Irreverent Observations
Gore Vidal has observed that America is not, contrary to popular
mythology, a country founded by the religiously persecuted. It
was started by Puritan zealots who left England because
they were not allowed to persecute others. The Puritans
(Pilgrims) went to Holland seeking a more compatible atmosphere,
but then migrated to America because in Holland they saw
themselves being absorbed into a society that had, by their
lights, altogether too much freedom of all kinds, including real
religious freedom.The Marxist analysis has nothing to do with what happened in
Stalin's Russia; it's like blaming Jesus Christ for the
Inquisition in Spain."When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist."
Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian ArchbishopPresident Truman's loyalty Oath: instead of asking whether the
government was loyal to the people, the people had to swear their
loyalty to the government.Contrary to the image of Bill Clinton as a draft-dodging anti-war
protester in the 60s, it seems, instead, that he was actually
informing on his "fellow" protesters and Fulbright scholars in
Europe for the CIA. Roger Morris, former National Security
Council official, reports on this in his book Partners in Power.
Almost as surprising is his revelation that wife Hilary -- the great
champion of children -- was a strong supporter of the contras in
Nicaragua in the 1980s, the same band that just loved to go around
murdering women and children, raping, burning down villages, and
singling out schools and medical clinics for destruction. The book
further makes it clear that the Mena, Arkansas drug-trafficking charges
against Clinton are not simply a conspiracy freak's wet dream.Culture
The artist, i.e., the painter of pictures, does not necessarily
have anything more to say to the world of intellectual interest
or social importance than the plumber, the accountant, or the cab
driver, although he spends his time doing something which our
culture has assigned a high status to.
We are all taught early on and well that to be regarded as
sophisticated, cultured, worldly, refined, educated, etc., one
must learn to highly esteem pictures hanging in an art gallery or
art museum, or at least learn how to pretend to esteem such
things highly, dropping seemingly appropriate comments about color,
form, art history, or "meaning"."A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than
anything else in the world." Edmond de Goncourt (1822-1896)"Abstract art? A product of the untalented, sold by the
unprincipled to the utterly bewildered." Al Capp... but the painting gave off the sanctified odor of serious art,
so he hesitated to be candid ... The art-collecting spirit can be a variety of greed.Art, like history, belongs to the winners.Painting vases and flowers and other "still life" is comparable
to writing a poem beginning "Roses are red, violets are blue".Any institutionalized maniac is able to create chaos out of
order, but is that art?Critics of certain "obscene" art have objected to the NEA giving
grants to the artists on the grounds that taxpayers who object to
such work should not have their tax dollars supporting work they
find obscene. "This is a novel theory," author Lawrence
Weschler has observed. "I notice, for example, that such logic
was never applied to funding for the Stealth bomber or aid to the
regimes of El Salvador and Guatemala." John Cage theorized that music does not have to have sound but
can be anything that fills a space in time. He scored a piece
that included the noise from 12 radios, and wrote scores that
left choices of sounds to the performers. In "O'O" - he sliced
vegetables, put them in a blender and drank the juice. In
"4'33" he presented four minutes and 33 seconds of silence in
which a pianist simply steps onstage, sits at a piano in silence
and then walks off.
In an interview, Cage said he had once listened to several
mundane sounds and tried to figure out why he didn't like them.
He was forced to conclude that there was no reason why he didn't
like them.
What, I wonder, if he ate some excrement and didn't like it.
Would he conclude that there was no reason why?
Consider a patient in a mental hospital being examined by
the psychiatrist to determine if he's well enough to be released.
The patient says he's composed something. The psychiatrist is
very interested and says he'd like to hear it. The patient sits
down at a piano and sits there in silence for 4 minutes and 33
seconds. Would he be released?
