It's The Corporatism, Stupid.™

*11/22/10
Power and the Tiny Acts of Rebellion
by Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/power_and_the_tiny_acts_of_rebellion_2010...

*10/25/10
The World Liberal Opportunists Made
by Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_world_liberal_opportunists_made_20101...

*10/5/10
March to Nowhere
By Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/march_to_nowhere_20101005/

We can hold One Nation marches every week. It will not make any difference until we revolt against the formal structures of power.

The liberal preoccupation with positive forms of propaganda ignores the root of our problem. The tea party and hate mongers on Fox such as Glenn Beck, however repugnant, are the manifestation of the crisis, not its cause. The forces assaulting the remnants of American democracy will not be cowed or discredited with rallies, such as the one in Washington on Saturday. We will blunt these rising anti-democratic forces only when we organize outside conventional systems of power. It means dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state. It means an end to foreclosures and bank repossessions. It means a functional health care system for all Americans. It means taking care of our poor and unemployed. And it means a system of government that is freed from corporate interests.

Mass support for anti-democratic movements and public acceptance of open violations of human rights are not caused, in the end, by the skillful dissemination of misinformation or brainwashing. They are caused by the breakdown of a society and the death of a liberal class that once made reform and representative government possible. The timidity of our liberal class was on public display during the march in Washington. Speakers may have called for jobs, but none would call on citizens to abandon the rotting hull of the Democratic Party and our moribund political system or put Wall Street speculators in prison. The speakers at the rally proposed working within the current electoral system, although most Americans are aware that it has been gamed by corporate interests. This is hardly a call, especially given the failures of the Obama administration, that will fire up the unemployed and underemployed.

...The decimation of our working class through outsourcing and globalization dynamited two of the most important props of the democratic system—class consciousness and class conflict. This has left traditional political parties, which once represented differing class interests, with nothing to offer the public beyond fringe issues such as abortion or gay marriage. Those in the liberal class who cling to the corpse of the Democratic Party do so not because they believe in the policies of the party—it does not differ in any significant way from the Republican Party—but because they hope against hope that the party will somehow restore itself to its former position as a defender of liberal values and the working class interests. It is the politics of nostalgia.

Our political theater has orphaned citizens who once looked to political parties to express and defend their interests. It has engendered apathy toward traditional social and political structures and an inchoate rage. This mixture of apathy and rage is a volatile cocktail. It finds its expression outside normal systems of dissent and in leaders who, in times of prosperity and stability, would be dismissed as lunatics.

No rally, no positive message, no effort to expose the idiocies of those arrayed against us will work until we restore to the political process mechanisms by which ordinary citizens can be heard. Hannah Arendt in "The Origins of Totalitarianism" cites the collapse of traditional political mechanisms, which now plagues us, as the opening needed for all totalitarian movements:

The One Nation March in Washington, which lacked moral and political courage, did nothing to educate or rally our most important constituency—those out of work, those being foreclosed, those without hope. It refused to confront the real, corporate structures of power. It refused to disown Barack Obama and the Democrats. And in the end it only confirmed what those who hate us think of liberals.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/march_to_nowhere_20101005/

music: Road To Nowhere by Talking Heads

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

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• conservative
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• Nowhere
• Chris
• Hedges

[ThisWeekInFascism]

Attention right-wingers:

The rightists and the fake-left (Clinton/Obama) want conservatives and liberals to "fight amongst each other while they retain complete control." You can either join true Liberals in the anti-corporate revolution or become the assholes of history second only to the Germans of 1933. Snap out of it and stop "hating liberals" more than you love this country and her values of decency, tolerance and a respect for the rule of law.

[angelicsoulz]

LOL@ the flag with the corporate logos. I'd love to have a shirt like that.

[ThisWeekInFascism]

@angelicsoulz You can order a flag at Adbusters: /cultureshop/corporateflag

[mrx0066600]

Very nice Analogy, Uncle Sam is the rich 1% who are buying both sides for their will alone.

Not the people's will or ideals.

[GJ3200]

Some of the leaps of pedicting what other people think is a stretch. Obviously someone didn't love this person enough. But overall, I agree this country has been sold out and our 2 party system is a nepotistic symbiotic joke. I have been through a severe divorce, foreclosure, bankruptcy and am on disability with medicare. So I understand much of these things. Respect for law can only be obtained with true checks and balances, access for all, and accountability for those who enforce it.

[mdlittle5466]

Look up the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project - time is right to a change. Consider the alternatives, peace be with you.

[finefilth]

excellent video and to the point

[exenrontexas]

George Washington strongly opposed political parties. In his farewell address to the nation he warned of people who were more loyal to ONE MAN or ONE PARTY than to the Constitution and the PEOPLE of America.

[Thaibebop]

That was great, thank you.

[conrad152]

Excellent video,I totally agree with your thesis.