Forum Post: Permanent War - How the power elite are dismantling the liberal class
Posted 11 years ago on Dec. 18, 2012, 4:17 p.m. EST by TrevorMnemonic
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Since the end of World War 1, the US has devoted staggering resources and money to battling real and imagined enemies. It turned the engins of the state over to a massive war and security apparatus. These battles, which have created an Orwellian state illusion of permanent war, neutered all opposition to corporate power and the tepid reforms of the liberal class. The liberal class, fearful of being branded as soft or unpatriotic in the Cold War, willingly joined the state's campaign to crush popular and radical movements in the name of national security. Permanent war is the most effective mechanism used by the power elite to stifle reform and muzzle dissent. A state of war demands greater secrecy, constant vigilance and suspicion. It generates distrust and fear, especially in culture and art, often reducing it to silence or nationalist cant. It degrades and corrupts education and media. It wrecks the economy. It nullifies public opinion. And it forces liberal institutions to sacrifice their beliefs for a holy crusade, a kind of surrogate religion, whether it is against the Hun, the Bolshevik, the fascist, the communist, or the Islamic terrorist. The liberal class in a state of permanent war is rendered impotent.
- Chris Hedges
We have 4 star generals going on Meet the Press acknowledging we're still in Afghanistan because of the trillions in resources
War is the ultimate tool of the 1%.
Chris needs to look a little closer to home.
http://www.politicususa.com/war-michigan-win.html
The 5 star corporate generals have declared war here.
Chris Hedges is fully aware of the battles going on at home.
He's talked in great detail about it. I can get you some links on topics if you'd like.
Even the wars in foreign countries take their battles here at home too.
Really?
Do you have his quotes on recent events in Michigan?
I've rarely heard him speak out on events in the States.
Here's Chris supporting the teachers union strike in Chicago - http://www.truthdig.com/tag/michigan_unions
He called the teachers strike the "Most Important Labor Action in Decades"
Here's some posts on TruthDig in regards to Michigan - http://www.truthdig.com/tag/right_to_work
I'm sure if you Google Chris Hedges and Unions, you will find a lot of information of him talking about these kinds of issues.
Chris has been talking about the corporations and banks assault on the people for a long time.
Have a good day!
That's a link to the same two cartoons.
Where is his speech on what Snyder has done?
Where are his comments on "emergency managers"?
Are you aware the voters voted it down and Snyder has already re-instituted it?
Why do you constantly attack other liberals like Chris Hedges?
He has been speaking against the banks and rallying more people than you have.
You can't discredit this guy. He has an admirable track record.
I'm not discrediting him, just asking where he has taken a stand on recent events in Michigan.
You don't even seem to know.
Where is your interview on national news media about the banks theft of the treasury?
You don't even seem to know.
I can ask you arbitrary questions too.
There is an assault on unions, Chris talks about it a lot in the book I'm reading. Death of the Liberal Class. It's about how essentially the 1% and the wannabe fascists are dismantling the liberal class and taking the real liberal voice out of society.
Go read one of his books. Again, I've told you several times Chris has talked a fuck ton about the assault on Unions and how corporations and banks have been exploiting the people in the USA while simultaneously hijacking our government.
Where is your book on these issues?
So then, you're admitting that you don't know the situation?
I really don't read books on other peoples political opinions.
Those I've read in the past were just not applicable to my life, my experience nor my reality.
I may respect them, but I don't read them. I'd rather speak to them in person, but they don't come around here much.
Your question wasn't about my opinion on Michigan. You were asking about Hedges.
So then you're admitting that you don't know about the situation? So I could just say the same to you in regards to how the 1% have used war to fuck over the people and suppress the liberal class?
Again his book talks in great detail about how unions and other real liberal institutions are being demonized. So if you're trying to claim he is unaware of the situation or that I am, then you are mistaken.
You focus on Michigan. Cool. Keep it up! I focus a lot of my attention on wars and the banks. I'm going to keep that up too. Also I'm on your side in the issue of Michigan and the assault on unions.
Actually, I was asking you if your really knew the extent of what just happened in Michigan as well as what led up to it.
I find many political opinionists speak in general terms and have trouble connecting at the more specific levels..