"I have nothing to say and I am saying it." John Cage,
response to questions about his music and his musical philosophy.Coming soon: minimal film -- two hours of a completely white
screen, with a long list of credits at the end."America is form opposed to content. Not just form instead of
content. Form opposed. Often violently. There are few things
resented so much among us as the suggestion that what we do
means. Other cultures have argued over their meanings. We tend
to deny that there is any such thing, insisting instead that what
you see is what you get and that's it. All we're doing is having
a good time, all we're doing is making a buck, all we're doing is
enjoying the spectacle ... Media is the American war on content
with all the stops out, with meaning in utter rout, frightened
nuances dropping their weapons as they run." Michael Ventura,
journalist and authorThe aesthetics of a revolutionary: being turned on or off by the
nature or rationality of his society; he looks for beauty in the
social arrangement as others may look for it in art.Freud resisted music because he hated being moved by a thing
without knowing how and why he was affected. Lenin avoided
Beethoven because the music made him want to pat people on the
head.Anti-war
World War 1 -- hundreds of thousands of previously rational
animals lined up facing one another and doggedly shot one another
to pieces, day after day, year after year. And no one could
confidently or clearly say why it was happening or what it was
all about.
And it might still be going on if not for the Russian
Revolution. Unlike World War 2, the First World War did not end
because of any kind of invasion of Germany. It came to an end
because the Bolsheviks brought the capitalist leaders who were
fighting each other to their senses. They realized that if they
didn't stop fighting each other and work together against the new
Bolshevik menace, their own people might rise up against them.Remark made to a pacifist: "If only everyone else would live in
the way you recommend, I would gladly live that way as well --
but not until everyone else does."
The pacifist replied: "Why then, sir, you would be the last
man on earth to do good. I would rather be one of the first."The question is not what pacifism has achieved throughout
history, but what has war achieved?Leading Nazi leader, Hermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials
before he was sentenced to death: "Why of course the people don't
want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his
life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back
to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't
want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter
in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders
of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can
always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy.
All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and
denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger." The Veterans of Future Wars -- those intent upon preventing
future warsConspiracies
"Anti-conspiracists insist that, unlike the rest of us, the rich
and powerful do not act with deliberate intent." Michael Parenti In a roomful of smoking guns, they demand a smoking cannon. The well-known term "conspiracy" may not actually serve us very
well, since it suggests an arcane aberration rather than the
normal workings of our ruling class.The trivialization of conspiracism may itself be a conspiracy.Humpty-Dumpty was pushed.With the JFK assassination we gave up part of our democracy and
we're not going to get it back unless we find out who did it.
Prof. Peter Dale Scott sees the JFK assassination as an "internal
adjustment".A common argument against a JFK assassination conspiracy is that
by now someone would have talked. But at least two men have come
forward with plausible stories of how they were directly involved
with the assassination (one is the father of actor Woody
Harrelson), and others have claimed other important connections.
And what happened? They have all been completely ignored by the
mainstream media. Only the tabloids have reported their stories.Capitalism
(or government of the Exxons, by the Duponts, for the Chryslers)Capitalism is the theory that the worst people, acting from their
worst motives, will somehow produce the most good."The twentieth century has been characterized by three
developments of great political importance: the growth of
democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of
corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power
against democracy." Alex Carey, Australian social scientist Shooting your boss is guaranteed in the Declaration of
Independence, under the provision for "the pursuit of happiness"."Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business." John
Dewey"The drive for profit that determines capitalism at the end of
this century fits like an iron mask on our cultural output."
André Schiffrin, publisherJohn Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath":
"Just who are these goddamn reds, anyway?"
"A goddamn red is anyone who wants 30 cents when I am paying
25."Most of us have made our personal compromises with the workings
of capitalism, not because we're bad people, but because we've
come to believe that these principles are all that could ever
govern human life.General Electric and other defense contractors are essentially
ex-convicts regularly charged with cheating the US government.If you lose at gambling, you can't take a tax deduction. But you
can if you lose in the stock market. The latter is thus
subsidized by the taxpayers "He [the American Indian] had never fully grasped the principle
establishing private ownership of land as any more rational than
private ownership of air, but he loved the land with a deeper
emotion than could any proprietor." Dale Van Every, authorConservatives take for granted that the society exists to serve
the economy, and not the other way around.... turned away by a hospital because his wallet biopsy showed a
low green countI buy. Therefore I am.American leaders insist that you must take the system whole.
