Just so you understand, despite being on my "Depression Break" (where everything seems black, or some shade of gray), I keep popping my head up once in a while to let you know that I haven't entirely gone to H**l in a hand basked (or without said basket).
The problem is that my desire to remain sane is regularly overwhelmed by my desire to understand the world in which I live. Indeed, some bright soul (I cannot remember who — perhaps it was Jetty) said that, if you're living in today's world, you will be a little crazy, just because of the way the world is. I agree.
That "desire to understand the world" brings me back to Korten's book. I've slogged through the book to the beginning of Chapter 14, entitled "Prisons of the Mind." It's not really very difficult to read; it's just very discouraging.
To begin at the beginning of Chapter 14:
Those who control the stories that define the culture of a society control its politics and its economy. This truth is critical to explaining how a cabal of right-wing extremists was able to render the democratic safeguards of the U.S. political system ineffective and gain control of the governing institutions of the nation.[1]
Or in other words, the U.S has a government "of the people, by the rich, for the rich." (Apologies to President Lincoln for the distortion of his Gettysburg message.) But as Korten has explained in the intervening chapters, that is the way the U.S. was set up in its Constitution. The big Constitutional battle was between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson believed America should be a democracy of "land-owning family farmers and independent artisans."[2] Hamilton said such a system was simply mob rule, and "felt that to become a strong nation America must concentrate power in a class of wealthy aristocrats able to organize and lead the nation into imperial greatness."[3] In other words, a plutocracy, not a democracy. (The quotation Korten uses from Hamilton is frankly both disparaging and frightening — I'll maybe share it another time.)
Some battle, indeed!
So, America should be an empire run by the wealthy, according to Hamilton. Which is exactly what it has become, all other notions notwithstanding. And please note the use of the words "imperial greatness." The U.S. is, indeed, an empire, basically running most of the world, in one way or another — directly or (more often) indirectly.
So now you know why ordinary working people are making less and less all the time (when you factor in inflation). And why the "middle class" is falling apart. In the post-WW2 era, up to the 1960s and 70s, it was possible for one person (usually male) to make enough money to support a family (food, clothes, decent housing). But in the 1980s that trend reversed, and has been reversing ever since.[4]
Blessings and Bear hugs, anyhow!
Notes
1 David C Korten, The Great Turning, pp. 237. That begins with President Reagan, and increases during the governments of President Bush, the Elder, and following.
2 Ibid, p. 184
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid, p. 213-214, 226.
Today's Weather Report
Rain this morning. Rain this afternoon. Rain this evening, including thundershowers. "Gloomy day, isn't it?" said Eeyore.
But at least it's not snowing.
Our back yard, earlier this year; May, perhaps.
Thing is people are going off the grid and working under the table.They are not poor. I have been ripped off more by good small unethical businesses than by the big guys. The big guys, controlled to the point of extinction, leave our country for other places and we still buy the goods from them. We never win. The US is owned today by China and Presidents dont rule.
ReplyDeleteNeither do Prime Ministers. Society allows unethical groups to kill good things because it stays quiet. You say no, some one comes and breaks your face.If tons of people stood up to say no, then doing that would not be an option for the unethical ones. I always talk about morals ethics and values and face brick walls. No one wants to agree that they are good for us. Instead they push human rights in a country which was created on it. What other human rights do they want then, to kill?
To self mutilate? To self destruct? They tell us they have rights to do this and we sit discussing it when in fact there is nothing to discuss.
Self destruction is not a human right.Going down the ladder instead of up, is not what human rights is all about.
We do live the American dream in our country but to grow, requires a lot of work, not to sit drinking and on pot.
A lot of interesting thoughts here. Thanks.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
I got that book out of the library and perused it but found it too depressing to read. My husband, though, read the entire thing and told me it is a really great book. The country that I loved when I was young is gone, replaced by a plutocracy, as you said. I'm just glad I'm old and wont' be around for the revolution.
ReplyDeleteSo now you understand why you have a depressed Bear on your hands a lot of the time. I agree with your husband that it is a good read. And, yes, the countries we had when we were younger are gone. We are trying to get them back, but it is an uphill battle.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
A very good "paws" and post from the Bear. It's a very scary thing to consider how much we are influenced by our media, and who those folks are who are controlling it. Caveat emptor.
ReplyDeleteNot just the media, but everyday conversations, I think.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
... ready to find a deserted island .. begin again?
ReplyDeleteThere isn't a desert island big enough. Sigh!
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
"In an insane world, it is necessary to act the part - or be considered insane"
ReplyDelete*star trek*
Good point, lotta. Has the logic of Mr. Spok. Or maybe a human.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
I live in Montana.
ReplyDeleteIm pretty sure we are emancipated from the USA without everyone knowing
;p
Ah! Canada's 11th province, perhaps?
