naked capitalism

Glenn Condell says:

I’m still here Faust. I haunt dead threads.

‘Eisenhower gave a great warning at least, re the M.I.complex, but check into Roosevelt, I have read some diverse opinion on what he was really doing’

He was a devious man for sure, but try to imagine any President since Carter (and even he would only be capable of it since leaving office) saying this:

‘We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.’

It would seem like either an in-joke – an ill-advised sally, or gross overreach if Obama said it, but to be fair, even Clinton couldn’t have got away with it, always assuming it would actually enter his calculating and self-absorbed mind. Times have changed.

You can imagine Eisenhower saying it, and Kennedy too perhaps. But otherwise, since FDR – Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, either Bush? And of those prior, only Washington, Lincoln and of course Jackson who went for the banks with even more gusto, could be said to have been up to uttering those words. It’s true FDR set up some some ‘liberal’ institutions which ended up being subverted into war funding and empire building via the banks (Matt Stoller limned some of this here a while ago) but it’s probably drawing a long bow to blame Roosevelt for outcomes derived from desperate measures.

Eisenhower’s MI warning gets all the attention, for good reason, but he presided over a postwar expansion of economic equality, the rich taxed til their upturned noses bled, the poor looked after too, and with a great wide middle that most belonged to; the whole evening out productively. It was stifling and conservative yes, but give me a job and my own home with a back yard and a decent living til death and you can stifle me all you want.

These men were their own men. Whatever their shortcomings, they were not owned. Obama pretends to oppose those who own him but only the ignorant listen and even they don’t really believe him any more. He’s a grifter, one of the best, but still a grifter.

As for our lot, they now sound to me like the state or even local politicians of my childhood, bignoting nobodies whose actions ultimately don’t matter. That’s the irony of globalisation; the more globalised we are the more the centre matters to all of us, no matter how far away from it we are.

Glenn Condell says:

Hi FC

haven’t read all the pieces re violence v non-violence mainly because I already know where I stand – for the latter 100%. Firstly I’m a 90 lb weakling and win most of my fights by 100 metres, but also I know viscerally what a very conservative country this is, and there would be very little sympathy here for Greek-style insurrection, even (perhaps especially) from those you might expect to support it. Maybe it’s a sort of nationalism but I do feel we have something special here and the way we deal with what’s coming I hope will confirm that, by channelling the energy into light rather than heat.

Of course, if they came for me or mine, if we start being rounded up, beaten and jailed by robocops for say online dissent or peaceful protest then I might change my spots. Never say never. But there is with massed non-violence (a) more potential for change, esp if the restraint contrasts with the official reaction, and (b) far less downside in terms of both public opinion, and the capacity of capital’s officialdom to react violently. If shop windows are smashed, if police stations are bombed, no matter how bad things are, a vast plurality of the Australians I know would sympathise with an even harsher response. So it’s a no-brainer.

I don’t know if you saw the Uni students being casually gassed at Berkeley a while ago, who joined hands and chanted the cops out of the area. Had they got up and injured or even killed a few cops, talking heads would be hosting chin-stroking debates apportioning blame. Don’t give them the opportunity. No-one who saw that could plausibly support the police involved.

And like I said before, those who advocate violence need to be screened to within an inch of their lives and be regarded with suspicion even if they appear to be clean.

Re Rudd, all I can say is ‘meh’! Who cares? Deckchairs on one of the Titanic’s smaller lifeboats. Even Abbott varies only by degree – it’s just a question of the speed with which we are sold out. Point is, apart from Bob Brown, there is no-one who represents my constituency, the ‘get the Yanks the hell out of my polity’ constituency. Oh and the ‘stop relying on mining and madly chasing ‘growth’ and start to prepare for the future by increasing the resilience of communities with job guarantees and food security and local energy and life skills education’ constituency as well. No sign of them in either of the only parties that can govern.

And with polls, I agree they tend to reinforce the status quo and tick lowest common denominator boxes. Polls need to be not just answered by the governed, but asked by them as well so that those who govern are asked the uncomfortable questions polls are careful to avoid. I wrote on another thread here a while ago, in response to someone who wondered if the 99@ in each country could somehow coalesce:

‘Question is, how? The early promises of a sunlit democratic upland globally when the info superhighway was ushered in seem to have bitten the dust.

Every person of age on the planet should have a vote in the governance of their district, nation and planet. Each should be registered with a unique ID and able to vote for their reps of course but more importantly on any issue they want via plebiscites at all three levels, the questions/issues ranked along with the preferences google-style by a transparently administered open source platform protected by security guarantees each district and nation is obliged to honour. If the question isn’t raised yet, raise it. If other appetites match yours they will find it. Process of group editing follows to craft most popular form. Language barrier surely breachable by now. One vote per issue/query per citizen, logged, searchable, archived. No secrecy, no need for Anon/Wiki. All users have access to all results. Real-time democracy. No actual decision-making power, just indicative. No potential Iran war, no actual Iraq war, for starters.

As the intro to the Six Million Dollar Man used to say: ‘We have the technology…’

This mechanism as I say would have no formal executive power, but woe betide the pollie who ignored a raw majority of his/her voters, as measured by an instrument of the nation’s democratic apparatus rather than a private polling company.

I will keep an eye out for you once OS flares again; I’ll be the hangdog fella with the remnant of a hopeful grin on his dial, being tugged at by a tyke who keeps saying ‘dad, this is borwing’.

If you are involved in the organisation of the thing and need people to help, let me know. Tied down lots at work and home but will make time if I can. I use my own handle as you can see, and work at Usyd, so I’m easily found.

All best.