Soviet leaders used to believe the same.Jay Gould, 19th century robber baron: "I can hire one half of the
working class to kill the other half."A vision of the future: 1/4 of the population employed in
security work of one kind or another in behalf of another 1/4
who are investigating and protecting against the remaining half."... pushing man off the earth and putting the customer in his
place ..." Clifford Odets, The Big Knife, 1949Capitalism as practiced in the US is like chemotherapy: it may
kill the cancer cells of consumer shortages, but the side effects
are devastating."The American oligarchy increasingly has less in common with the
American people than it does with the equivalent oligarchies in
Germany or Mexico or Japan."
Lewis Lapham, editor of Harpers"Advertising is a racket ... its constructive contribution
to humanity is exactly minus zero." F. Scott FitzgeraldAdvertising is like god -- it's everywhere.Is there any hope for a society which habitually prices its goods at
$9.99, $99.98, $999.95, $1499.99?The Underclasses
Many workers are paid a wage sufficient to allow them to go on
living, even if it's not a living wage.The workplace democracy that grew up during the first half of the
century has been replaced by a return to a kind of monarchy, with
highly compensated corporate chieftains now behaving like
despots, firing long-loyal workers at will. There has been the
re-emergence of a near-feudal labor arrangement, reverting to the
abusive patterns of the late 1800s and early 1900s, before the
threat of communism and powerful labor unions forced business
titans to improve employees' pay and working conditions.
-- Observation from "Company Man: The Rise and Fall of Corporate
Life" by Anthony SampsonWorkers have had an extra month added to their annual work and
commute time since 1969. (Calculated by The Economic Policy
Institute in 1994)"There is surely something a trifle off-putting about a poor
person asking for money. Like an elephant asking for a
trampoline, the two don't really go together."
Tatler magazine (London)Rich man to his chauffeur: "Drive me over that cliff, James, I
want to commit suicide."The southern slaveholders had some reason for declaring that
slavery offered the blacks greater security and even better
working and living conditions than the free labor system of the
north was offering white laborers.An Italian immigrant in 1903: "I came to America because I had
heard the streets were paved with gold, and I found three things.
One: The streets were not paved with gold. Two: The streets were
not paved at all. Three: I was expected to pave them."
"A Nation of Strangers" by Vicki Goldbert and Arthur Ollman."The paradox is that, three centuries after America's colonial
beginnings, wealth and income are more unequally distributed in
the `New World' than in most of the nations of Europe." Wallace
Peterson, "Silent Depressions""If the world operates as one big market, every employee will
compete with every person anywhere in the world who is capable of
doing the same job. There are lots of them and many of them are
hungry." Andrew Grove, president of Intel Corp., in his book
"High Output Management"Most people work at any jobs they can find, rather than at those
designed to realize innermost social, spiritual or artistic
needs. Their innermost needs are rent, food, clothes, and
electricity. Is it not demeaning to have to say or think TGIF?Conservative opposition to welfare stems in part from the fact
that all forms of public assistance potentially preempt private
markets and provide alternative sources of income to working
people, leaving them less inclined to work for still lower wages.In a society increasingly of the working poor scratching an
existence out of low-wage jobs, it's no wonder that many citizens
would rather collect welfare than work at such jobs. Thus, these
jobs are left for the illegal immigrants who can't collect
welfare. To decrease welfare and stop illegal immigration, the
minimum wage should be increased and enforced.When the rich give charity to the poor, it's well publicized.
But the charity of the poor to the rich is anonymous. The rich
give the poor a little food, drink, shelter, clothes. The poor
have given the rich palaces and yachts, almost infinite freedom
to indulge their doubtful taste for display. Gilbert Seldes,
"Against Revolution", 1932To say that one percent of the population owns one-third of the
resources or wealth understates the situation. If you own one-
third you can control much more than that.There is a great deal of suffering of the many which goes into
the making of one Rockefeller.Government regulation
Reaganism's Darwinian view: The logic for dismantling consumer
agencies is that they are unnecessary, since defective products
will lead to injury or death, which then bring lawsuits and
economic consequences, which then force the products off the
market.Look at how national parks have been laid out: camping grounds,
boating areas, unspoiled hiking trails with markings, fishing
areas, artificial lakes, tastefulness of selling sites, nature
studies, etc. And look at the commercial areas in any city.
