"In 1984 income earned from dividends and rent exceeded income earned from wages." No wonder things are so out of balance. The working class are merely share croppers for the owner class. I'm retiring in 3 years and will be finally free of this indentured servitude.
Not really, almost free, once retired the medical and health insurance companies are going to start to consume what you earned and what is left of you and your wealth. They want it all back and they will get it too.
@@diversetribe231 Nope. I knew it was all lies from the age of 10. So, how is one man going to fight the owner class and a 500 year old system where the rich keep all the money and power?
Sorry to correct you but I think George Carlin should get the full credit deserved for this quote ; "It´s called the American dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it".
No s*** Sherlock you ever heard the term if you don't know your rights you don't have any were freedom is not free we got to fight for it but unfortunately we have to do it collectively you figure out how to do that and you solve the problem and quit worrying about trivial meaningless things like how somebody puts together a sentence let's focus on facts
@@robertabbott6736 but correct(or at least ballpark) delivery of your message is key. For instance, your one sentence reply should be like 5 different ones. Doesn't have to be mla or apa formatted, but I could make heads or tails of what you said much better if I knew where one thought ended and another began and didn't have to decipher it to decide. Leaves less ambiguity and interpretation of what you said so that your message is correct. Dude wasnt being grammar police and just wanted the delivery of the joke to be more concise. Writing a run on brain vomit in response about his suggested correction is also no help to solving the issues you're talking about either.
Just goes to show how clueless you are I'm not going to waste my time and spend hours teaching you what I spent thousands of hours learning that's your problem
@William Pierce Uh. Explain how the OP's comment is not justified by the billionaires spending smaller countries' military budgets in order to take pleasure cruises to space? Surely, you recognize yourself as the outlandish one in this circumstance?
Reading Money And Class in America lifted me from a depression I didn't even know I had. Clarified my values against the barrage of propaganda and gloss.
You're touched on what I think is the universal solution. We ALL have to learn to see through that barrage of gloss and propaganda to see who we really are, to put humans and earth above wealth, and try out something like Jeremy Rifkin's Distributed Lateral Power in his Third Industrial Revolution, which is upon us.
I had a similar experience. Lapham is also quite simply a damn good writer, which probably explains why relatively few people know of him. Keeping North Americans dumbed-down is all they really need propaganda to do for them. Goebbels understood this, eventually realizing that keeping the minds of the masses full of mindless fluff was far more effective in gaining and maintaining compliance rather than excessively didactic messaging. He despised the movie, "Hitlerjugend Quex" for exactly this reason, envying Hollywood's skill at the craft, as well as the resources the moguls had at their disposal.
Good, thank you. I'll add it to my reading list. I should have looked him up ages ago because I was similarly affected years ago by his classic essay, Tentacles of Rage. Can be found online and well worth looking up.
Stupefied definition: "someone unable to think or feel properly". People who are clever, ferocious, steely, patient, sinister, calculating and utterly ruthless barbarians are also unable to think or feel properly.
I understood "Stupified Plutocracy" to mean the current plutocratic class has 'stupified' the average American citizen, not the plutocrat (who, yes, are wily, ruthless, self-serving...). We have been stupified into supporting anti-democratic ways of thinking and being.
They are playing to an audience Bush, Trump and beyond are playing to to half the country that think the WWE is real. They are just what the caldron has bubbled and boiled to the surface.
Lewis Lapham has seen through the game for decades! Love this old dude. Bravo, sir! And Lynn Parramore is asking some good questions,too. She knows his work & that matters. Well done, all around. This will hold up over time.
It died before that honey. Do you ever think The People had a say in any nation state? The only modern example I can think of is the independent soviets in Russia before Lenin's Bolsheviks took over.
@@lawsonj39 I'm feeling, and hoping, it is starting to come around to that very thing more frequently. The work is far from done, but the youth are motivated and many are appaled at the last few cycles of politics.
Donald Trump was not a "Corporate Stooge". These kinds of people hated him for not being so (Both on the Left and the Right). Why do you think they spent millions of dollars and years trying to undermine him? I think Lewis allows himself a moment of intellectual snobbery in basically dismissing DJT as merely a sort of abboration born out of celebrity culture. Trump to me was an antidote to the very corruption of the DC Swamp Lewis is otherwise highlighting. Trump was for the ordinary wage-earner so despised by these hypocritical elitist anti-democratic corporate snobs in Washington DC.
