on any one alternative model out of the unbounded number of possibilities. And without some highly numerous and powerful opposition group that presents a coherent alternative model that is widely agreed upon by members of the opposition, there is little chance the masses will adopt an alternative model.
And that is why I believe the left lost its power in the 20th Century. At the beginning of the 20th Century there was one main opposition model (social class-based, labor and the common people vs. management and the wealthy). But during that century too many alternative models developed (e.g. race-based, gender-based, sexual orientation-based, religion-based, culturally-based, environmentally-based, animal rights-based, etc...), and the worst part may be that the corporate elites understand this and do what they can to encourage the development of even more competing alternative models.
It is even more disturbing for me that even if most of those in opposition groups recognize this dilemma, I believe that little or nothing will be done to solve it.
That's a very good analysis. Among other things, it underscores the danger of identity politics (race-based, gender-based, & so on).
To me, it seems that generally speaking, the logical answer to this divvying up of the population among different models would be a return to what you called the "main opposition model" from the last century -- a unified working class vs the wealthy.
"a unified working class vs the wealthy"
That seems to be our best chance, but I am not optimistic. However, overreaching by the greedy bastards might provide the left with an opportunity at some point. The greedy bastards just cannot help themselves, because even though many of them find common cause in maintaining their elite status, ultimately they follow a philosophy promoting selfishness and risk-taking which leads them to double-cross each other and gamble everything so they can have more (reminding one of cinematic character Johnny Rocco in "Key Largo," as played by the wonderful Edward G. Robinson, who responded to Bogey's question of what he wants with the simple answer of "More, I want more!").
And don't forget that we (the USAns) are not in this thing alone.
The working class in South and Central America and the Caribbean are a head of us now. But there is no reason to think that we can't catch up.
As in other circumstances though, the U.S. movement will be different -if not exceptional- from others.
One difference will be in the language used.
Commonwealth plays here a bit better than Communist, for instance.
"...The mask, now in the repair shop for a custom remodel job, will be back in place, firmly affixed to once again show the face of capital triumphant..."
- That is what Obama is intended to be -- the custom remodeled face of capitalism triumphant. A new paint job for the same old thing.
"...Which brings me to the fourth crisis, hardly acknowledged and barely discussed, at least here in the U.S.: the crisis of the political impotence of the left...."
- The main barrier to the emergence of a real Left is the Democratic Party. US society refuses to acknowledge anything to the left of the DP as legitimate, and most individuals -- even those with progressive instincts -- are simply intimidated by that. They don't want to feel "out of the mainstream," so they're willing to swallow any slop that the DP serves up.
This makes for a very effective & self-perpetuating mechanism of population control. There can only be 2 parties -- Hard Right, and Slightly-Less Hard Right. Both are militarists & corporatists. Everything else is effectively excluded.
To paraphrase a labor leader from 1930's:
"The Democratic Party is the graveyard of social movements."
The trouble in the US is having elections every couple of years. So much energy is wasted electioneering rather than getting on with social change. What ever happened to social movements for social change.
When people get elected to public office, at best, they will only do something worthwhile when forced to by an effective grass roots movement. However when representatives of movements keep involving themselves in elections for public office every two years, it discipates their energies and focus and the movement suffers.
I believe all this electioneering razzamataz is very much a diversionary waste of time and energy for social change movements, and most of them probably agree with me. So why do they bother?
Minority "left" candidates think elections provide them with a good opportunity to air their policies. However all they achieve is infighting with others in the broad "left" and massive longlasting resentment all round. How will that ever lead to a "united front to overthrow capitalism"?
If you elect a president, elect one who at least says he believes in grass roots activism and has certainly shown he can raise a grass roots crowd or monetary support via the internet etc.
What quickstepper said.
The barriers to organizing the left are monumental.
We're fighting propaganda (& psy ops) coming from sources that didn't even exist 10 years ago:
Video games, 300 cable TV stations, non-stop wraparound advertising on every possible public surface (especially if you live in a big city)- including Homeland Security's giant "public service ads" on billboards (can you say "Big Brother"?).
Corporate entities dominate our life, in obvious and unseen ways.
They scrub any vestiges of local politics from their spaces.
There's a Starbucks on every corner (literally, in some cases- there's one at each corner of intersections in NYC). And Starbucks refuses to allow local alt. papers to be distributed in its shops. The conservative daily rag? No problem.
No wonder people don't know anything, or don't know what the "left" stands for.
Our salvation has been in the web, (so far) we've been able to talk to each other and to do a little organizing (and here I'm not talking about CD).
We've been gassed and beaten at rallies, we are insulted and called traitors to our country, and fired for wearing T-shirts that question the Iraq war.
We have no money (either personally or collectively) and we're tired from eight years (or is that three decades?) of speaking out for unpopular causes.
Our voices are hoarse.
