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The Road to Healthcare is Paved with Bad Intentions
A few months ago I inquired, rhetorically, "does anyone in the healthcare debate really care about health?" Obviously the answer was and is a resounding NO, as the discussion has wholly devolved upon insurance coverage to the exclusion of substantive aspects of health like nutrition and preventive care. Yet not only is the focus of the deliberations far removed from any talk of improving health -- now it has explicitly gone to the next level in which it is simply about who will pay and who will profit. It isn't health care being produced in this process, but rather, health carelessness.
Still unconvinced? Soon we will have the final proof in hand by way of an impending faux healthcare bill, now in conference committee while awaiting a guaranteed presidential signature no matter what it winds up including or omitting. A public option to keep the private insurers honest, as contained in the House version of the bill? Not likely. A requirement that all Americans carry private insurance anyway, backed by the government's enforcement authority, as dictated by the Senate's version? Quite likely.
Welcome to America, the new and improved "company town."
Once this precedent is set, what other mandates will follow? How about no more public schools coupled with compulsory education. Or perhaps the elimination of public airwaves but a requirement that everyone be plugged in anyway. Maybe it will involve forced contributions to fund elections but the elimination of public referendums and any pretense to open ballot access. We don't have to tread too far down a slippery slope to appreciate the ramifications of this, as recently observed in the New American in an article highlighting the potential unconstitutionality of this mandatory rubric:
"Indeed, a federal government mandate to require citizens to purchase such an expensive consumer item -- health insurance often costs more than $1,000 per month -- has never been created in U.S. history, even in wartime. As the Heritage Foundation recently asked: ‘Can Congress require all Americans to buy a new Buick every year or pay a tax equivalent to the price of a used LeSabre?' Such is the same power being claimed on behalf of the healthcare legislation. Here's what the principle [of] the healthcare mandate means: The federal government could literally require individual citizens to purchase any product or service under such a federal power, provided that the economy or some other alleged public good is served. For example, under such a power Congress could also require all citizens to deposit their cash in certain banks (perhaps to avoid the bankruptcy of the banks)."
Can you say, "taxation without representation?" Revolutions literally take hold under such conditions.
Oh, but healthcare is different, we will likely hear. "This is our best chance to have universal coverage. Once we get that established, then we can work on fixing the rest of the system. Making everyone carry health insurance will be for their own good and will protect everyone's rights, just like requiring all drivers to carry car insurance does. Are you saying that you don't want 30 million more people to have healthcare? You're just supporting the far right by making these arguments, you know."
Indeed, as Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake has observed, opposition to this unprecedented mandate has served to unite "liberal progressives and conservative libertarians" against an escalating "corporatist control of government that politicians in both parties seem hell-bent on achieving." Hamsher's FDL colleague Jon Walker likewise asserts that "private individual insurance in America will become a money-making scam into which Americans are forced to pay," to which he subsequently added: "It is both immoral and financially reckless to do what the Senate bill does. It uses the power of the federal government to force people to buy private insurance and gives the private insurance companies hundreds of billions in federal funds." In this sense, the imminent healthcare bill appears to be little more than an elaborate grift -- or as Dave Lindorff colorfully refers to it, "rip-offs, screwjobs, and flim-flam." And yet don't count on it being struck down: Congress claims for itself an unbridled and broadly-construed power to "regulate commerce," which the courts generally have let stand.
So where to now? Legal challenges are in the offing and pressure groups are working the phones. But to reduce this to a matter of politics misses the larger point. In essence, we are witnessing the concretization of processes of corporate takeover that have been in the works for decades. The purveyors of these processes know no partisan bounds or party lines. They exert control over the money system, the media, the military machine, and more. They've standardized the schools, busted up the unions, controlled access to information, exploded the prison population, effectively cornered the market on food and energy, fomented perpetual warfare, bought the politicians, and toxified the environment. They enjoy the mantle of "upstanding citizens," but in reality function in many respects as little more than a criminal syndicate -- a point made by The Free Dictionary in its casual observation that "recent analyses of organized crime point out its similarities to multinational corporate structure.