@@Mediumal no, Trump owns corporations and is a complete stooge. I.E. a corporate stooge. He doesn't give a rat's about low wage earners beyond their utility to him. He just makes idiots feel special so they will serve his needs. He's literally the cross of corporate America and media America in one given his history. And works an angle to make you feel like they are both the enemy while being that very thing himself.
"All that is needed is money and a candidate who can be coached to look sincere. Political principles and plans for specific action have come to lose most of their importance. The personality of the candidate, the way he is projected by the advertising experts, are the things that really matter." - Aldous Huxley
Beg to disagree. His lack of common manners is appalling. At 5:54 and OTHER times, Lapham COUGHS on the INTERVIEWER. No cover. No head turn! Who does THAT? Answer: nobody of credibility and learning. A real selfish-lazy thoughtless fool.
We, the People, need to rise up and apply the rule of law and order as the proprietors of our Homeland. The bankster and corporate vulture is the enemy
Indeed. Abandon the two-party dictatorship. Get ranked-choice voting and proportional representation in Congress. Abolish the Senate. Support alternative political parties. Open up the presidential debates to more than two political parties. Overturn the Supreme Court Citizens United decision. End corporate funding of elections. Restore publicly funded elections. Get public democratic control of at least half of all media signals. Wake the folk up.
@public domain - That'd be kinda hard to do. Corporations will buy their own armies to fight "We the People". Their soldiers would consist of "We the People", who chose money over America. That would be a huge army.
@@kendallsmith1458 Unfortunately looking from the outside of the USA, your Police seem like a branch of your Military - where do you see the seperation?
If you have a Scribd subscription it's there. I highly recommend their subscription because very often people upload PDFs of books you can't find elsewhere.
@@CG-kf5vh Gracefully accepting correction is rare on the internet.. I commend you ! We all make mistakes and that's why they put rubbers(erasers) on the end of pencils...
@@SunofYork "...isn´t being..." is the correct correction. Thanks for gracefully accepting it. Language policing is a very delicate and demanding hobby.
She asked " Do we live in democracy?" His answer, "No." " Government by the people is hard to do, and requires good faith in the enterprise...because there has been a loss of faith in the democratic idea." And he gave hope. "We've come back to democracy after the Civil War and with the New Deal...." Nice interview. I especially agree with Mr. Lapham about needing a strong education system.
I've read Lapham's Quarterly for years now. It's an eclectic mix of topics from multiple cultures and time periods. Whatever the topic, it brings home the idea, "We've been here before" or "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose". Lapham is more of an observer than he is a problem solver. Intellectuals can always tell you what's wrong, but not how to fix it and the Catch 22 is that there is always something wrong.
So did I ! Learned beautiful culture in Europe , saw nice countrysides in latin and south America , visited exotic places in Asia and north Africa . I was shocked to see how materialistic and unsensitive the US mentality had remained and our narcissistic and superficial the american oligarchs were ! Democratic society WE are not but a ploutocratic leucocratic kleptocrats we ARE ! A race divided country can not be call a democracy unless we are propagandizing !
@@gregorystarks2514 I saw beautiful landscapes in China Mexico and Indonesia too. I also saw grinding poverty that I couldn't imagine. I'm guessing the kids I saw fighting over a chicken bone thrown out of a train that had shelves (bunks) in China or the the guy begging with withered hands weren't worried about materialistic things like health care or food. I'm sure there was a lot of sensitivity there too.
@@robertbishop7340 Did you go to Germany and see the jewelers shops in the underground train tunnels ? Why do Americans always compare themselves to s_hole countries ? Is it insecurity ?
I bought the book 30 years ago. It's great. I reread it every few years. The other books you might like are The Late Great Planet Earth, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Cows Pigs Wars and Witches, and Molloy's Live for Success
Good election finance laws are a key to maintaining democracy. in Canada, “No corporation, union, or unincorporated entity can contribute to a federal election. only Canadian citizens and landed immigrants can contribute to a maximum of $1650 per year.”
This is why ordinary people hate Citizens United. When corporations and rich individuals are allowed to donate as much money as they want, the United States and any country that operates with no regulations on funding politics is doomed to fail from its own corruption, which causes unsustainablity of trust in the majority of people. This is how bad unregulated capitalism can be.
