Quote:
Originally Posted by theoddz
[FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Black"]I know this is a few months old, but it's the complete speech by Michael Moore to the worker protesters in Madison, Wisconsin this past March. I'm watching this....ALL nearly 30 minutes of this, and I can't help but think about my history lessons in high school and college and remember what happened that brought about the Russian revolution and the rise of the USSR.
I'm not thinking so much about the actual results of that revolution asmuch as this video/speech makes me think about how the Russian people rose up against much the same political/class structor that brought the royal family and aristocratic society of old Russia down and brought in the USSR.
I'm looking at this in the sense of the energy that starts this kind of revolt. The rhetoric, thoughts and energy here has to be nearly the same as what the socialists ("socialism" isn't necessarily a negative thing to me, btw, so don't think I'm talking about that in a negative sense). Take a look and watch the whole thing. Really. What do you think??? I'm interested in hearing what you good folks think.
Thanks!!!  |
Honestly, one of the things that has driven me crazy the last two decades or so is how astoundingly stupid the wealthy have been. Jobs have been shipped overseas and at the same time the wealthy have bought into this Ayn Rand philosophy that *any* social welfare or business regulation or taxes is nothing more than the 'parasites' (her words, not mine) trying to milk the John Galt's of this world. The complete stupidity of doing the former while enacting policies based on the latter seems to me to be a perfect recipe for a historical disaster.
Something the West hit on during the 20th century was that the middle-class is a stabilizing presence in democracies. Look, let us all admit that we're not going to all have the wealth of Gates or Winfrey or, for that matter, a hedge fund manager or member of the Senate (every one a millionaire). But if you came from humble beginnings, you might be able to get a job and eventually get yourself into the middle-class. If you were middle-class you could pass on something to your kids, who might do a little better than you did. The poor had something to shoot for--something that was attainable if jobs were present and unions kept wages high. Was it perfect? No, but it was workable.
Then this Rand meme grabbed the imagination of American conservatism and off to the races they went. Our current woes are rooted in the short-sightedness of the ruling economic and political classes. They are enabled by the general fecklessness of American liberalism which, at some point, forgot its organized labor roots and lost blue-collar Americans.
The thing that makes me shake my head is that it didn't and doesn't have to be this way. Good schools, a sense of shared sacrifice, a recognition that patriotism is far more than shouting "USA! USA!" and a willingness to actually, I don't know, apply the law to all and we could turn this around. That is why I appreciate what Moore and Van Jones are trying to do. They are trying to get the middle-class and the working-class to join up in a common cause so that those voices will be heard--or if they are summarily ignored, at least we know where we stand.
The political elite of a democratic republic that are not, at least, attuned to the will of the public is no longer either. It is probably safe to say that clear majorities of Americans believe that the oil companies should no longer have their subsidies, that corporations should not be able to hold their profits made offshore beyond the reach of the IRS, and that we should not be maintaining an imperial military abroad. Now, the question becomes will the political elites be responsive to that. If they aren't when the last fires are put out and the last kangaroo court has closed up shop, they will only have themselves to blame for the wreckage of the nation.
Do any of those folks look like people who want revolution for the sake of revolution? No. If those people didn't fear for their jobs, their homes, did not feel that every break went to the people at the top and corporations and thought that their children would do a little better than them that they would even turn out? I don't think they would.
"I am on the social-democratic left with regard to domestic economic policy: “democratic” because I do not see how one can fully nationalize an economy without creating an enormous and repressive state apparatus, “social-democratic” because I believe that without a measure of practical equality with regard to fundamental human needs, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose." (Michael Berube)
Cheers
Aj