At the risk of putting one's credibility on the line, it needs to be said. The corporate interests that are steadily working to militarize and privatize every aspect of our lives are fascistic, plain and simple. There's a reason why the precursors of today's controllers, including Henry Ford and Prescott Bush, were entangled with the Nazis back in the day, and why they supported Franco's regime in Spain rather than aiding the peasants and workers fighting for their freedom. This isn't some "conspiracy theory," and it isn't intended to be provocative or salacious -- it's just what happened. And still happens.
Centralized decision-making, enforced Hobson's choices, the illusion of liberty, authority as a path to security, militarization of the economy and media -- and yes, even smaller acts like mandatory corporate insurance in the name of universal healthcare -- these are the stock-in-trade tactics of the "power elite" that C. Wright Mills wrote so poignantly about back in the 1950s. Forcing everyone to purchase health insurance is essentially a form of taxation being levied and enforced by the government at the behest of private interests. This all fits with the spirit Mussolini's outre notion of the Corporate State of Fascism, which, while he was not cognizant of the practices of modern-day corporations, granted primacy to "private initiative ... as the most efficient and useful instrument of the Nation."
Interestingly, Franklin Roosevelt, who himself has been criticized primarily from the right for ushering in fascistic policies, warned of the creeping dangers back in 1938:
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.... Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing."
These themes were broadly echoed in Dwight Eisenhower's now-famous farewell address to the nation in 1961, in which he warned of a burgeoning phenomenon that would erode liberty if left unchecked:
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
We have not adequately heeded these warnings from former leaders of both major political parties. The result has been an inexorable shift toward an omnipotent "power elite" that has effectively seized the reins of governance, and hence of a large measure of our lives as well. Fascism, the antithesis of any pretense we may still hold toward cherished values of freedom and democracy, isn't merely something we need to watch for, but a matter that we increasingly are being required to live with. The fact that it often comes under the guise of this "freedom and democracy" makes it all the more chilling, as George Orwell of course noted in his body of work on the multilayered evils of totalitarianism of all stripes.
Okay, so the f-word is out of the bag -- now what? Meditating on the ills of coercion and corporatism might be therapeutic to some extent but it does not an alternative make. Tautologically speaking, it is beyond peradventure that you cannot force people to be free, or liberate them at the point of a smart bomb, or impose democracy upon them. You can't turn people good by deploying practices of torture and punishment as a matter of standing policy. Enlightenment doesn't come from enslavement, and "arbeit macht frei" is nothing more than a cruel joke. Likewise, the health of the people will not be improved by forcing us to work for insurance companies that will continue their essential monopoly over our access to medical treatment. Health comes through education and opportunity, not by swearing fealty or homage to corporate hegemons and indemnifying their profligacy with mandatory tribute.
Look, only the most heartless sector would want a world in which only certain people are entitled to basic human services like healthcare. But mandating that everyone pay private insurers for it, without a public option, is possibly the most asinine way to go about it. Funny how people can get all up in arms about a potential "government takeover" of healthcare, yet seem to care less about an impending corporate takeover. Well, here's a newsflash: this bill might be both. And it mirrors similar patterns we've seen regarding schools, prisons, banks, the military, security, energy, technology, the media, and politics itself. The government isn't just beholden to corporate America -- it is corporate America.
At this point, the optimist in me usually tries to push through and offer something constructive and tangible to do in response. You know: community-building, local organizing, people power, self-sufficiency, civil disobedience, nonviolent praxis, opting out, do-it-yourself ethics, mutual aid, positive thinking, holding a vision, creative interruption, highlighting exemplars, and the like. These (and more) are all good strategies, to be sure. But we're fast approaching a potential tipping point of no return here, and our window of room to organize and strategize seems to be rapidly closing. Left and right ultimately have no deeper meaning in this unfolding drama, and the symbols of both elephant and donkey are equally passe. Today, it's really more a matter of ostriches and eagles by now, if you catch my drift -- and it's kind of ironic how few eagles there are left in America anymore.