Who would you rather have do your planning?The implication of the anti-regulationists: pure food and drugs
will be ours as soon as we abolish the pure food and drug laws.If business and industry leaders were truly responsible, there
would be no FDA, OSHA, NLRB, FTC, FDIC, FCC, SEC, FAA, EPA, or
many other agencies that protect us from those who cannot
otherwise be held accountable.Memo written by executive from TCI, the nation's largest cable
operator, who instructed local mangers to raise prices: "The best
news of all is we can blame it on re-regulation and the government
now. Let's take advantage of it!" (Washington Post, 11-16-93)"If all I'm offered is a choice between monopolistic privilege
with regulation and monopolistic privilege without regulation,
I'm afraid I have to opt for the former." Nicholas Johnson,
former Commissioner of the Federal Communications CommissionThe New Deal: Its main ideological purpose was to prevent the
rising discontent of the citizens leading them to organize to
demand control of industry and not merely better wages.
Government regulation of industry was one method to dampen this
discontent. The New Deal also encouraged the most moderate part
of the union movement, the part concerned solely with wages and
working conditions.Economics/economists
Economics has been presented to the public as if it were a matter
of mathematics, with its own laws that can't be altered to suit
the needs and aspirations of the community. Daily, we are served
up with economic analyses and predictions concerning inflation,
employment, unemployment, gross domestic product, a balanced
budget,supply and demand, wages, interest rates, why the stock
market has gone up, or down, etc. Yet, in fact, most of these
interpretations are quite arbitrary, reflecting the ideological
bias of the economist or his professional need to appear "expert"
more than anything else.
We are told that a particular economy is doing very well,
"growing", "heated up", "booming", "the Chilean miracle", the
"Korean miracle" ... when all this really means usually, if it
means anything, is that the rich are growing richer. Economists
do not normally measure an economy's performance in terms of the
quality of life of the average citizen, though, from a moral
point of view, this should be the primary consideration.
Instead, economists are concerned with numbers, the standard
measurements -- if the numbers are looking good, the economy is
looking good, even if the people are looking sick.
A balanced budget does not necessarily mean an improvement
in the quality of life, even for the rich. But the frenzy for a
"balanced budget" has taken on such a life of its own, that no
politician is willing to publicly question its need.In a society which supposedly values "success" so much, we pay
extraordinary homage to economists whose predictions, policies
and analyses are continually wrong and/or meaningless.
Science, in contrast to other fields of research such as
economics and theology, is self-correcting. If an experiment or
theory cannot be reproduced, the work gets thrown upon the trash
heap.
"The mythical doctrine of free market economics ... rests on the
bizarre assumption that the modern American corporate scene is
actually like Adam Smith's rural country market in which all the
farmers came to town to compete for the business of sharp-eyed
customers." Ben Bagdikian"If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a
conclusion." George Bernard ShawTrickle-down theory
John Kenneth Galbraith on the trickle-down theory: If the horse
is fed enough oats, some of it will pass through to the road for
the sparrows.
