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Let Them Eat Twinkies
The working class and peasants of Thailand were protesting a system that had repeatedly disenfranchised them, most notably in the ouster of populist Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Streaming in from the provinces, these men, women and children set up camp in the heart of commercial Bangkok. Disrupting business as usual, they had specific demands. After two months, they were finally routed by troops and armored cars, but not before they could torch Central World, one of the biggest shopping malls on earth, and the Thai Stock Exchange. Through all this popular discontent then bloody crackdown, there was not a peep from Washington, but there's no surprise, really. Whatever its rhetoric, the U.S. has always backed business interests over human or worker's rights. Our labor history is proof enough of this.
When Washington does get into a tizzy over a protest overseas, one can assume that it has a hidden agenda, as in regime change, for example. One may also surmise shenanigans from our C.I.A. After the Iranian election of 2009, Washington was frothy with indignation, yet after the Mexican vote in 2009, it looked the other way, though that was right next door. Millions of Mexicans supported Lopez Obrador, including 100,000 who filled Zocalo Square for his unofficial swearing in. Our media, predictably, paid almost no attention. Lopez who? All you need to know about this dude is that he was anti-NAFTA, which meant that Obrador was against big business, apple pie, baseball and probably your grandma. A Commie scumbag, in short.
Washington doesn't dig small time Commies. It hangs with real Reds. That's why China is our biggest trading partner. Big business prefers a hard line regime, whether left or right, because it foregoes unions, ensuring cheap labor. Without worries about safety and environmental standards, profits will swell. A non-democratic government also can't be voted out, which translates into "stability" in empire linguistics.
What's so bad about NAFTA anyway? Isn't that "free trade"? It meant we got to dump our subsidized corn onto the Mexican market, bankrupting their farmers, forcing many to sweat inside American owned maquilladoras along the border, until these shut down, leading a bunch to cross into the U.S., where they became the main workforce of our housing bubble. This influx hurt working Americans, of course, including a schmuck like me who house painted for nine years, but it was great for business, and that's all that mattered from the perspective of Washington and Wall Street.
And why do we subsidize corn? Because it benefits Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc. Our livestock are stuffed with almost nothing but corn and corn syrup has become ubiquitous in this land of 30% obesity, highest in the known and probably unknown universe. Maize welfare also fattens Monsanto, maker of Agent Orange, PCBs and rBGH growth hormones, among other toxic goodies.
Current news item: Haitian farmers are threatening to burn 60,000 seed sacks donated by Monsanto. Haiti, one must remember, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where the most destitute sometimes resort to consuming mud pies. In 2008, Mexico returned a shipment of U.S. beef after too much copper was discovered in the meat, but this copper fortified beef was promptly sold to American shoppers. Isn't Mexico an increasingly lawless land where drug gangs run rampant? They still have enough sense, however, to respect what goes into their bodies, just like the Haitians, who would rather eat mud than Monsanto, apparently. Who could blame them?
It's no secret that food in very poor societies is often exceptional, at least to Americans, since we're so far removed from what's natural or even sane. We even feed our cattle chicken poop, for Gaia sake. The next time you're in a Third World country, boil an egg just to marvel at that bright orange yolk. Their secret? They don't resort to factory farming.
Sometimes I wonder if the relative complacency of our working class comes from the fact that most of us have ready access to cheap grub? I mean, just two hours of minimum wage grunting will earn me a tub of Frankenstein chicken, some green stuff and a gallon of fizz. After a dessert Twinkie or two, or maybe ten, I just don't feel like penning a protest poem or joining the local militia.
Unlike the Thai resistance, recent American protests are more about goofy display than power struggle. Our marches are parades that accomplish nothing. Tired of that, we heckle. In the last Thai election for their House of Representatives, seven different parties won seats. This is not at all unusual for any country other than America. With two parties that serve the same military industrial complex, our elections are more about style than substance, but of course you know that already. Like Jesse Ventura observed, our political establishment is no different than professional wrestling.