The pending healthcare legislation is merely the latest in a litany of efforts to fundamentally reorder our lives toward a further acceptance of coercion as a legitimate form of influence, and it continues the corporate power grab that has been steadily escalating for generations. The road to hell indeed might be paved with good intentions, and it bears asking whether the road to healthcare is inversely plagued.
You know, I actually feel a bit better having said all of that. Maybe this new healthcare plan has some unintended healing properties to it after all...
- Posted in
62 Comments so far
Show AllMaybe the silver lining in the dark clouds of corporate control of the government, is that the population finally begins to realize that they need a Constitution, they need rule of law, they need political parties that are more than marketing agencies. Maybe health care "reform" will be the last straw, or (to mix metaphors) will be one of the storms that combines with other storms (economical collapse, military defeats, desertification of the mid-west, etc.) to finally cause Americans to become politically serious about their own interests. The rest of the world probably hopes that US health care reform is a catastrophe, because that might precipitate the political changes that decrease US over-seas aggression and give peace a chance.
Since most Americans are not do-it-yourselfers, they think that all you need to do is vote and you will get a turnkey deal from your candidate...kind of like calling a plumber...make the phone, call, pay the bill and you don't need to think about anything else.
Most don't even vote.
Pretty good thoughts. The agenda and arrogance of this administration may very well be the last straw. Unfortunately it looks as if that last straw is going to move the country to center right a bit more.
"we are witnessing the concretization of processes of corporate takeover that have been in the works for decades. The purveyors of these processes know no partisan bounds or party lines. They exert control over the money system, the media, the military machine, and more. They've standardized the schools, busted up the unions, controlled access to information, exploded the prison population, effectively cornered the market on food and energy, fomented perpetual warfare, bought the politicians, and toxified the environment. They enjoy the mantle of "upstanding citizens," but in reality function in many respects as little more than a criminal syndicate -- a point made by The Free Dictionary in its casual observation that "recent analyses of organized crime point out its similarities to multinational corporate structure.
This essay is a great summation of the perversion of the u.s. and its "ostrich" citizens. Where are the eagles?
Where are the John Browns?
That's halfascist; 'cause the "trains" run over US; instead, on crime!
Great article.
I think there is a fundamental difference in the state demanding driver insurance and medical insurance.
a person has the right to live weather they want to drive a car or not.
Driving a car, you must pass a test and get a license and promise to obey the laws of the road etc.
Being born is not that kind of choice.
Insurance generally is a scam that will bleed the population to poverty.
If you analyze all the creative credit swaps of the war economy that helped cause the financial system to fail, they are really insurance products for the market.
Mandatory private health insurance will do the same thing the credit default swaps are doing... and double the pain.
Thank-you, Randall Amster, for a very lucid presentation of the REAL dangers of the so-called "Healthcare Reform!"
President Eisenhower's dire warning regarding the military industrial complex applies very aptly to this issue.
What will we do? Ignore it, I fear, as we did his initial warning, resulting in yet another boondoggle and rip-off of the U.S. citizenry for the corporate money-mongers and another, and perhaps fatal, step toward complete and total rule of the U.S. by the Corporatocracy!
"...complete and total rule of the U.S. by the Corporatocracy!"
That is one good definition of fascism. Welcome to the new world order.
In the US, the corporate media has so conditioned the sheep that many are perfectly fine with the government strong-arming the citizenry as long as the intent is to provide profits for some private entity, in effect to increase inequality. But if the government tried to strong-arm the citizenry to decrease inequality, that would be Kommienizm, and would bring forth shrieks of horror from those same sheep, particularly the ones who would be the beneficiaries of the policy if enacted. Sometimes I think the sophists and propagandists in the corporate media are just showing off (wowing us with how they can convince so many to act against their own interests).
