Why Don’t Americans Care About Democracy at Home?

[marmar]

Why Don’t Americans Care About Democracy at Home?

Posted on Oct 3, 2012
By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” —James Baldwin

Four decades of neoliberal policies have given way to an economic Darwinism that promotes a politics of cruelty. And its much vaunted ideology is taking over the United States. As a theater of cruelty and mode of public pedagogy, economic Darwinism undermines all forms of solidarity capable of challenging market-driven values and social relations. At the same time, economic Darwinism promotes the virtues of an unbridled individualism that is almost pathological in its disdain for community, social responsibility, public values and the public good. As the welfare state is dismantled and spending is cut to the point where government becomes unrecognizable - except to promote policies that benefit the rich, corporations and the defense industry - the already weakened federal and state governments are increasingly replaced by the harsh realities of the punishing state and what João Biehl has called proliferating “zones of social abandonment” and “terminal exclusion.”

One consequence is that social problems are increasingly criminalized, while social protections are either eliminated or fatally weakened. Another result of this crushing form of economic Darwinism is that it thrives on a kind of social amnesia that erases critical thought, historical analyses and any understanding of broader systemic relations. In this instance, it does the opposite of critical memory work by eliminating those public spheres where people learn to translate private troubles into public issues. That is, it breaks “the link between public agendas and private worries, the very hub of the democratic process.” Once set in motion, economic Darwinism unleashes a mode of thinking in which social problems are reduced to individual flaws and political considerations collapse into the injurious and self-indicting discourse of character. As George Lakoff and Glenn Smith argue, the anti-public philosophy of economic Darwinism makes a parody of democracy by defining freedom as “the liberty to seek one’s own interests and well-being, without being responsible for the interests or well-being of anyone else. It’s a morality of personal, but not social, responsibility. The only freedom you should have is what you can provide for yourself, not what the Public provides for you to start out.” Put simply, we alone become responsible for the problems we confront when we can no longer conceive how larger forces control or constrain our choices and the lives we are destined to lead.

Yet, the harsh values and practices of this new social order are visible - in the increasing incarceration of young people, the modeling of public schools after prisons, state violence waged against peaceful student protesters and state policies that bail out investment bankers but leave the middle and working classes in a state of poverty, despair and insecurity. Such values are also evident in the GOP Social-Darwinist budget plan that rewards the rich and cuts aid for those who need it the most. For instance, the Romney/Ryan budget plan “proposes to cut the taxes of households earning over $1 million by an average of $295,874 a year,” but at a cruel cost to those most disadvantaged populations who rely on social programs. In order to pay for tax reductions that benefit the rich, the Romney/Ryan budget would cut funds for food stamps, Pell grants, health care benefits, unemployment insurance, veterans’ benefits and other crucial social programs. As Paul Krugman has argued, the Ryan budget “isn’t just looking for ways to save money (it’s) also trying to make life harder for the poor - for their own good. In March, explaining his cuts in aid for the unfortunate, (Ryan) declared, ‘We don’t want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives.’” Krugman rightly replies, “I doubt that Americans forced to rely on unemployment benefits and food stamps in a depressed economy feel that they’re living in a comfortable hammock.” As an extremist version of neoliberalism, Ryanomics is especially vicious towards American children, 16.1 million of whom currently live in poverty. Marian Wright Edelman captures the harshness and savagery of the Ryan budget passed in the House of Representatives. She writes: Ryanomics is an all out assault on our poorest children while asking not a dime of sacrifice from the richest 2 percent of Americans or from wealthy corporations. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_dont_americans_care_about_democracy_at_home_20121003/

[orpupilofnature57]

1. We don't realize that we feed what's killing us, Greed & Fear

We aspire to be rich and ostracize the poor and wonder where the middle class went . We have been punished for the actions of corporation and our governments policies abroad, and under the guise of security , for animosity against out governments for actions abroad requiring our liberty and freedoms to be impinged upon by the same people that cause the problem.

[fasttense]

2. The percentage of wealth you control should equal the percentage of taxes you pay.

If you control 90% of the wealth in a nation, you should pay 90% of the nation's taxes. If you control .5% of the wealth your taxes should be .5%.

The rich are a burden to society and should be made to pay for all the infrastructure of our nation that they use.

[tama]

3. Economic Darwin Award

Economic Darwinism - economic theory and practice conscious of evolutionary adaptation, population dynamics and environmental and ecological interdependencies - would self correct and adapt instead of behaving like cancer and seeking "Darwin Award" of most stupid way of committing suicide.

Neoliberal ideology has nothing to do with real Darwinism, evolutionary theory correctly understood. Actually most indigenous cultures understand real meaning of Darwinism inherently and naturally and act accordingly, as part of nature - The Western Culture that developed and adopted the theory does not and keeps up the culture vs. nature divide.