On Reaganomics: a tax policy based on a notion of incentives
which says that the rich aren't working because they have too
little money, while the poor aren't working because they get too
much.The "trickle down" theory is based on the principle that the
poor, who must subsist on table scraps dropped by the rich, can
best be served by giving the rich bigger meals.The trickle-down theory has already been tried. It was called
The Great DepressionAndrew Mellon, Treasury Secretary to three Republican Presidents
in the 1920s: "The prosperity of the lower and middle classes
depends upon the good fortune and light taxes of the rich."Individualism
... the American belief in complete personal independence; the
notion that we are separate atoms that form no compoundsIf during a period of prosperity, people can be encouraged to
accept the notion that the rewards of capitalism are a reflection
of their personal merit, then when the bad times return, they can
be the more easily convinced to accept that the old visitations
of poverty and insecurity are a result of their own individual
failings. Greed
If the system should cater to selfishness because it's "natural",
as many libertarians and others claim, why not cater to
aggression which many of the same people claim is also natural.Do the members of a family relate to each other on the basis of
self-interest and greed?"The country needs to be born again, she is polluted with the
lust of power, the lust of gain." Margaret Fuller, literary
critic, NY Tribune, July 4, 1845. "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest
exercises in moral philosophy: that is, the search for a superior
moral justification for selfishness." John Kenneth GalbraithCIA
CIA spokesman Dennis Boxx, speaking of Aldrich Ames: "We're not
going to negotiate with a traitor." But they did that many
times with Russian traitors.Dave Barry: the motto of the CIA: "Proudly Overthrowing Fidel
Castro Since 1962."If you catch the CIA with its hand in the cookie jar and the
Agency admits the obvious -- what your eyes can plainly see --
that its hand is indeed in the cookie jar, it means one of two
things: a) the CIA's hand is in three other cookie jars at the
same time which you don't know about and they hope that by
confessing to the one instance they can keep the other three
covered up; or b) its hand is not really in the cookie jar --
it's an illusion to throw you off the right scent.Victor Ostrovsky, "By Way of Deception" re the Israeli
intelligence agency, Mossad: "This feeling that you can do
anything you want to whomever you want for as long as you want
because you have the power."Police
On TV shows like "Cops", showing the police in real action --
the police wouldn't approve the showing of such films unless they
were proud of the behavior shown on them; yet these programs show
the police repeatedly and seriously violating people's civil
liberties, humiliating them, and manhandling them. Imagine the
stuff the police don't allow to be filmed.Patriotism (aka Nationalism)
"Unhappy the land that has no heroes."
"No. Unhappy the land that needs heroes." [Brecht's
Galileo]The Bible: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, to God what is
God's."
Dorothy Day: "After you give to God, there should be nothing left
over for Caesar."
Americans are expected to not only love their country, but to
love it blindly. If love is blind, patriotism has lost all five
senses."In the name of tribal loyalty, sometimes called patriotism, the
human race has committed incredible atrocities against itself."
Gore VidalHistorian Howard Zinn: Nationalism is "a set of beliefs taught to
each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an
object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one
becomes willing to kill the children of other Motherlands or
Fatherlands.""It is in the nature of an extreme nationalist to have no
reluctance to employ criminal methods for his purposes, just as
it is in the nature of criminals to wrap themselves in their
national flag." John Lukacs, historianIf patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, superpatriotism
is the first refuge of superscoundrels.Romanians cut the Communist Party symbol out of the national flag
during the 1989 revolution. At the May Day parade in Moscow,
1990, one marcher carried a Soviet flag with the hammer and
sickle cut out as a symbol of his repudiation of Soviet rule, and
was not arrested. American leaders call such people freedom
fighters. Yet, if these people came to this country and wanted to
protest by burning an American flag, if the same leaders had their
way, they would be punished.The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, a
founding member, in 1889, of the Society of Christian Socialists,
a group of Protestant ministers who asserted that "the teachings
of Jesus Christ lead directly to some form or forms of
socialism."The sculptor of the Statue of Liberty copied his mother's face
for the statue. She was a domineering and intolerant woman who
had forbidden another child from marrying a Jew.There's "now a high degree of patriotism in the Soviet Union
because Moscow acted with impunity in Afghanistan and thus
underscored who the real power in that part of the world is."
"Top Soviet diplomat" quoted by San Francisco Examiner
1-20-80 When I visited the Soviet Union in 1982, and mentioned to my
Russian guide about the book I was writing, she was somewhat
taken aback, telling me that I shouldn't be writing books against
my own government. I then asked her: "What about a German who wrote
against the Nazi government?" "Oh, I never thought of it that
way," she said.