Failing to connect the dots, many working class Americans are venting their anger at illegal immigrants, when both groups are victims of the same power elites. Our borders have not been porous because of charity or ineptitude, but by design. All bosses, whether CEO or pimp, want the cheapest labor, wouldn't you? If they can't get it from down the street, they'll go to the end of the world, or let the world come in. This ruthless logic of capital has gone global thanks to the availability of cheap oil, but this pipeline is finally wheezing out, and in a horrific mess, too, as is clear. Minimize cost, maximize profit, squeeze, deceive, wreck entire societies at will or through negligence, and should things get too dicey, the cabana boys and girls inside the Beltway will bail you out. Cabinet is in session!
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61 Comments so far
Show AllThanks Linh. I enjoyed the article, especially that last paragraph. It sums up nicely where we are, and hints that peak oil may finally start to bring this insanity to an end.
Think of the sheer foolishness of making something as unnecessary to a human beings existence as a PEZ dispenser in China, then to ship it half way around the planet to the distribution center in CT, using the precious non-renewable resource of oil to do it. Not only is it a waste of oil but the burning of that oil also damages the atmosphere. And we are doing this times a million just so the people at the top of these organizations can make more money. It is just plain crazy, totally insane, IMHO anyway.
NCtom, thanks for the PEZ dispenser example. It is really excellent.
The writer also could have included India, the world's biggest "democracy" which has fast become a plutocracy.
I applaud the people of Thialand and Greece. These people know that their government is harming them and they are angry about it. They attack the stock exchange, trash the shopping mall and burn down a bank or two. Way to go!!!
And here at home? Surely you have noticed that the government is hurting us. Our tax funds go for war and more war and we cut funding for all of our social programs and funds to rebuild and maintain our infrastructure. Our elected officials, who are supposed to be voting as we direct them, vote for more war, vote for giving trillions of our tax dollars to the banksters and vote to keep the for profit insurance companies in charge of our health care system.
And we eat another twinkie and keep on voting for the same corrupt politicians who are puppets of the corporations. We have the tough decision about how to vote---for the Dimocraps or the Repukelicans? Which one of them is the lesser evil, we wonder.
Use what brain you have left after years of eating shit and realize that if you don't change how you vote things will just keep on getting worse. If you still have a job and a place to sleep indoors, it is especially important that you change your voting habits. It is not too hard. Just check the names of the candidates and if it says imcumbent or Dem or Rep after their name, DON'T VOTE FOR THAT PERSON! (It is not really a person, it is a puppet funded by that other person, the corporation.)
There are other candidates on the ballot--or you can write in your own name or the name of your dog. If our democracy has any change of revitalization, you must not vote for the corrupt. (If they are in office now, they are, by definition, CORRUPT. They did not vote as the people directed, they voted to please their corporate paymasters.
"I applaud the people of Thailand and Greece. These people know that their government is harming them and they are angry about it."
Their government isn't the one harming them, the capitalists are. They didn't burn down the parliament house, they burned down the shopping mall and stock exchange. The government (Greek, Thai or US) is simply an entity that is in such a disempowered position that it goes along to get along.
And, no revolution was ever won in a ballot box - especially a US styled one.
"The government (Greek, Thai or US) is simply an entity that is in such a disempowered position that it goes along to get along."
Not really. Ever heard of Thailand's Crown Property Bureau? It manages the assets of the king. Through it, the king controls, or has stakes, in some of the biggest conglomerates in Thailand. It owns either majority stakes or large stakes in some of Thailand's largest conglomerates ranging from industry, to construction, to banking such as Siam Cement, Siam Commercial Bank, Honda Thailand. See:
http://www.asiasentinel.com/
index.php?option=com_content&
task=view&id=402&Itemid=32
And of course, the CPB is covered under Thailand's lese majete laws. So anyone in Thailand pointing out publicly the assets of the CPB will end up jailed. The book the King Never Smiles, is a very enlightening book about the king of Thailand. Of course, it is banned in Thailand.
Thanks for the info.