And we suffer either skilled agents provacateurs or undercover police plants in our mtgs. and at our events. Then, there are the pink ladies and the cheerful costumed throngs called Peace Marches. The MSM/corporate media love to choose these for widely distributed photos.
It's really no wonder that so few decide to join us.
We need some new strategies and new tactics.
The old-school Cesar Chavez style of organizing (someone said) of person-to-person, face-to-face organizing work is out of fashion.
What's next?
Let's hear some new ideas!!
oh, and yes the msm (main stream muck) have a lot to answer for.......
i've said it many times on c.d. that greed will eventually be the demise of homo sapiens.
coupled with the mass extinctions going on and the ever-changing climate/global warming and warmongering.............
There is a marginalized left in this country and yes, we have a vision but who is listening? Decades of corporate propaganda have isolated the greatest minds in our country and made "socialism" the great fearful epithet in the minds of a lumpenized working class. At the same time, I believe that the greatest organizer and promoter of left ideology is in fact the corporate ruling class because when they really get their way, we are left with no choice but to see what is obvious. And here we are. The obvious danger is that as the realization that capitalism is a scam at our expense grows, so to will well funded right-wing terror and death squads and government repression on all fronts. We have to organize and prepare -- our lives may depend on it.
The Jaded Prole
Political theories are all very nice, and some might be useful as alternative visions, but the actual reason government emerged in human society all those millennia ago was to enforce contract arrangements upon victims – all who are not signators to the contract in consideration. Government then developed the capacity to enforce a hierarchy of contracts and to consolidate and coordinate the enthrallment of victims. Without consideration of this, political theory is simply the audience to the imaginary program “Dancing with the Angels on the Head of a Pin,” and now, let’s introduce our celebrity philosopher judges….
"The pragmatic and temporary abandonment of core ideological beliefs is a great unmasking. And behind the mask -- fear, befuddlement, bravado."
Don't forget Greed and Stupidity which, unlike Lehman Bros., Bear Stears, Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, etc. etc. etc., never goes under and ironically gains more adherents with each disaster.
Quickstepper has PART of the solution, but more importantly, to see the change we need the bribery money given to politicians in the form of campaign contributions must stop. We need publicly funded political campaigns to level the playing field so big money contributors (guess who that is) aren't in complete control over the political landscape of our country.
You're going to need public support to implement that reform - or any other reform.
Good luck getting that support when 90% of the media outlets in the country simply ignore you.
q
Why waste time with the TV when there are technological prejudices hindering its reform?
The Internets represent a much greater potential for democratic media.
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We can beat the MSM by using the INTERNET...
Spread the word.Go to all the blogs.
Nader for President.
Champion of the people.
What say you America ?????
VOTE NADER/GONZALEZ 2008… You’ll be glad you did and so will I…
http://www.votenader.org/blog/
http://www.votenader.org/index.html
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I used to read and comment here at Commondreams regularly until I found so many comments from people like "nannie". The unreality of many such commenters here astounds me.
Althouogh I consider myself part of the wider movement for fundamental change I believe that in the U.S. electoral system Nader is a vote waster. We won't be fooled by this call for an internet campaign for Nader and the like. Obama has already used the internet on a massive scale so that IF he manages to win, he MAY actually bring about some small changes in the system that I agree with. Let's face it anyone standing to the left of Obama could never become President of the US. Surely there are ways of mobilising people for fundamental change other than by splitting the anti conservative vote as Nader or the Greens would be doing.
If ever SOMEHOW a really radical movement for change got the President they wanted, the gun toting militaristic right would mount a coup or civil war to stop such a movement. Remember the right has all the guns, and they can't even handle the thought of what they believe is a "socialist" Obama becoming President.
So nannie get real.
I voted for Nader the last two elections and I'm glad I did. I'm especially glad I had no part in electing any one in office now--especially this criminal congress. Nothing substantially different would have transpired had Gore or Kerry been elected. Especially when it comes to the Money or Warmongering.
Nader represented my views and still does.
My vote counted--to me.
You will get your democratic fantasy dream team in a few weeks. I honestly hope it transforms things for the better.
If it doesn't, I'm sure the dems will blame somebody else for their catastrophic failure(s). They always do.
And I wonder, what will happen when the Kool-Aid runs dry.
Party on.
Nader '08
I and others have said it before and will probably have to say it a million more times: until control of our mainstream media is taken out of the hands of corporate accountants, true progress in any sphere of human endeavor will be difficult if not impossible.
Tha author bewails "the crisis of the political impotence of the left" without recognizing the true barrier to widespread awareness of the issues.
q
Americans must stop listening to, watching or reading anything that emanates from the MSM since "control" will remain in private hands. The MSM desperately wanted a McCain victory and when that started quickly slipping away due to his own ineptness and brutality, followed by overwhelming economic crisis, they switched to Obama because, like most everyone, they want to be on the winning side. But imagine it: it takes unprecedented economic catastrophe to allow a milktoast "centrist" like Obama to have a realistic chance of winning and override the power of the MSM. That is not good news.