If a single payer had not been off the table so early on, and if We the People did our jobs with information, letters to editors, presentations, etc. we would see a groundswell of support. Just what the powers are afraid of, an active public.
The media pretends, through misinformation and slanted coverage, that Americans don't want anything from government! My Senator, Ron Wyden, says: "Americans aren't ready for a singlepayer health care system!" Which is an outright lie and he knows it.
If what Ron Wyden says is true, why do 56% of Americans prefer a strong public option or single payer health care system? Among Democrats it's more like 88%! Is he mentally handicapped or is he simply a prostitute for the health insurance industry?
Perhaps the only way to get their attention is to ....... you fill in the blank.
So true. The corporate media not only tells the public what to think, but if the naughty public refuses to go along, the media will typically refuse to mention poll numbers that indicate such mischievous disobedience. And if anyone attempts to become a spokesperson for a position not favored by the corporate media, that person will usually be ignored or vilified, often with spurious accusations if no sound ones can be found. And drowning out competing policy proposals with flood speech is always a useful alternative. And if there appear to be irregularities with election results, the corporate media will assure us that the system worked perfectly, and the culprit is probably just flawed methodology of the voter exit polls. But irregularities are only to be ignored if they occur in the USA, not when they happen in the Ukraine, Iran, or any other state.
As long as the little people are convinced that their votes matter and there is some semblance of democracy in the good ole USA, they will not be motivated to do much more than vote. In an encouraging sign, I do see more and more people referring to other ways to get the attention of the oligarchs.
Excellent article. But now what can I as an individual do? I've already written congressmen, the president, etc. I'm on Medicare; my wife is younger, healthy, unemployed and uninsured, so our problem is not as onerous as many other Americans'. What can I do to avoid writing a check to a private healthcare provider?
What method of tax resistance can I practice? What mode of civil disobedience would be effective? I've already clashed with many "authorities" who are part of what Amster points out as the American modus operandi:
"it is beyond peradventure that you cannot force people to be free, or liberate them at the point of a smart bomb, or impose democracy upon them. You can't turn people good by deploying practices of torture and punishment as a matter of standing policy. Enlightenment doesn't come from enslavement, and "arbeit macht frei" is nothing more than a cruel joke. Likewise, the health of the people will not be improved by forcing us to work for insurance companies that will continue their essential monopoly over our access to medical treatment."
The short list of suggestions doesn't take into account the tremendous effort I and people like me have already done in the way of community organization, street demonstrations, letter writing, etc. Amster's list, community-building, local organizing, people power, self-sufficiency, civil disobedience, nonviolent praxis, opting out, do-it-yourself ethics, mutual aid, positive thinking, holding a vision, creative interruption, highlighting exemplars, is all about difficult, time-consuming efforts. What can an individual do?
Maybe one individual can't do much (or maybe they can), but the people en masse can really do something. I keep thinking of Gandhi, and this not much different than what the British tried to do to the Indians in India. I fully intend that if/when I lose my job, I will NOT purchase health insurance as I have never done this during periods of unemployment when I need every dollar to pay my rent, my bills, and to eat. When they send me the 'fine' from the IRS of $1,000 (which I will NOT pay), they can come and arrest me, and I will go. This is not what I want, but I MUST DO SOMETHING and be brave as Gandhi counseled and not to fear brutality. This IS Fascism, and Gandhi said the way to live is "non-cooperation with evil".
This bill is WRONG and it is FASCIST. And I will NOT COOPERATE. They are seeing how far they can push Fascism in this country, and if we go along with this, there will be more fascist 'laws' --bigger ones-- behind it. We must stop the beast NOW.
An individual can't do squat in my honest opinion. That's why I keep wishing that non-right wing people can "un-niche" themselves from a zillion web sites and movements and organizations and unify into an umbrella political party / organization that could be marketed on a level playing field with the Democrats and Republicans. Like Solidarity in Poland or like New Democratic Party in Canada and so on and so forth.
In Europe, everyone knows it's all about unity, but not so in the US.