A Thai restaurant I frequent, run by a nice family, has pictures of the Thai royal couple on a couple walls, so I figured the Thai King was as nice and liked person as the British Queen is. But I long ago should have learned that you don't get representative views of a nation from its US-bound emigrants. Some of the most islamophobic and anti-Palestinian stuff I ever heard comes from a struggling Syrian couple (Orthodox Christian) who run a middle eastern carry-out shop in my neighborhood. They are practically self-hating Arabs.
Another excellent article by Linh Dinh. Good thinking, well written. Thank you.
Absolutely. Well done! Thank you!
Godspeed to the ones with real courage as those in Greece and Thailand.
The complacency of our working class comes by and from the TV. And complacency leads to ignorance. The working class doesn't even know that they are in an international battle over wages. And they are losing the battle. Between outsourcing of jobs and H1B and other work visas the America working class is losing its chance at employment. The enemy of the working class isn't the illegal alien. The enemy of the working class is corporate America. But they don't even know it.
Hoa binh
Right on. Kill your tv.
Just take your Cymbalta, Valium and such and don't worry anout it,, It works for most of us.
Did you see the tanks they used at Waco, and the APC's they sent to the Michigan Militia. Man you try to stand up in this country and they'll just step on your ass. Like China in old days.
If they don't kill you; it's off to reeducation camps, in the prisons, once they get your head, and meds straight they'll let you out.
:(
>^^<
I am grateful to be in a position where i can subtly talk people out of taking loads of pharmaceuticals. They come in on five different meds. And lately, lo and behold, everyone is "bi-polar."
It is all market and pharmaceutically driven - the diagnostics. I tell people this when they come in with labels they were given. People are convinced that everything is genetic and they have a chemical imbalance. A new name for posession by evil spirits. Bad genes and chemisty. Also,
There is a new book about the globalization of our 'psychological disorders'. I am blocked on the name. But it sounds like the guy did his homework. U.S. pharma has been pushing our drugs all over the world, and yes, they are suddenly in need.
They find out what the particular/unique, cultural responses are to 'stressors' and then push a particular category of drugs.
So true. Bottom line- get off of those drugs. I did it and I am grateful to be back in control of my own mind and vision. Yes, it is more difficult to not be "comfortably numb" but these types of pharmaceutical drugs only cause damage with prolonged intake.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
THIS is the smartest article I've seen on this site in months. This guy's laying it on the line like it is, folks. Economically struggling Amurkans are crawling like microbes living on an intellectual level below that of insects at the bottom end of corporate Amurka's economic, political and militarist Police State puppet strings. America is now the perfect combination of foreign policy militarist bait & switch Orwellianism (leaking into domestic protest suppression of any protests against "free trade," the WTO or G-20 and the partisan duopoly's bogus conventions) and cultural Huxleyism with so many varieties of low and high-tech soma to keep us distracted and brainwashed those of us who try can't even count them anymore.
OK. I just happened to run into a John Carpenter movie from 1988. It is called "They Live".
It is done in B movie sci fi genre. However, it is so relevant for right now. Really. It should be seen. I saw it yesterday and this article reminded me.
Also, we don't see protests in the u.s., as we do in Greece and Thailand because we are a few steps away from reality. Realness doesn't happen much.
Even as things get worse. I don't think it will matter. I really don't.
Yea, "They Live" was excellent, it really makes you think. The only complaint I had was the fight scene was way too long. Maybe the directory was trying to make a point, but after a while it became a bit too much.
I do think that if things get bad enough there will be a breaking point. Even Americans are not going to quietly starve to death in mass. I think that is the real reason that unemployment benefits keep getting extended, and even many Republicans go along. Unless they are completely oblivious to reality, most politicians realize that any government is only about 9 missed meals away from anarchy.
You know, that fight scene was bizarre. Then i found out that the lead character had been a professional wrestler, and not an actor. No surprises there.
But i have been saying that Stephen Hawkings was right a few weeks ago, and the corporations are destroying nature so the E.T's won't have a reason to invade us!
I am being humorous of course. But then i happened upon the movie per chance, right after i have been writing that theory......so. What the heck!
Also. If aliens were destroying our planet. How would it look any different than what we've got. These guys don't seem human to me, personally. Better get ourselves some sunglasses!