A friend in the 1960s was part of a group visiting Hanoi
during the heart of the war. Their hosts were disturbed by the
Americans putting down US society -- "They really didn't care to
hear that we hated our society -- that we were alienated," my friend
later wrote."To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled
by geography." George Santayana
Yes, one might as well toss dice, and if number nine came
up, commit oneself to unswerving loyalty to, and readiness to fight
and die for, number nine.During the Gulf war, many Americans thought that the media wasn't
censored enough. They were angry at the media for pressing the
military for more information.
"The government doesn't want the people to see the real war,
and the people are demanding not to know. This is the death
of the republic. When the people clamor to be shielded from
reality, when they praise their government for keeping things
from them, when they choose to conduct their lives within the limits
of whatever fantasy the government supplies, then they are no longer
consenting to be governed, they are begging to be ruled."
Michael Ventura"When you see masses of Americans with raised fists yelling
'U! S! A! U! S! A!' you are looking at something new in
American imagery; a shameless lust for individual strength
through state power. Odd how, in country after country, the
totalitarian impulse always takes the form of a raised arm
menacing the air."
Michael Ventura"The nation, like the church, has its visible symbols and
insignia, its parchments engrossed with the revealed word, its
dogmas, hymns, liturgy, holy day celebrations, its early Fathers,
prophets and martyrs, its priesthood and its lay sodality, its
myths of sacred genesis and apocalyptic crises, its world-saving
mission and its missionaries. ... Hans Kohn chose to treat
fascism as an 'exaggerated nationalism' rather than as a unique
and aberrant phenomenon."
Michael Parenti, The Anti-Communist ImpulseIshmael Reed, novelist: "The duty of the true patriot, a citizen
of the world, is to expose nationalism as the village idiot of
the Global Village.""The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities
committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for
not even hearing about them."
George Orwell, "Notes on Nationalism", 1945.Author Michael Lewis: "One of the qualities that distinguish
Americans from other people is their naive suspicion that any
foreigner with half a brain would rather be one of them. ... The
most zealous Japanese patriot doesn't for a minute think that
other peoples actually want to be Japanese. Ditto the French.""The agony and moral anguish that ought to accompany an act of
mass killing -- yes, even in a war -- seemed wholly absent from
American culture."
Ruth Rosen, history professor, re the Gulf War"In extreme situations, nationalism appears to neutralize that
part of the mind able to fathom complex equations." Misha
Glenny, journalist and authorAmerican society
Much of private pain is rooted in the way we collectively
organize our social, political and economic lives.Martin Walker, Washington correspondent for The Guardian of
London, writing about the United States: "Nowhere is it easier to
become rich and privileged, but the price of failure is steeper
than elsewhere. Nowhere is there more equality of opportunity or
less equality of outcome. Nowhere is the medicine or the higher
education better, but the nation that preened itself on evading
the sickening rigidities of the European class system has
pioneered the new social stratification of the underclass." Helmut Voss, correspondent for the Springer Corp., German media
giant, covered the Los Angeles race riots in 1965. After the
1992 riot in LA he commented: "I find it incomprehensible why a
country as rich as the U.S. can allow a whole generation of young
people in the inner city to slide into despair in such a degree that
they go out in the streets and burn down and loot their own
neighborhoods."Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine: "This focus on
money and power may do wonders in the marketplace, but it creates a
tremendous crisis in our society. People who have spent all day
learning how to sell themselves and to manipulate others are in
no position to form lasting friendships or intimate relationships.
