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

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

“Boom Bust Boom” busted

Click here to access article by economist David Ruccio from his blog Occasional Links & Commentary.

Ruccio writes a critical review of Boom Bust Boom, Terry Jones and Theo Kocken’s Monty Pythonesque documentary about the crash of 2007-08.
...the film is just not very good. For starters, consider the fact that, after the worst crisis of capitalism since the first Great Depression, only once is capitalism itself even mentioned!
The filmmakers ultimately lay blame on human nature. 

But that's "par for the course" for many of today's critics of vital political and economic issues. By providing cover for, diversions and distractions from, the debacles of capitalism they reduce any threats to their careers and material well-being from agents of the ruling capitalist class. 

Thus anti-capitalist Marxists like John Bellamy Foster are shunted off to university ivory towers to expound about the intricacies of Marxist theory, while other more limited critics are given wide exposure on alternative media. Examples of the latter are Michael Hudson, whose focus is limited entirely to the evils of finance, and Eric Zuesse, whose liberal bias wants government to do more for the poor to prevent the gross inequality that we see today. Because Zuesse blames the "aristocracy" for this, one would think that we were living in the era of feudalism. More severe critics of the ruling capitalist class like retired Prof. Moti Nissani have been forced to avoid the wrath of our masters by escaping to other countries.