INCOME INEQUATITY: “The Single Greatest Driver of Income Inequality is the Capital Gains Tax Rate and Dividends!” / Thom Hartmann
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Category Archives: Economics
BOOK REVIEW: “Macro Cultural Psychology: A Political Philosophy of Mind” / Carl Ratner
Society—especially capitalist societies, but also some earlier types such as feudalism—is divided by class, with a minority constituting a ruling class that lives by exploiting the direct producers. Thus, the majority is exploited and hence oppressed.
[…]
. . . [O]ne of capitalists’ favorite ideological ploys: individualism. We are the masters of our own fate, not society and its culture. If we fail, it is our own fault. We simply did not try hard enough or follow the right path. Individualism favors self-blame and a refusal even to look for social causes.
[…]
Enforced subordination calls forth coping reactions and leads to identities grounded in how well we manage to cope.
Examples of this kind of coping include what can be called “the good soldier” and “the sexy woman.” In the former, a person prides him or herself on the ability to demonstrate undying loyalty to a superior. In the latter, a woman prides herself on her ability to manipulate men in a world where men are dominant.
Related articles
- I’m not proud of ‘my’ country – it isn’t mine (morningstaronline.co.uk)
- Be ruthlessly free of society psychologically (teachingsofmasters.wordpress.com)
POLITICAL DELUSION: The Amazing Atheist / “American Violence”
ECONOMICS: “Extortionists Versus Con Men” / Paul Krugman
One faction basically wants to use the party’s power of obstruction: threaten to provoke a crisis over the debt ceiling — in fact, do this again and again — and thereby force Obama to implement the GOP agenda.
The other faction wants to achieve the same goals by stealth. Pretend that what you’re really concerned about is debt and the fate of our children; cultivate the Very Serious People and the deficit scolds; impersonate a budget wonk; and smuggle the agenda in by dressing it in fiscal responsibility camouflage.
POLITICS: Amitai Etzioni / “The Conservative ‘Party’ Dominates”
There is a very widely shared myth about “Washington.” Accordingly, there are two camps, the right-wing GOP and the left-leaning Democrats, who are more or less matched. Each control one house of Congress, and command about half of the electorate. Hence, the gridlock.
Actually, much of American politics over the last four years or longer should be understood as a contest between the conservative “party” (most of the GOP and good part of the Democrats) and a liberal minority party. . . .
Gridlock exists when one party pulls east and the other party pulls west and, hence, nothing budges. This is not the case in Washington. Here, most times, one party wants to move east and the other wants to stay put. Thus, what appears as gridlock is actually one conservative blocking victory after another. The fact that the last Congress passed only half as many bills as most previous ones does not trouble the conservatives one bit.
ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: Helen Keller / “Keen Sense About Society, One Hundred Years Later”
h/t: MoveOn.org
CHRISTIAN SATIRE: Mr Fish / “Good Grief”
h/t: truthdig.com
AMURIKAN PATRIOTISM: Dusty Smith / “I Do Not Support The Troops.”
TRUTH TO POWER / INEQUALITY: “Tavis Smiley & Cornel West on Election, Why Calling Obama Progressive Ignores His Record”
Part I
Part II
U.S. EMPIRE IMPLOSION: Chris Hedges / “Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All”
Gaza is a window on our coming dystopia. The growing divide between the world’s elite and its miserable masses of humanity is maintained through spiraling violence. Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planet’s largest internment camp. These sacrifice zones, filled with seas of pitifully poor people trapped in squalid slums or mud-walled villages, are increasingly hemmed in by electronic fences, monitored by surveillance cameras and drones and surrounded by border guards or military units that shoot to kill. These nightmarish dystopias extend from sub-Saharan Africa to Pakistan to China. They are places where targeted assassinations are carried out, where brutal military assaults are pressed against peoples left defenseless, without an army, navy or air force. All attempts at resistance, however ineffective, are met with the indiscriminate slaughter that characterizes modern industrial warfare.
Related articles
- Egypt Tells Gazans They Aren’t Alone (eurasiareview.com)
Always Question Authority 