I mean, you can still be into those individual sites and organizations and little parties, you can still be that big fish in a small pond, but if you don't also unify with the millions of others, you aren't going to get very far at all in the big picture.
To oversimplify a little, the unification process is that an umbrella organization is founded and then the call goes out for the zillions of existing and futile organizations to pledge allegiance and support to the umbrella.
Unity equals progress, thus the name of my micro spec on the net:
http://www.unity-progress.blogspot.com
Life is a difficult, time-consuming struggle. If you have no free time because of the demands of earning your daily bread there is nothing you can do. But if you are on Medicare you may be over 65 y.o. and may have some free time. You could devote some of that to enacting items from Amster's list.
The appeal of hope-giving leaders like Obama is that they seem to promise that we can vote once and then get back to our TV Guides until next time. Doesn't really work out that way anymore. But, really did it ever?
Has there ever been a mass demand to repeal the part of the 14th Amendment that grants "personhood" to corporations?
It just boggles my mind that Congress can be so stupid, blind, and irresponsible in their duties to pass such a horrific bill. Surely they can see what's coming if this bill becomes reality. How many lower-income families are going to stand having a third or more of their income confiscated for corporate profits, especially when many people are living on the edge or worse right now?
Get some sense, lawmakers, or face the consequences of a revolution!
Markymark
Why do you think this Congress cares about low income families, any families for that matter? And in the second place, would you consider its exactly the bill they want to pass since the objections to it are vast and across the board? Wouldn't that indicate this is what they want?
It boggles your mind because you are still expecting congress to be the institution you've always been told that it is, a servant of the people.
You've been lied to -- that's NOT what congress is.
Congress (indeed the three branches of the entire U.S. government) is an institution skillfully designed to cause the masses to CONSENT TO BEING RULED (without rebellion) by giving them the illusion that it is they who are doing the ruling.
It isn't.
I believe that virtually everything taught to me as a student in public schools (1963-1975) regarding the history of this country and the purpose/function of "our" government to be one continious lie. This was before students were subject to zero tolerance, D.A.R.E., metal detectors, drug sniffing dogs inspecting every aspect of their lives, and high school/middle school police to be used to adapt the public to submission.
Yes, the purpose of congress is a lie, as is "land of the free and home of the brave" and "liberty and justice for all." These two slogans need to be revised to "land of the fee and home of the slave" and "liberty and justice for those who can afford it." When 240+ members of the House are openly mulit-millionaires (the remainder have probaby done a better job of hiding their wealth on paper to avoid taxes) and the senate probably approaching 100%, it couldn't be more obvious that what we have here is the rich representing the rich. To make matters worse, we allow lobbying aka bribery, corporate personhood, and the only way to attain public office being to use to our corporate media which require being a millionaire (at minumum) to begin with. So, what it all boils down to is being wealthy (it matters not if said wealth was inherited or stolen), having a huge ego with no conscience (you don't have to worry about the "law" if you have enough money), and then becoming even more wealthy, regardlesss of the cost to the masses.
"(it matters not if said wealth was inherited or stolen)"
Correction ... "it matters not if said wealth was stolen long ago or recently"
no chance of that happening only unelecting them will help. they have played on the stupidity of a good portion of us for a long time and now another of along list of bills
to corporations is being paid out. there will be more industries lining up to get
their "fair share" of our treasury and their accomplices in the congress will be
ready to help them out for the usual "campaign contribution". you would like to
call these fucks whores but whores have a code of ethics and as proprietors of the
worlds longest running independent business model they know more then any congressperson
or senator how to conduct business on a straight up way. find a congressional rep that could do the same! i recently lost my health coverage due to my state banning my health insurance co. i am disabled and can't even after enlisting the aid of my state
sen .find any and the alternatives are ins. i can't afford. we haven't been a democracy for a long time and this just puts a glaring searchlight on this in this particular way! (i not feeling sorry for myself) but its just fucking amazing that after paying my fair share of taxes my life that i am shut out of the system. my doctor bugged out.
he also runs a clinic for folks who are illegals and he can't understand how i can't get
insurance and undocumented aliens come into his office come into his clinic to get
treatment and they get free taxpayer treatment!