I protest, somebody took the tv
I really liked "Masked and Anonymous." I know, I know: It stars Bob Dylan, but still, an excellent flick.
It's an older movie but it too is very relevant for today.
Interesting they have also been running V for Vendetta lately. is the media trying to tell us something?
>^^<
Thanks, i didn't know about the dylan film...I will look into it.
Thanks Linh for another good essay. I tried for years to get published here saying things that later came as revelations from our lettered pundits. Even used to characterize myself as a schmuck (which I am, from rust belt USA.)
Good to see another schmuck get the podium, but I also realized that more was needed than proseletyzing. Of course nothing resembling progressive change is ever going to come from the top down, we have to take the money out of their pockets - the only thing they really care about. And there are many ways to do that, some peaceful and subtle, and some not.
While Naomi Klein was probably working on her "Disaster Capitalism" I messaged her that one wet dream of the Bush cabal was to create a "privatization theme park" there. Like a scene from that old movie "Westworld" though kinda hard to do when the attractions refuse to play nice.
"All bosses, whether CEO or pimp, want the cheapest labor, wouldn't you? If they can't get it from down the street, they'll go to the end of the world, or let the world come in"
Capital will always want the worst working conditions as possible, the lowest pay. Always.
Labour will always want the best working conditions as possible, the highest pay. Always.
ATM, capital, and goods, can move around freely. Labour cannot. The price of labour is kept down, while the price of capital is inflated. Capital can seek out the cheapest labour, which cannot move, have that labour manufacture goods, then, ship the goods elsewhere, subsequently accruing huge profits for those who own that capital.
Professor David Harvey has talked about that by 1970 labor had become too powerful for capital. Labor had to be disciplined. One of the things that capitalists did was to offshore American jobs so that capital could "move around freely". Thus the labor problem was solved. He also notes that real wages for American workers began to stagnate at this time (continuing until the present).
And, the hell of it is that not one iota of capital can exist without labor. Capital is not money, although often thought of and referred to as such. Capital is bricks and mortar, rails and engines, ships, bridges, highways, machinery, everything that the capitalists use to mass profits can simply not exist without labor. Labor creates capital. And, the capitalists need to recognize this.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
The capitalists recognize that cheap foreign labor benefits them at the expense of more expensive domestic labor. They have offshored a large healthy manufacturing-based American middle-class that was interfering too much with "their" political and economic system and attempting to limit their profit streams and responsibly regulate them with a view toward the common good. That couldn't be allowed by them to continue and America's labor unions fell for every sucker pitch they threw them like the easily corruptible fools they were and, many of them, still are--from "planned obsolescence" to NAFTA.
Be carefull with those Twinkies Linh.Anything that lasts forever without molding spoiling or getting stale has got to be deadly(even rodents are scared of them).Another great post, thanks.
peace
It's pretty bad, I had rats in my new home and was at a loss as to how much force to use to get them out... Then I saw what they were eating and what they avioded! well long story short the rats are now part of the family. I figured it was cheaper to feed the rats what they wanted and have them test new foods than it was to go to the Doc's with cancer in another few years.
To my surprise the cats agreed, I threw out a number of branded tins of cat-food and they eat what the rats eat. and we've all lost weight, even saved some money. I set up the rat holes with tiny rat-doors for environemental control and all goes smoothly!
Like the Dems say if you can't beat'em feed'em!
>^^<
RichardCatz, "I set up the rat holes with tiny rat-doors" how cool is that?Your a real Mench,a human being.And maybe you'all can do some consulting for Consumer Reports!Did you see "Ratatouille"? I recommend it.
peace
Vote third Party
@kassandrasduplex
Your arguments are simplistic and lack factual credibility. You seem reluctant to acknowledge just how utterly morally depraved and utterly ignorant the great majority of Americans have become. Instead, you attack messenger Dinh. You need to face the facts. I think you'll feel better. It's called intellectual integrity. You can do it!
Yes, of course. When the yellow shirts paralysed the country by shutting down airports, blocking rail and road, and threatening to block ports, they were engaging in legitimate protests.
