We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Brainwashing the Corporate Way

Click here to access article by John Pilger from Global Research. 
One of the most original and provocative books of the past decade is Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt (Rowman & Littlefield). “A critical look at salaried professionals,” says the cover, “and the soul-battering system that shapes their lives.”
I entirely agree with Pilger regarding this book. It has long been on my blog list. I regard it as essential reading in order to understand how the fake democracy works at its best (or worst) in the United States.

What passes as higher education in the US is loaded with indoctrination: history. literature, sociology, psychology, etc, is laced with the values and perspectives of the capitalist class. The latter depend especially upon their highly trained managers to serve their interests and the perpetuation of capitalism. That is precisely why they pay them so much. It is not because the key managers of the system are indispensable, but it is to insure their loyalty to the system and its beneficiaries.

The extraordinary benefits that the ruling class bestows on their key managers of the system was likely influenced by James Burnham in his book published in 1941 entitled, The Managerial Revolution, in which he foresaw the rise of a new managerial ruling class to replace the capitalist class.
 

50 U.S. Health Care Statistics That Will Absolutely Astonish You

Click here to access article from The Economic Collapse. 
The U.S. health care system has become one gigantic money making scam, and you are about to see the statistics that prove it.  Today, the United States spends more on health care per person than any other country in the world by far.  The health insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical corporations are raking in gigantic mountains of cash and yet the quality of the health care that we receive in return is rather quite poor.
Here in the center of the Empire the ruling class couldn't care less about the health of working people. The Obamacare stage production was an elaborate attempt to cover up these embarrassing facts.

Beyond Golf, Gentlemanly Ways President Obama Can Court the Rich

Click here to access article by Jamie Johnson from Vanity Fair. 

Here Johnson makes the point that pleasing the ruling class ("patrician class") is very important in order to attain and keep an influential position in their fake democracy.
Pundits in Washington have characterized President Obama’s decision to participate in a bipartisan “Golf Summit,” a friendly round of 18 holes that included Vice President Biden and Republicans John Boehner and John Kasich, as a conciliatory effort to reach across the aisle and embrace congressional opponents. But what if the president had an even more strategic political goal in mind? It’s possible that the carefully staged outing was designed not only to present him as a fair-minded, bipartisan leader but to remind rich campaign contributors that he’s a fan of upper-class pursuits, too.