This will undoubtedly be one of the best articles of the year, made even better by all the nice links.
Enjoy this one because, within a couple of months, the health insurance thing will be considered a fait accompli, so articles about it will dry up. This "fade from view" has happened time and time again in the last 30 years as one bad law after another is passed. Once the bad law is passed, people are supposed to go on as if everything is fine and dandy, and most of them do.
I'm not leaving the topic for a minute, though.
You can't vote Democrat or Republican anymore, you need to start a new pary, or at least settle for the Greens (who admittedly will never win a federal election due to being tagged as one issue, but it's better than nothing.)
25 reasons and counting the insurance law will do more harm than good and links to prior CD items:
http://www.unity-progress.blogspot.com
Thanks for this. Yes, the healthcare atrocity with its further erosion of legitimate goverment will pass and the public attention span redirected. But I remain angry. I am transfixed by the revelation that FASCISM is the only accurate description of our government left.
The Progressive Pimps of Congress will do their go along to get along non-resistance. A thousand poxes upon them.
On September 11th, 2001, what was left of our freedom was hijacked. It wasn't buildings that burned. It was the small residue of our freedom.
There is one last window of opportunity: the time between the bill's passage and the time that it is scheduled to be enforced.
I am becoming increasingly convinced that the USAcorp's ponzi-conomy is going to collapse during that gap.
Without money, the corporations wither and die, but people always find a way to get by.
from article:
"The pending healthcare legislation is merely the latest in a litany of efforts to fundamentally reorder our lives toward a further acceptance of coercion as a legitimate form of influence, and it continues the corporate power grab that has been steadily escalating for generations." Great conclusion.
Big Insurance and Big Pharma who are largely responsible for writing the legislation, have a legal obligation to their shareholders to increase return on investment (profit), no matter what.
Since da gubmint is bought and paid for by the corporate mafia, they are enabling this legal crime. How about that rule of law eh?
Does anyone see any conflicts of interest or institutional corruption?
At the heart of it all is Obama's betrayal--holding secret meetings in which he sold us out.
"Us" being pretty much everybody.
The more I think about it the more it cheeses me. This little pr*ck screwed our chances for real reform, then sat by and let thousands of people work their asses off, trying to get something he had already destroyed. Obama is a party traitor.
"Obama is a party traitor."
Actually, it is the party that is treasonous, and Obama acts to extend that treason.
Needs to be pointed out that:
Mandated insurance may actually stiff-arm millions from getting medical treatment by depleting their incomes for premium payments leaving them without income sufficient to cover the hefty co-pays. Thus, income that otherwise could pay doctor bills is now siphoned off to insurance companies.
Related to this possibility is the notion that government programs generally help the better off people rather than the truly little guy. I won't innumerate examples but the phenomenon is pervasive. Thus the pool of premiums from the previously uninsured and now stiff-armed will perhaps act as a subsidy for those already insured who can afford their co-pays. Such a situation would provide a significant 'winner' class associated with the HC reform legislation and thus a political support base for its un-re-reformed continuance (over the loud and justified griping that is about to break out).
Aside: Yesterday's article by Ian Welsh is a must read.
spelling: "enumerate"
Has there ever been a mass demand to repeal the part of the 14th Amendment that grants "personhood" to corporations?
Very good article, but I have to say, many of us have been using "the f-word" for a loooong time to describe what this country has become. Amster's right that the corporations ARE the government now, and have been for some time. And this fraudulent bill only consolidates further the unholy alliance of government with Big Business.