Indeed. Let's just hope we don't engage in idle chatter, as poverty grows, inequality widens, the environment worsens for life on Earth, and we slide into 'fascism of one form or another', as Mr. Lapham noted. Are we, the people, idling, as the 'stupefied plutocracy' are leading us into a plandemic dystopia? Where is the civic engagement, which can meaningfully challenge and counter this 'stupefied plutocracy'? Or do we have a stupefied plutocracy ruling over a stupefied working class?
This country was founded by plutocrats: big merchants and slaveholding planters. They sat on a House of the Burgesses in each colony and contrived a war of independence in which the yeomen would do the fighting but from which they would derive the benefits, afterward ruling directly rather than as viceroys. American history has conveniently forgotten even the name "burgess", but it's used in the first pages of the _Communist Manifesto._ The "Founders" knew that the first democracy in Athens was presided over by the Demos class of slaveholding idlers. Democracy = rule of the Demoi. Contrarily, the Greek word, then and now, for "people" is 'laos' (λάος), from which we get the English words 'layman' and 'laïty'. But the model for the American republic was the Roman republic. In Rome they had a republic that was presided over by an idle, slaveholding patrician class. However, in Rome they at least had a Tribunus Publius (Tribune of the People) who ranked as high as a consul and represented the yeomen. But the "Founding Fathers" of America conveniently forgot all about that branch of government. Hear Michael Parenti talk about "The Myth of the Founding Fathers": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yypklblxiMM.html
Learn some more history. 1. A substantial number of the "founders", including one George Washington, were directly involved in the conflicts at the risk of their lives and fortunes. Hardly contrivance at a safe distance. 2. Better seen as a rebellion of the colonial "parliaments", you as suggest, against the British parliament. (Not "Americans" against a King -- they made considerable efforts appealing to George to overrule Parliament. He didn't. Then the Declaration of Independence). But wrong to suggest the colonial legislatures lacked local representation. Was it one set of interests against another? Yes, always. Was it about democracy? No. Was it about a more equitable system of government? Yes. In context, after the American revolution, the new republic did differ in some substantive ways from the European nations. And people of recent European descent -- as opposed to African or Asian or indigenous American -- had more social and economic mobility. In two words, more freedom. Was that purchased on the backs of others, and over long run, was it co-opted to establish and maintain a largely parasitical elite? I would say "Yes." Can you lay that all on the founders? No. Inverting the myth is still being a prisoner of myth. Post WWII saw a boom in general prosperity and with that, increasing social and economic equality. Sometime in the late 70s-early 80s, all that went off the rails. Decisions made in my lifetime matter more than decisions made roughly 250 years ago. That's what Lapham was discussing. We were living up to a substantial fraction of the American Promise -- now, it seems we're no longer even trying.
Atlanta Bill --- CORRECT and ON THE MONEY. | Thank you for the facts, which most Americans and most Muricans do not know, because [COMPLEX and COMPLICATED REASONS].
@@americanexile George Washington and his staff of gentleman officers dined lavishly in warm colonial mansions while his soldiers starved in the snow with only a small outdoor fire on the barren ground to keep them warm. His class is still the class that rules today. The burgesses have always controlled their privileged social position through local legislatures appointed by them through backroom primary selections and courts corrupted by them. If labor leaders aren't compliant, they simply murder them, like their murder of UAW leader Walter Reuther; of course they never soil their hands with such matters themselves. Native Americans were hunted like beasts and their scalps collected to see which human hunters collected the most bounty. There was never much social mobility to speak of, and when there was it meant that new blood was taken into the company of the 10% who horded the wealth for themselves and their offspring. Post-WWII saw a boom for a slightly increased class of professionals, but for the rest post-war inflation made it a hard life for everyone else. The boom was here in America because every other country's industrial plants had been bombed into rubble.
@@marianotorrespico2975 You could add [censored in the classroom and publishing houses (Betelsmann AG, who printed the manuals and pamphlets for Hitler's SS, owns most of the Engish-language publishing today) and by the social-media monopolies].
Interesting that I was thinking too about having a smart observer(s) from the low classes in the government who not have power directly but who would report how the government worked, explain certain things and also report corruption, lack of transparency, wasting of government money...etc.