Please tell me about your political opinions. Then I will judge if they are in general terms or not. lol
Is this post too general for you? I mentioned this to someone who recently asked which issues stand out to me the most.
Here are a few issues I find to be very important. This is a brief summation.
Constitutional Amendment banning large and corporate/business campaign contributions. Full public financing of elections to help remove corruption from political campaigns. Constitutional amendment to boot the electoral college as well. Equal exposure for candidates. Overall political reform. Etc.
Monetary reform similar to HR 2990, The NEED Act. Stop giving unlimited resources to Wall Street and focus it on main street. We're talking trillions of dollars here.
End the wars now and use the future tax revenue for education and healthcare purposes. We're talking trillions of dollars here.
Reform trade laws and ban imports which exploit workers for CEO profits. This would mean if you want to sell goods in this country, American labor standards would apply to imports and you have to be able to prove your workers overseas are not being exploited. It'd be like applying for a permit and it would need to be renewed every year. It is illegal to bring heroin to the states from a foreign country. It should be illegal to bring in goods which exploit human beings. This would help bring back our manufacturing base and remove it from the growing full embrace of China. As well as bring back jobs stolen through NAFTA and other horrible trade policies that have been manipulated by corporate interests.
Seek a criminal prosecution of the big banks for millions of acts of fraud, unlike our current system which is giving the men doing it a free pass.
OH and the most important. A living wage law which will be studied and established every year.
Sorry it is pretty general now that I look at it all. But this is just an internet forum.
You know more than me about Michigan and the "right to work against unions." I know more than you about monetary policy and the current wars. Sounds like we should exchange information.
OK
1.) I mostly agree, but would prefer full public funding for all elections. As an adjunct, I would like to see a limit on the number of commercials that could be made and broadcast. This would, I hope, limit negative campaigning. I would prefer to know what you want to do, not how much you hate your competition.
2.) I like the NEED act and if it makes any difference, I did sign the petition.
3.) Of course I agree, but at the same time, that's also a sticky and complicated wicket. One I haven't the time nor energy to discuss at length again. People tend to get understandably emotional and factors involved are far greater than any of us realize.
4.)Trade? More sticky wickets. It's like jart once asked. Why would you want to take from the Chinese what has been offered to them? A chance to get out from under poverty and an extremely closed society.
I feel that when the Chinese realize that they will need to lift their workers wages in order to further build their economy, we will begin to see more manufacturing returning to the countries where it originated and the Chinese will begin to serve their own markets better.
This of course assumes a continuing consumer based economy and I personally feel that mankind is nowhere near ready to move away from that, at least not yet.
5.) Good luck. They already had the laws that could put them behind bars altered, and they are busy buying up the last of the State court systems. They already own the SCOTUS for the most part.
6.) I've already gone 'round and 'round on this issue and in the end I say stop horsing around about unions. find ways to unionize everything!
Then we won't need to specify a "living wage", negotiations will.
As for Michigan? You should go back and give the handful of threads a good read. What is happening goes far, far beyond the "right to freeload" legislation.
Do you know what an emergency manger is?
Michigan's governor is also working hard against immigrants according to the ACLU. They filed a lawsuit not too long ago.
Current trade laws and outsourcing have been a force to take down unions. One of the reasons I've talked many times on trade reform based on human rights and American labor standards.
"One of the things that’s led to a destructive undermining of workers’ rights in this country is our trade agreements. If you go back to when NAFTA was passed, and GATT, and the creation of World Trade Organization, they were written specifically so there wouldn’t be any provisions for workers’ rights. No protection for the right to organize, the right to strike, the right to collective bargaining. Those were all excluded from trade agreements." - Dennis Kucinich
You better learn what the ALEC legislation that allows emergency managers is.
Michigan is just the "test bed" before the roll out.
You never seem to go to the gun law posts and say "Why aren't you talking about this instead of that?
Why do you not like people talking about war?
I agree that union busting is a huge issue and is happening now. But so is war and it's also happening now.
I got news for you. Much of the 1% is liberal. MasterCard Marxists to be sure. But liberals nonthe less.
War for profit is not a liberal belief. You should re-read my post.
You should also read the book it comes from, Death of the Liberal Class. As well as the Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism.
None of that disproves what I said.
You never proved anything you said.