And yes, Bhumipol, and his pet Prem Tinsulanonda are champions of democracy.
You are correct that the world's rich are not all American,s and that American is not the cause of all the world's woes. For example, Bhumipol is one of the richest men in the world, responsible for much of Thailand's woes.
Yeah, many Thais love the king. And if Obama used the same propaganda tactics that Bhumipol has used for decades, Americans would love him too. If all criticism of Obama were illegal, if any criticism was censored, if the US gov regularly trumpets Obama's greatness, holds public holidays to celebrate his greatness, it wouldn't be long before many Americans would love him too.
Just like so many Yanks you just can't face reality. As of March 2010 there were 403 billionaires in the US. The combined total for the next nine countries was 356. Currently, the US admits to possessing 5,113 deliverable thermonuclear weapons. And remember young one, ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE. So I'm quite certain the great majority of countries in this world must know that must be very, very careful or they too could be the next shock and awe victims. US corporations seek out and destroy economies as they search for the lowest priced labor markets in order to maximize investor profits. Corporations are the great patrons and beneficiaries of rigid, authoritarian governments as long as they play ball. Your country is in economic shambles; your social fabric rots at its core; your Gulf Coast an oil cesspool; your politics totally corrupt. Here's a little homework for you. Why don't you find out which country is the global leader in the military arms death trade.
"But until you and I are willing to work as cheaply, our jobs aren't coming back anytime soon"
Bollocks. And you know it.
"The United States fought a war to keep the totalitarian regime in power at this moment in Vietnam from ascending to power."
Nope. More bollocks. I see now why Bhumipol is such a hero to you. Bhumipol was very much in favour of the US invasion of Vietnam.
And the list goes on. There is Honduras, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Turkey and Brazil are on the list now. The US, with its unflagging drive to promote corporate interests, is a plague on the World. It doesn't matter which party is in power, the behavior never changes.
I said or slurred to my good drinking buddy Bob at our local watering hole as we downed pints sometime around September of '08, "this guy (Obama) is our last hope. If he doesn't deliver, the world is finished, we're screwed".
Well, it's upon us. Chiseled over the Gates of Hell, Dante read, "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate." We're all marching in, like it or not. We're screwed.
THe "standard of living is rising in India and China" not that I think the standard concept of the "standard of living" is totally benign.
The USA gov. and corps purposely shipped out its manufacturing with NAFTA and WTO.
The USA is a debtor because of NAFTA and Imperialism.
The USA gov. works for International Corps that owe no national alliegence.
The USA is only a dysfuntional used car to be sold in parts for international corps profit.
You apparently have it upside down and backwards. China of 1990 was a nation of roughly 1.2 billion people, most of whom were desperately poor, with a majority of them trying to make a living on small partitions of land with primitive technology. The Chinese leadership and Western capitalists saw a win-win where the Western capitalists would get very cheap labor while the Chinese laborers would make more money and be better off financially than they had ever been before if the capitalists located their factories in China.
A couple of years ago, in response to pressure from Chinese laborers with rising expectations (it's funny that the nondemocratic Chinese government responds to concerns of its laboring classes like the US once did), the Chinese government passed some labor reforms to increase wages and improve working conditions. From a story in the NY Times, the US corporations with factories in China then threatened the Chinese government with shutting down their factories and leaving immediately if the reforms were put in place, which would of course have led to much more unrest in China, so the Chinese government seriously watered down the reforms.
What power do the multinational corporations have? Total power in the US and great power overseas. However, the Chinese government is clearly planning for the day when they do not have to genuflect in front of their US corporate masters, and they hope to upset the applecart of the Neoliberal New World Order of the oligarchic US-based multinational corporations (which is supported by the US military -- the muscle of the corporatocracy).
Kivals, you sound knowledgeable to me. And i am not up to speed on China.
But just to add something to the mix. I remember Naomi Klein talking about China with Amy Goodman last year after returning. She called it Stalinism meets capitalism. They have taken the surviellance state to the max. The u.s. was drooling over the 24/7 oversight capacity.