Lapham is an intelligent author and journalist. Kudos as well to the interviewer, who did a great job. She obviously did her homework. So often today, the corporate media interviewer/journalist doesn't even read a book (for example) that their subject has written so they can ask an astute question.
I feel so blessed to be born in this country and yet so damned to be shackled to the impending consequences of the few who would manipulate the many. Life is cyclic because the natural world demands it, but history always repeats itself because humans are, well, human. Get ready in whatever way you can. Fasten your seat belt and try to enjoy the ride.
Blame the people in government, blame government, blame the media, blame the courts. The people must share the blame. And take responsibility for their role in a democracy. The struggle is never finished. Get up!
for a tragically small percentage of the US population not only a regrettably unknown role model but an icon of our age. His use of irony in his long years as editor of Harpers magazine not only suggests that of Mark Twain but augments the standard of American journalism in bringing understanding and pleasure to the general dialogue of our national debate. The shrill harangues of the last 40 years in our national debates augment the value of the reasoned perspective and ineffable humor of Louis Lapham.
Another voice both suppressed and downed out by the corporate media. Controlling media is one of the most foolish and self-destructive acts of government. The leadership is compelled to act according to the ignorance and error which it has fostered in the people, in order to retain legitimacy. Only the rich can afford to act in ignorance and error, as a resource constrained economy will likely fail with the consequent and accumulating costs and damages brought about by increasingly chronic and endemic mis-management.
It appears to me, that the growing economic inequality in America, the concentration of wealth in the hands of very small number of people, resemble the similar situation, as it was in tsarist Russia in the 1905. Eventually, the intolerable, unbearable conditions for majority of the society, lead to the general revolution of the masses against the "boyars".(the rich, ruling oligarchy, considered exploiters and parasites). Don't you think, that the same could happen in America, some time in the future, unless some radical change takes place?
lenin is coming. inequality is worse than france before the revolution and in the ballpark of czarist russia. lapham is wrong on the balance between capitalism and democracy. we were never balanced after the 2nd world war. we live in a fake democracy. you cannot do a democracy with capitalism. it is the antithesis of democracy. how do you get it back? never had it, never will.
@William Pierce lol its interesting that someone arguing against the unproven utopianism of communism (utopian thinking is absurd as it inevitably requires humanity to collectively be better than we are) would use a fictional character from a fairly tale to try to make the point. Did I say interesting? I meant hilarious. You might consider figuring out how to demonstrate the veracity of your silly religion before using it to prop up an argument.
@William Pierce Oh dear. One of us is an educated human being who doesn't believe in ghosts and goblins while the other literally invoked the boogeyman and believes in a children's story that is no different than what other faiths believe except yours is somehow special. Ok cupcake 👌. Go talk to your priest so he can tell you how to respond. You simply don't have the wattage to play with me. You have a rather inexplicable case of main character syndrome if ever there was one.
The economic ruling class need to be smart enough to leave just enough on the table for everybody else or the term "class warfare" will become more than just a rightie talking point.
"Which college ... the graduates of which college had done the most damage to America over the last 100 years?" 6:45 Conclusion by Lewis Lapham: Harvard
I much prefer the Great Egalitarian University of RU-vid to Harvard or Chicago. Don't let them fuck it. Force Pichai to provide escape tunnels to avoid dumbing-down echochambers.
"If you are truly gods, then you will not injure those who have never harmed you, but if you are mortal, then advance, and find men and women who are your equals!" The Spartans to the commander of the Roman legions
.. Johnny Cash' s song comes to mind: "Sixteen tons .. what do get .. a day older and deeper in debt". How many lost hard earned money in upheavals that took place and that is taking place regularly? If one does not have staying power (affordable health amongst them) or can not sustain himself / herself financially _ you lose and oligarghs win in this system.
Actually, Tennessee Ernie Ford's version of "Sixteen Tons" was #1 on the Hit Parade the week of Nov. 26, 1955, and stayed there until January 7, 1956. Don't believe I heard it prior to that. I think that's probably the version most people remember although it's rarely played today. ;) @@JimMaisonneuve-ri9vg
While there’s a truth in what you’re saying, Lewis, regarding Democracy. I wonder if there hasn’t always been some skepticism - don’t we often do less of what we mean, because, then, there’s the reality of how to make democracy happen or work? Is it so impossible, though? I just remember that day at Powell’s Books, Portland, Oregon, having wanted to look up the word “anarchy” in an older published (mw) dictionary. And, at the same time, I wanted to look up “democracy”, where, Democritus is referenced. If we could all live more like Democritus suggests, I can’t imagine how we couldn’t make Democracy a reality rather than a pursuit of one. Anyone?