DeleteThere was a time, you know, when large chunks of the Dakotas were part of Canada. But that's before the settlers had moved out there. I think Montana would make a fine swap!
Blessings and Bear hugs!
I don't know what to think about my country anymore, and I don't know who to believe. I'm really sad that my grandkids will have to live with all the stupid mess that we are going to be leaving for them.
ReplyDeleteYeah. It's the grandkids about whom I'm most worried. And their parents.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
The economy is disturbing. Things just don't seem to be getting easier - everything keeps going up. I'm working two jobs right now, but thankfully they are both part time, and it's still less than working full time. It could always be worse.
ReplyDeleteLisa, you are not alone is your feelings. I mentioned Korten's thoughts on p. 226. I'll pick up from where I left off:
DeleteAs the wages of a typical male worker [after 1983] fell below the level required to support a family, women . . . found that workplace participation was no longer a choice but a necessity. Many were forced into jobs paying less than a living wage. They no longer had the time or energy to prepare home-cooked meals and care for their own children." (Korten, p. 226)
Later, on the same page, Korten writes, "Women, feminist and antifeminist alike felt betrayed as jobs that once promised greater freedom became imperatives that limited their freedom."
It could be worse, and it will, I believe, get worse.
Blessings and Bear hugs!
It may surprise you, but even Sweden seems to be going the way of the 1 %, leaving the rest behind.
ReplyDeleteThat's sad. But the world keeps turning, and the people in charge of things keep changing.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
Bear, do keep encouraged by any positive sign you may see, even it's the sun rising in the east every morning. Just remember to have the sun screen handy.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you already know this, but I am an unmarried woman. Ever since I left home after graduating from college, I have supported myself financially, and often also emotionally.
Politics grabbed my interest during the Vietnam War years, and I have never quite let go of that interest since then.
What continues to amaze me is how many folks can be led into temptation by false promises, rather than just getting to grips with their own lives and toughing it out, without instant gratification of their wishes.
Hoping that all this sunlight is good for you! xo
That is depressing. I try not to worry about what a mess the world is in. I focus on happy, giggly things.
ReplyDeleteFocus on the happy, giggly things, Kathy. It's good for you. But don't forget where you live, and what it is doing to you.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
Socrates:" it is not majority opinion that yields correct policy but rather genuine knowledge and professional competence, which is possessed by only a few. "
ReplyDeleteSociety today is instructed but not educated. We can see how people misuse human rights, freedom and law, making it really a lawless society because things like virtue ethics morals and values are not believed in any more.Law rather than justice, prevails esp in contract law. You cannot blame the wealthy for survival skills any more than you can blame the regular Joe. The only difference with the regular Joe is that he was not born of wealth and so has to earn it. In many cases he doesn't want to take the time to earn it and rather party and complain. lol Look at what they did to real estate. No one realizes that homes today are not for sale unless you buy in cash. Although you can attach a home to your back, you cannot attach the land.So most of society is made to live like gypsies.
This is bad for raising families. So families break up. So what do we do? We vote for people like Justin Trudeau who knows nothing about nothing and is taught to buy votes. The NDP also gets people to run who know absolutely nothing about anything. I think the only one who really cared about this country in my time, was Diefenbaker. He died poor.
Don't forget that the ordinary people of America have the power to bring about change if only they weren't too ignorant and easily duped to do so. In other words, it's not ALL the fault of the rich because we still have one person/one vote.
ReplyDeleteThat is depressing. It's no wonder that people gets depressed thinking about this stuff.
ReplyDelete"According to Arnold Toynbee in his book A Study of History, the most important factor that makes a rising civilization work is mimesis—the universal human habit by which people imitate the behavior and attitudes of those they admire. As long as the political class of a civilization can inspire admiration and affection from those below it, the civilization thrives, because the shared sense of values and purpose generated by mimesis keeps the pressures of competing class interests from tearing it apart.
ReplyDelete"Civilizations fail, in turn, because their political classes lose the ability to inspire mimesis, and this happens in turn because members of the elite become so fixated on maintaining their own power and privilege that they stop doing an adequate job of addressing the problems facing their society. As those problems spin further and further out of control, the political class loses the ability to inspire and settles instead for the ability to dominate. Outside the political class and its hangers-on, in turn, more and more of the population becomes what Toynbee calls an internal proletariat, an increasingly sullen underclass that still provides the political class with its cannon fodder and labor force but no longer sees anything to admire or emulate in those who order it around."
The above is a quoted section of the Archdruid Report report from last week. I've mentioned on my blog I've been a faithful reader of his posts every Thursday morning for a number of years. He helps me see things more clearly and provides some insulation from the kind of depression that can come of reading the news.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend.
It is the same here in the UK.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am aware. Condolences, blessings and Bear hugs!
Delete