... Many Americans hunger for a different kind of society -- one
based on principles of caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity,
and communal solidarity. Their need for meaning is just as
intense as their need for economic security."21 percent of Americans polled by telephone were of the opinion
that the sun revolved about the earth, and an additional 7
percent didn't know which went around which -- July 1988, the Public
Opinion Laboratory at Northern Illinois UniversityMalise Ruthven, British author of "The Divine Supermarket",
traveling in Oregon in an area that once had been the territory
of the Blackfoot Indians: "The only visible reminder of their
presence was a plastic wigwam with life-size human dummies garbed
in chiefly regalia and aimed, I presumed, at some kind of tourist
promotion. I wondered what other exterminating nation would
celebrate the culture of its victims for commercial ends: would
the Third Reich, a hundred years on, have displayed full-size
plastic models of rabbis or frock-coated merchants with fur-
trimmed hats?"The "heredity vs. environment" question is better stated as: To
what extent and in what way is the characteristic modifiable?The Family: that noble institution responsible for 70 percent of
all murders, over 80 percent of incidents of child abuse, and a
full 100 percent of all cases of incest. The argument in favor of student loans costing students more:
Going to university increases their earning power.
It's like making someone who's pregnant pay more taxes because
the baby's earning potential will increase after birth.Elections
"The people can have anything they want. The trouble is, they do
not want anything. At least they vote that way on election day."
Eugene DebsIf voting could change the system, it would be against the law.We've all been taught that the one-party system is the hallmark
of a dictatorship. Yet, increasingly, and successfully,
President Clinton is trying to blur the lines between the
Democrats and Republicans. "Bipartisan" is regarded as good and
healthy; "partisan" is a dirty word. If we have two parties,
it's only the Ins and the Outs.If persons over 60 are the only American age group going to the
polls at a significant rate, it may be because they're the only
Americans who've lived in a welfare state -- Medicare, Social
Security, and earlier, GI loans, the GI Bill, FHA loans"Parliamentary democracy is the fig leaf of bourgeois
authoritarianism." Wilhelm Liebknechtsuggesting the truly awful so the worried multitudes will
gratefully accept the merely badmillionaire members of Congress who shill for billionaire
executives"How to get people to vote against their interests and to really
think against their interests is very clever. It's the cleverest
ruling class that I have ever come across in history. It's been
200 years at it. It's superb." Gore VidalLeaders take polls to find out what kind of Leader the voters
think they want that week, then claim that they've been that
person all their lives.Militant demonstrations and other actions don't work all the
time, and don't work all the way (nothing does), but work much
better than voting. Not that voting is useless or stupid;
rather, it's the exaggeration of the power of voting that
has drained the meaning from American politics.Our system demands truth about the "personal ethics" of
candidates -- behavior in bank accounts and bedrooms -- but winks
at their pervasive lying about opinions and issues."In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from one side to the
other, thinking they will be more comfortable."
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheRichard Reeves: "The American political system is essentially a
contract between the Republican and Democratic parties, enforced
by federal and state two-party laws, all designed to guarantee
the survival of both no matter how many people despise or ignore
them."In America, elections are the opiate of the people. Every four
years they get to shoot up for their quick fix.Most scandals involve broken laws. In the case of the
congressional campaign financing system [PACs], however, the laws
themselves are the scandal."We've come to confuse democracy with institutions like free
elections and multiple political parties. But in my definition
of democracy, nobody is excluded from all power. And if people
are going hungry, they have been deprived of all power, because
nobody chooses to starve themselves or their children."
Francis Moore LappeElectoral politics, like virtually every other sphere of activity
in a capitalist society, is a kind of market. Firms (parties)
with similar products (positions) compete for consumers (voters)
and promise profits (beneficial government intervention) to
investors (contributors). As in the rest of the economy,
consumers may be sovereign in theory, but, in practice, control
lies with investors. "Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats
and the Future of American Politics", Thomas Ferguson and Joel
Rogers.Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius: "The opinion of 10,000 men is of
no value if none of them know anything about the subject.""The fact that a supposedly sophisticated electorate had been
stampeded by the cynical propaganda of the day threw serious
doubt on the validity of the assumptions underlying parliamentary
democracy as a whole." Master British spy Kim Philby, explaining
his reasons for becoming a Communist instead of turning to the
Labour PartyOne should place a high value on experience in choosing a car
mechanic or a doctor, not in choosing a politician. A
politician's beliefs are what count.After examining the resulte of various elections, I am now
convinced that taxation without representation would have been a
much better system.
Written and compiled by William Blum, author of
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
and Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
email:bblum6 [at] aol.com
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