It is truly stupefying that our society has dumbed down to the level where concepts such as Plutcoarcy are beyond the grasp' most of ur citizens. We've coasted for decades following WWII cranking out goods with a lowly educated workforce. Now we have entrenched unfettered capitalism, that has thoroughly shaped our laws for their exclusive benefits. The working class has no clue what is happening. IQ of the masses is the problem. it is impossible for the masses to grasp what is going on. Lapham's cynicism is dead-on, and he is just one of many historians that are predicting the invariable decline of America. We can't get out of this mess without radically changing our constitution. And that ain't gonna happen with an average voter IQ of 100.
It took Trump to remind us that half of the country has a double digit IQ . “ Think of how dumb the average American is -then remember that half of America is dumber than him “ - George Carlin . The entire history of this country is comprised of the rich manipulating the voting dumb .
I'm not conviced the IQ is the problem. I rather think the brainwashing propaganda are the issue. Americans are brought up to believe their system of everything is the best, while in the thruth it is often below par.
I AGREE; WE HAVE PEOPLE CONSTANTLY RUNNING FOR POLITICAL OFFICE LIKE BETO OROURKE. HE HAS NO CHOICE; IT'S EITHER THAT , OR HE IS FORCED TO TAKE THAT JOB AT WALMART.
God I love America. Thank you for having a representative democracy you guys. It’s so much easier for foreigners with deep pockets like myself, to do whatever I want in the US, get away with it, and have your elected officials do my bidding. Thank you. Seriously, no words can fully express and grasp my gratitude.
Both Trump voters, and Bernie voters realize this problem. They just have different solutions for it. But I bet they could work together on some issues.
Trump voters might have a vague inkling that "something is wrong", but are easily led away from the real problem by red herrings of various sorts. Their leadership is instrumental in leading them off a cliff with various stupid conspiracy theories. The truth is far more obvious and knowable than they think. They just have to be willing to deal in facts rather than fantasy, and be willing to see that Big Business is the motor driving the governmental corruption that they decry. Their knee-jerk pro-capitalism has conditioned them to see business magnates in a positive light. You'll never understand what's going on if you do that.
Wrong, Trump voters and Bernie voters both knew something is wrong. Trump voters are stupid and they don’t know a solution so they turned to fascism which support corporations. Bernie voters are also stupid, but their stupidity is knowing the problem and think their solution would work, which is an illusion.
@@royhuang9715 hi. I dont think we can tar all bernie supporters as both smart, seeing the problems, and stupidly deluded that they know how to fix it. Your highness, you, seem to think they are all deluded. Let them try before judging what the outcomes will be
@@clarkpalace if you are not stupid, then you’d knew Bernie’s solution wouldn’t work. Keynesian Economics fails to address the real issue, that capitalism depends on the poor get poorer and rich get richer for growth. The core of capitalism is not able freedom or equality. The core of capitalism is inequality and slavery. Capitalism economy need to maintain a stream of desperate unemployed workers so the capitalists can exploit worker’s surplus value as profit. And capitalists need to keep that profit they exploited from their worker and reinvest back into the company expanding its business. That’s how capitalism economy grow but stealing. However if you put a stop to that stealing, capitalists can’t reinvest in their company, thus can’t expand their business. You get a stagnant economy.
@@royhuang9715 if you participate in the economy on your own as i did for many years you get by without this insane need for growth Now that I am just a working stiff I sponge off other bigger capitalists. Meanwhile I luxuriate in the accumulated wealth of a lifetime. Bernie profits from a lifetime of his accumulated wealth. Not everyone is talented enough to run their own business or be their own senator
All Government boils down to answering honestly these three basic questions. What is it going to do? How much is it going to cost? And who is going to pay for it? How one answers will sort of get to the crux of most political debate.