I was in Shenzhen just after Naomi wrote that piece about the city. I love Naomi and really enjoyed her "Shock Doctrine," but I think she exaggerated a bit there. There were some cameras but it was not anything like London.
My wife is from China and is quite knowledgable about Chinese history and society, and I know from my thousands of conversations with her on such topics that most Westerners cannot even begin to understand what is happening in China because they see it through a Western lens. I think it may be helpful in forming an understanding to try to forget, or at least momentarily suppress, everything one knows about European/US history and civilization and try to look at China with new eyes.
In China, there is no Christianity, no Calvinism, no god (Buddhism is quite different and they do not take it seriously anyway), no "invisible hand," limited racial and cultural diversity issues (though some with regard to the Western Muslims), little concern with or knowledge of Western history, no history of democracy, an appreciation of the value of labor and laborers, and no worship of the "market" or of billionaires (so no resistance to the idea that their wealth should be redistributed). Of course there is Confucianism, with a strong moral sense that flows from that, and a shared history and language providing a much greater feeling of family and solidarity with others than what we have here in this chaotic melting pot of super competitors. Also, from my understanding the Chinese generally believe that talented people go into science, math, engineering, medicine, academic pursuits, or government service while businesspersons are considered second rate (if one is really talented, it is considered selfish and immoral to waste that talent in business accumulating wealth for oneself).
There is also a centuries-long resentment of the West and of the domination of China by Westerners in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. This may be the greatest reason why the Chinese elites are not interested in joining with Western elites in forming a New World Order where the elites of the world unite to oppress the common people of the world.
China is evolving quickly and I have no idea how it is going to turn out, and I am quite doubtful about the ability of anyone in the West to successfully predict the outcome. I just hope that China does stand in the way, for its own reasons whatever they may be, of the plans of US corporatists to enslave the world.
Thank you so much Kivals for an enlightening and thoughtful response.
You have given me a new perspective.
rita
There are millions of anecdotes a simpleton can bring up about any social system to prove a simpleton's point (By the way, Japan has the highest suicide rate, can you make a point with that? And the US has the highest homicide rate in the industrialized world, what about that?). Let's see, what about the tens of thousands who die needlessly in the US every year because the world's great predator nation cannot spare enough of its plunder for the less well off to provide them with health care, or the millions in the US who have been sent to prison needlessly for nonviolent crimes who become disturbed, bitter, and lost individuals with broken lives, or the millions who descend into confusion and insanity (kind of like you) because they live in a predator state where they are constantly deluged with disinformation.
Fools, simpletons, and the dimwitted believe the pretty words emanating from Washington and Wall Street about the actions and intentions of the US and other countries. Which are you? Oh, never mind, I think I know.
What an IDIOT. Just go back to FauxNoise or wherever the hell you slithered out from and STFU- grown ups are trying to to groupthink here.
Typical ring wing apologia.
A 500% tariff, and the jobs will be back tomorrow.
"If an Ameican business man takes the opportunity, are you proposing Obama refuse him the right and send in the Marines to force India to raise its wages?"
Not necessary. A 500% tariff.
No it is your grasp that is miserable.
It is basic economics that capital will always want the worst work conditions and lowest pay.
It is basic economics that labour will always want the best work conditions and highest pay.
Capital is allowed to move freely. Labour is not. The same people who whine and bitch and moan about "mass immigration" are also the ones who argue relentlessly for the freedom of movement of capital and goods.
"After a dessert Twinkie or two, or maybe ten, I just don't feel like penning a protest poem or joining the local militia."
In a place where the energy/materials consumption is four to five times the world average, it's really hard to put the "stuff" aside long enough to complain about rights, dignity, freedom and justice. Out of each 1000 USans, 999 are addicted to material opiates and maybe only ten are aware of it.
Aw, finally someone connected the dots: our subsidized agriculture, which exports "food" at cost lower than the cost of production is a big reason for our immigration "problem". Most South and Central Americans have no desire to risk their lives to come to the US, but wipe out their livelihood and their only choice is to try to make it to the US. So, in addition to creating most of our degenerative diseases (mostly unheard of 100 years ago) we can blame our ag policies for our immigration problem.