The President

This is an excerpt from a talk by political analyst Michael Parenti on Executive Power in a Democratic Society. Sadly few of us learn much about the executive office in school. Here Dr. Parenti discusses the role of President in a way seldom heard: as the defender of Capitalism, protecting US corporate interests at home and abroad. Further, Parenti goes into the lifestyle of the president and describes the utter opulence that office holder enjoys. Finally, Parenti discusses the differences between structuralists and functionalists in regards the president.

If you want to understand the similarities and differences between Bush and Obama or any other US President, it's important to understand the role that office plays.

This is meant as a primer for an upcoming video on Bush and Obama.

Stay tuned...

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• anarchism
• anarchy
• left
• marxism
• Kropotkin
• anarcho-syndicalism
• Spain
• Anarchist
• socialism
• Noam
• Chomsky
• Peter
• Jay

[wvprogressive1933]

I love all of this anarchism talk.

I'm too mugged to be anarchist. My politics are close Parenti's.

BTW, Buddhagem, this is former Westphalianprinz.

[TheNeocatZone]

All in good time, cefuroxx.

[Cefuroxx]

it needs to be made to be unnecessary, smash the state

[josealonsoleon]

Great preamble...looking forward to see the main event....:-)

[TheNeocatZone]

Me personally, I think government is currently a necessary EVIL, because we're stuck in an old thought paradigm that makes us behave like darwinian animals. My idea is to incrementally and strategically develop a new paradigm that will eventually make government an UNNECESSARY evil.

[TheNeocatZone]

I agree with a mixture of certain things that Paul and Chomsky talk about and none of what Rand talks about. But between Paul and Chomsky, I probably lean just a bit more toward Chomsky objectively speaking.

[DonVoghano]

Well a first step is to break through the propaganda and indoctrination. Imo a lot of people have already lost trust in the system.

But then you are exposed to a zillion conspiracy theories, Ron Paul and Ayn Rand-isms that can really shoot you way off track.

I'd say spread the ideas of Chomsky and other serious people who don't pull conspiracies and religious dogmas out of their asses but are actually citing solid and verifiable data and providing a deep analysis.

[DonVoghano]

I know Graeber's work (shame on Yale), but that is besides the point i was making.

I'm not justifying anything, I'm just stating how it has been. I'd be the first to welcome change in this sorry state of affairs. When defending state monopoly on violence in other instances i do so on the strictly pragmatic grounds that SO FAR it has worked best in regulating violence.

Anyway I'm very open to being challenged to this and any other point.

[TheNeocatZone]

Are you sure that's Don was saying?

[TheNeocatZone]

In lieu of cefuroxx's comment, I guess my reply is that everything you described is an accurate diagnosis of the problem, but it needs to be solved.