As in the days of Isaiah: "Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves. They all chase after bribes and love gifts. The case of the fatherless and widow does not come before them". -- - Bible
Please look thru back issues of Harper's Magazine, as they contain so much riches of real information, like Who Owns the Weather, but there are many gems written with the most sparkly writing.
the world is simply changing and what American democracy is not as attractive as before... ever heard the word only superpower before... not any more... US was seen as an exception, and everything revolves around it... Spending and borrowing more than they can afford for the whole world to be stable while poorer countries are pressured to pay their debts 1000 times smaller than the US.... Meddling in international affairs that create more tensions...
When you factor in the religious right , gun rights, and the right wing plutocrat supreme court it seems that Democracy is slipping away as we move towards some kind of Christian Right autocratic oligarchy if this trend is not turned back it will be a dark time for the US and the world. At a time when the world needs to come together to figure out climate change we seem to moving in a very counterproductive direction. While a large portion of our population is embracing ideas that will only weaken Democracy and cause the working class to suffer even more. You would think the ending of Roe VS Wade the increase in gun violence would turn us to a more reasonable direction but it looks to me like the right is still going full steam ahead on there agenda and are pushing off on to the American people this religious oligarchy equipped with AR 15 and if they can swing the military their way it's over. They have the courts , half the Senate and if they can get the military to go along the Democrat s will all be sent to gulags. Let's hope they don't succeed I do not see my right wing friends turning back. We have lived in a militarised society for so long a lot of people see violence as the only way forward. As the supreme court's erodes our voting rights , civil rights, privacy rights it is just a matter of time before we are living in some kind of Christian autocracy where black people , woman and immigrants will go back to being third class citizen s. People who are looking for social reform of healthcare system or for protection of other new deal programs like Medicare and social security are going to loose big time . As clean air and water gets destroyed as they shut down environmental protection s so that corporations and the oligarchy can get richer and increase their walled off society that they hope will protect them .
Way back in 1986 Frank Zappa was a guest on CNN's Crossfire. He said that America was headed in the direction of becoming a fascist theocracy. Co-host Robert Novak feigned disbelief at this statement and said "come on Mr. Zappa, you've got to be kidding." Frank stood his ground and said that's where we're headed. And here we are. You can watch the episode on RU-vid.
@@reidwhitton6248 I just finished a book about the history of Eastern Europe between 1932 and 1950 . The history of authoritarian government s is so appalling anyone who thinks authoritarian government is a good idea needs to know what it can lead to. My question for the right is what does their final solution look like. We all know what Hitler's final solution was . Stalin also did ethnic cleansing he called Ukrainian peasants Kulaks and thought that the farmers in Poland and Ukraine where subhuman and deported millions of them to collective farms and gulags where many of them died from bad working conditions , disease and hunger. Forced labor a long way from their homelands . He also starved millions of them by confiscating their grain a sticks. This went on for years. Many Ukrainian and Polish people where conscripted to fight in Russian army. Not to be out done Hitler started the war and his ethnic cleansing was of equally cruel . The both murdered their way through Eastern Europe killing and deporting people to slave labor camps throughout the war and Stalin continued his purges for years after. I believe around 12 million where killed but many more suffered terrible conditions after being thrown out of their homes and lands. The name of the book is Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder. It is a disturbing book to read but it tells the history of authoritarian government s and what can happen if one man achieve s too much power.
As long as there is not an ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY, a political democracy is merely a sham. Today we're driven by Corporations and politicians are just their servants. A corporation is as far as you can be from democratic rule, therefore, you decide what we have actually as a society.
Marx was Right! “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe, It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish connections everywhere." While this may seem like an obvious point now, Marx wrote those words in 1848, when globalization was over a century away. And he wasn't just right about what ended up happening in the late 20th century - he was right about why it happened: The relentless search for new markets and cheap labor, as well as the incessant demand for more natural resources, are beasts that demand constant feeding. What will be the solution to unsustainable life for us and others caught up in this economic race to the bottom?” (5)(7) www.linkedin.com/pulse/inside-job-critique-capitalism-martin-screeton/
But in every society where wealth abounds, even the servants gain, And the material comfort enjoyed by so many Americans insulates them from the really impoverished. How is it that in the last forty years that we have an ever larger number of paupers, known as homeless? Yet so wealthy are we that they are pampered in a way the begger class in every classes never were?
