Divisions within the ruling class.

[ConsAreLiars]

The corporate media decide which news is "fit to print," and the decisions they make tell us more about how they see their interests than about what is really happening. The do this mostly by lying by omission and by selective reporting, but outright fabrication is also used.

When they thought the extension of global capitalism into the middle east and gaining a strategic position against China and Russia (the PNAC plan) seemed like a really cool (profitable) idea, the media presented the populace with, if I recall correctly, 97 "experts" who promoted that option for every 3 "fringe" voices who said it would be the worst thing imaginable.

Well, the fantasy of the rich and powerful, that control over massive resources and sufficiently brutal methods will win every time, seems not to have worked out in the real world. While that belief and those tactics may have been successful in putting them at top positions within the corporate machines that they serve, real people have different criteria for what is good and worthwhile than the machine governed by the bottom line principal of maximizing the accumulation of capital and increasing the rate of expansion.

Now the machine is faced with a dilemma. For some parts of it, the war industry in particular, wars of imperialist aggression are always wonderful successes. For others, not so much. Every billion dollars that get spent butchering the people of Iraq and Afghanistan is a billion dollars not going into other industries. And the promise that they would soon expand their "markets" into the middle east isn't looking so good.

So now some of their PR operatives like David Gergen and Brzezinski are advocating against the PNAC plan and supporting some change of course. And the mass media has discovered, that unlike the earlier scandals around Ralph Reed and Abramoff and the endless lies http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1714474PNACers and so on, Vitter's toilet dance and Gonzo's lies (before and such are now worth reporting.

The question we face is how to use these divisions to advance common human interests and weaken corporate control over the state apparatus. I don't have the answer, but this is where we are, and it offers some slight hope of returning to (or creating) a democracy run by people rather continuing to live under a government controlled by coprorations.

Although framed a bit differently, this is the question and challenge posed by Ritter's BookTV interview on Cspan2 that was re-broadcast today, and the challenge we faced as presented by the excellent analysis by "Time for change:" http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1714474

Any ideas?

[glitch]

1. K & R, especially for this:

"Every billion dollars that get spent butchering the people of Iraq and Afghanistan is a billion dollars not going into other industries."

This sucks for all the companies who don't share their board members with Halliburton and Bechtel.

[ConsAreLiars]

3. Precisely. They believed there would be franchises and dealerships and such

opening up and that Pepsi, McDonalds, Walmart, Ford, and Bank America signs would be popping up all over that region "real soon." Doesn't seem like they are getting what they expected.

[ConsAreLiars]

2. Too late to edit, but apologies - the first link is just a typing mess. Here is Ritter on his book

as a make-up for the fuck up: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/ritter/34332/

[Usrename]

4. This is going to take a whole lot of work to fix. (If it can be fixed.)

The good part is that a whole lot more people are aware of the issues today, than even just a few years ago.

The whole debate seems to have morphed back into a different place, where that eternal struggle for economic justice is once again moving front and center.

Here's a subthread from a few weeks ago on this same subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1383699#1393712

[lostnfound]

5. I like the focus on the exploiting the divisions within ruling class.

It's something we progressives or populists should do more of. Not only might it draw the "ruling class" into the conversation in ways that might be beneficial, but it might cast some light on the political aspects of the class divide, and on the nature of our government-by-corporation.

[TalkingDog]

6. Cornell West does some great thinking and discussion on this subject.

I heard him speak at OU in Athens a few years back and frankly I swooned. The man is brilliant.

I came from the bottom rung of the lower class and having worked my way up to a solidly middle-class life, I have seen, time and time again the classes and races within those classes pitted against each other.

In NC we have lost almost all of our textile work and for the lower classes the job market has gotten a lot tighter unless you want to work in the service industry; which pays nothing.

One day a couple of years ago, I saw a mixed-race group of protesters with signs. I was shocked and saddened and eventually furious to see they were protesting immigrants "stealing" their jobs.

I wanted to get out of my car and ask the african-american folks if they realized that their parents were subject to the same kind of protests, the same kind of rejections by the parents of the people standing right beside them?

I was so angry I knew it would do no good to talk to them. But we need to find a way to counter the intentional divisions being created there. It can't be an ivory tower movement. It has to be somebody who knows how to speak to the concerns of the poor, who can help them see that they are more alike in their struggles with poverty than they are different in their race....



My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[formercia]

7. A Billion Dollars spent on War is a Billion Dollars down a rat hole.

Wars expend vital materials such as oil, steel, copper, and other 'strategic materials' that are gone forever. In a civilian economy, many materials are recycled but much military equipment is lost forever.

It's great for the mine owners who have seen the price of base metals increase by many fold since the War began, metals used to make bombs, bullets and shells..gone. These materials are not in infinite supply and when the mines run out, just like the oil will some day, there's no telling what will happen.

Short term profits at the expense of long term benefit for society.

Selfish people on a mission from God.

[checks-n-balances]

8. Your post is worth its own thread; mind if I start one with it?

If I don't hear from you maybe someone else will confirm the idea & I will do it. It makes a really important point that we shouldn't forget!

[formercia]

9. Go for it.

It's something that's been bugging me for a long time. :hi:

[ConsAreLiars]

10. Just so, They destroy our society and deplete our intrastructure in order to

feed the war machine with the blood of a million innocents. Monsters.

(edit to fix typo and add)

Among our corporate owner class, that also means that some win (the murder and destroy enterprises) and some lose (those which build infrastructure or simply entertain or otherwise cater to the needs and wishes of the people here).