Obama is president precisely because his Wall St. backers and funders vetted him for this purpose. If he hadn't passed their stringent review he'd have never gotten the nomination or been elected. One of his first charges was to get passed just such a healthcare bill as we're presently menaced with. He was just as adamantly opposed to single-payer, or even the feeble public option, as Big Insurance and Pharma. Obama would rather sharpen up his golf game than waste time pushing forward real health care reform and pissing off his Wall Street owners. They own him, and now they're going to own us with this buttfucking bill masquerading as reform, if we allow it.
I don't see why millions of us don't simply refuse to pay their mafia protection money (refuse the mandate) and refuse to pay any fines. And if they garnishee individual bank accounts and paychecks to seize it, we have more than sufficient cause to rise up in organized armed revolt. Demanding that people who already can't afford insurance to pay these criminals 1/3 of their income for poor coverage is injury enough to justify the kind of revolution we should have initiated years ago. You know, like under the previous fascist administration.
"Very good article, but I have to say, many of us have been using "the f-word" for a loooong time to describe what this country has become." -- Ephraim
I was going to write something similar, but I ran across your post.
Three years ago, Chris Hedges wrote a book on the subject -- American Fascists, and in 2007, Naomi Wolf's book was published -- The End of America. There are probably other books, too, that have been published in recent years, but these two books happen to be on my shelves.
You might want to add "Friendly Fascism" to your library. It was one of the first warnings written during Reagan's tenure.
Thanks! I think the book was written by Bertram Gross, right? Or, am I wrong?
You're correct, although I was mistaken as it was published in 1980--PRIOR to the increase in "creeping fascism" during Reagan/Bush (which I now consider to be Bush's first term as he handled Reagan the same way Bush's CIA "manages" an "asset").
I read that book back around 1982, and still have it, and think of how prophetic it was now and then. Gross anticipated Reagan era fascism (the "friendly" version) but I doubt he'd characterize what's going on these days as all that friendly. Repression and coercion are on the near horizon, especially with this rotten, corrupt healthcare deform bill. It's breathtaking to realize that Obama actually must believe most Americans are stupid enough to fall for his lies about this bill. He considers this one of the legislative pillars of his administration, the other one being the disaster he's fashioning in Afghanistan/Pakistan, and he's apparently too dense or too hypnotized or brainwashed to see what a political grave he's already dug for himself. BOTH of his most cherished goals are absolute jokes and catastrophes from beginning to end. The only way he can even pretend to carry them off is by instituting full-frontal fascism, domestically and internationally. Let's hope his foolish dalliance with raw power is over sooner than 2012. Why are we forced to put up with this kind of crap decade after decade? REVOLT!
The book "Friendly Fascism" sounds like a fitting book, and it could easily be applied to the Obama Administration, because Obama comes off as being so friendly, humane, and decent.
How can we get the "teabaggers" and such to see that Limbaugh, Beck, etc. are no friend to them. If we could stop bickering about abortion and gay marriage, we could see that we really have an awful lot in common. If we could unite this way, we could beat them! We could! Who can we get to run in a 3rd party that can transform both sides? We naively thought Obama might be able to do that, but it doesn't seem true, does it? I am heartbroken as I see more and more gifts given away to the haves while us have-nots suffer more and more. This healthcare bill also forces us to use conventional medical care which with all the drugs is going to turn us into zombies. There doesn't seem to be room for alternative medicine.
"How can we get the "teabaggers" and such to see that Limbaugh, Beck, etc. are no friend to them."
We can't. They're too stupid. The teabaggers and Fox "news" viewers are so stupid, in fact, that they consistently oppose policies that would actually help them.
I believe that 25% of the US population is so stupid that they just have to be counted out of any progressive movement. Marx had a name for them: Lumpenproletariat. Unfortunately, this means that progressives will always start with a 25% handicap against them. This means that the left must always be more disciplined than the right, with whom the stupids always side.
The other problem with including the teabaggers in any coalition is that they are bullies, and the first thing they will want to do is take charge of everything.
It seems a bit stupid to be stereotyping people as stupid. The current rulers think everyone but them is stupid. Thinking you're smarter than everyone and have all the answers is elitist and arrogant and, probably, stupid.