And those “natural resources” have been depleted to a point where our society is unsustainable. Our cruelty to the natural world (flora and fauna) needs to be reversed and we need to heal nature for many reasons.
Yes. Isn't it awful that Trump was popular and loved by the common man instead of being a pompous elitist snob. The scandal of it all. We must create fraudulent charges and impeach him and remove his stench from our sacred respectable halls.
End Of Democracy or revival od Democracy ? 📌🌟At municipal ans state level , We should cancel elections and vote again for municipal officials ,when there is an abstention from voting greater than 33%
@Celtic Orthodox Prayer Nothing that I really care about, no. I mean, you're talking to a guy who has given up on finding happiness and is more concerned with finding peace.
@@bismuth7398 Be careful what you wish for. I think some wisdom and empathy is in order. What you are hoping for would be devastating to millions of good, decent, people - it's not all just about you.
@@bismuth7398 Yes, there is much truth in that - but we are more that those things too. We are both good and bad - we have the potential be be far greater than we often are. I sometimes feel as you do about humanity ......but I feel so much love for my family and friends (even though they a not perfect), I cannot wish for terrible things to happen.
Democracies are ever the prey of powerful interests, from within and without. The King if Norway bought the Icelandic democratic republic. A Patrician Republic has a better chance of enduring, as did the Roman Republic for some hundreds of years. A Patrician class with a close sense of their common interest is less susceptible to purchase from without and within, though not invulnerable, as Rome witnessed. But then we come dangerously near the inspiration for Fascism. In the end, long before Charlemagne, Rome became an Empire run by German Generals for German Generals, and some other barbarian Generals.
Interesting that the transformation to it being an avatar occurred at the time when agricultural mechanization was at its peak rate...the time leading up to Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath". Could it be that so many people had lost their old way of life and were desperately in need of a new dream? I suppose so, but wasn't it just the basic truth that all of us have a fundamental life drive to seek more power-wealth, and when the conditions in America of the 1920s (largely set by agricultural mechanization) opened-up the possibility for more people than ever before to become wealthy, that's what became the American dream. The American dream really isn't strictly American at all, but human, all too human, the dream that becomes ever more popular, more broadly believed as real, when conditions enable it to be so. When conditions are not so conducive, it then recedes, becomes latent, and many doubters appear, but the basic drive is still there, always, just weakened.
As a black person I’m so tired of hearing about the founding fathers who were nothing more than a bunch of slave owners and probably treated the livestock better than the slaves.
@William Pierce as if I really give a damn. obviously it’s easy to cope if you ignore the crimes of the state. The United States is the number one criminal of humanity. I salute China and Russia.
When he said distributed prosperity in the 50’s and 60s he seemed to have neglected a core group that was shut out...and funny how the interviewer could not draw him back which tells me something even more profound.
it was in 2003 that i ran the logistical demographics behind Trump's electoral college win due to baby boomer migration patterns favoring Trump's media image. In 2007 a friend of mine met Trump at a book signing in Tenessee where he told Trump he would win if he ran for the presidential office, I also gave my friend a copy of "The Mass Psychology of Fascism" by Wilhelm Reich to give to Trump so he would know how to play his base. My friend said he never gave Trump the book but i also never got it back.
It's an ancient, eternal shell game of the powerless poor dancing with the powerful Elite & fulfilling each other's needs & desires. No one wins and no one losses.....it's just a game!
In 1966, a certain type of working people started reading the financial pages, the same way bettors read the results of the horses! Simultaneously, Junior College certificates of completion for Business Management started to become wildly popular! Around the same time, gambling became legal, after decades of warfare with the mob, to prevent exactly that! You could actually feel the ethics leaking out of our body politic. Nixon had, at least, an internal compass, that told him that he'd made a wrong turn. Reagan, however, just recited what was on the script, and affected the appropriate mimic. The country has been on a downward slide, ever since, as witnessed by the number of lower middle class people who have succumbed to the idea that the number of domestic millionairs is an indication of the country's financial health!
We should has started institutionalizing people who think pro wrestling isn't choreographed years ago. Also, everyone who thought Michael Jackson was straight and Elvis didn't die.
What America has done always is to elect to power the people that serve the masses. The electorate today is more enclined to vote with their feet in post war America, but as long as the education system is as bad as it is right now the recovering of America will be slower. But America will recover.