I didn't say that I was smarter than everyone, just smarter than the stupid 25%, as are most people (75%).
Do you think that the "current rulers" are smart?
Do you think that the teabaggers are smart?
What exactly do you mean by the word "stereotyping"?. How does it differ from the word "describing"?
I didn't say that I have all of the answers, either.
I think the current rulers are very smart. They outsmarted us all and were able to tribalize us to completely divert opposition into "social" issues that shouldn't even be on the table. What people do in privacy is no one else's business from abortion to drug use to bypassing the medical/industrial complex.
There are lots of different kinds of smarts. I have 3 college degrees 2 in social sciences, one in biological sciences. I couldn't build a box on a bet. I also know many very smart, educated people who say, think and do stupid things. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and has something to contribute. It is also possible that as they begin to realize how the Tea Party movement, which did start as a grassroots movement, was co-opted, they could become natural allies in destroying corporate personhood. Destroying corporate personhood, to me, should be the primary focus of opposition.
JaneM--There is never room for alternative medicine. The AMA, FDA and Big Pharma have colluded for decades to make it "silly". They will use it any health care bill to destroy what's left. Most people won't even know what they missed. Some want to get Codex into this bill. We'll see what comes out of "joint session". By the way, I will never use conventional medicine for anything but emergency/trauma or truly necessary surgery.
And, I agree with you about working with the right. Not all of the right or the left will cooperate but cooperation is the only thing that will save us. There has been a deliberate effort to tribalize us. We have to defy that categorization.
One thing that can be done is non-cooperation. Get together a bunch of like minded individuals and pool whatever you refuse the health care profiteers, the endless war machine and the government into escrow accounts publicly informing the corporate lapdogs of your decision to aid and abet the creation of a just society. This money can be used by non governmental groups working toward this shared vision. And yes, it does require: " difficult, time-consuming efforts." So "before I'll be your slave I'll be buried in my grave" can be our guiding light.
If someone enters my home with the intent to steal, I have the right to defend myself and possessions with deadly force if necessary.
We are all about to be collectively robbed by a congress and corporate culture that thinks it can get away with this massive crime. They will not get one cent from me or my extended family, and we will use deadly force to defend ourselves. In my estimation, the federal government is already a criminal--an outlaw. What this bill does is to confirm that it is indeed an outlaw that must be brought to justice, which in this case means overthrown as it is now beyond doubt a Tyranny.
I agree with your diagnosis. Overthrow is the best cure. The problem, as I see it, is that the continuing functioning of the "economy" keeps the normative fascist business institutions in place, such as insurance companies, processed food corporations, military contractors, the Chamber of Commerce, etc.
My hope is that the next Wall Street crap-out will release a flock of black swans, so to speak. The game is so rigged that only a casino fire can stop the cheating.
The "economy" is a big problem as too many people are dependent upon it, which makes it difficult to move to the necessary steady-state economy--an economy 50-70% smaller than today's if we're going to be serious about global warming. That means we'll need to find something for 100 Million people to do for at least a generation. And those jobs can generate very little carbon. Thoughts?
karlof1,
Yes. Three words: food, clothing, shelter. No matter what academic abstractions the business clowns like to toss around, these are ultimately the things that matter. No matter how much talk there is about a "green technology" panacea.
When the big slowdown comes, all 100 million newly unemployed workers will need to concern themselves with food, clothing and shelter. Although farming urban plots, mending old clothes and making new clothes, and renovating abandoned buildings might be a let down from the cube farm (or maybe not), those activities needed just to survive should keep most people busy.
Another huge job that needs doing is environmental cleanup, although it's hard to see how that will be funded. My guess is that resources will become so scarce that most dumps will become mines. Future generations will be shocked and disgusted by how much valuable stuff Americans put in the trash.
By the way, I remember when it was unusual for both parents to work. If we could raise the workers' standard of living to what it was in the 1960's, that might free 30% from the job market right away.