On labor...

[nadinbrzezinski]

"The American workingmen and other Americans as well have been too individualistic to cope effectively with the great and steady growing combination of capital." John Tracy Carlton. Organized Labor in American History, 1920: 30

Now think about this. Here you got the summary of our predicament. There are trends that go on for a long time. Carlton wrote these lines sixty years before PATCO. He wrote this sixty years before Reagan, and though the American people tend to be individualistic by nature, this is part of our national DNA, it is time to realize that we need to change somethings. One of them is our natural impulse to do things on our own and inventing the wheel anew every generation. The other is that like it or not, most of us are WORKING CLASS, not middle class, WORKING CLASS. So it time that you and I all start acting like it.

As Franklin wrote before the Revolutionary war, we either hang together, or hang apart, yes I am paraphrasing... but this is that point, where we need to WORK TOGETHER... and enough labor busting. You don't like a teacher... or an American Auto Worker... well you're next in line.

Now back to the readying and research. My, my, found the same file and downloaded it onto my IPOD since the Sony Reader is giving me a hell of a headache!!!!!

[Ozymanithrax]

1. In the U.S. the concept of "the greater good" has been replaced by individual good.

Even here on the left it is difficult to argue doing something for the greater good if the individual might have to sacrifice some infinitesimal part of their paycheck or their lifestyle.

Spock was most definitly not stating an American concept when he said, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. But this goes back not to Reagan, but a long time

before that... at least three generations... if not longer... Yes Togueville is somewhere in my upcoming diet. I guess he'd be able to tell me what was the Zeitgest of Jacksonian Democracy

[Ozymanithrax]

3. We like to think that Democracy good, everything else bad...

What most people won't admit is that any political system has good points and bad, there is always a trade off.

The founding fathers feared the tyranny of the majority (majority = mob). That problem in democracy goes back to before our experiment. Jackson wanted to expand the electorate, but the simple fact that education on issues will always be unequal seems to have permanently lowered the expectations we have for elections.

Many of Marx's ideas were out there before he codified them in his Manifesto. Once codified, a lot of the unions I am familiar with absorbed some of Marx in their makeup. The common good was a central organizing concept in unions. They provided an advantage to the working class, but everybody paid when a strike was necessary. Everybody sacrifices and everybody wins. Individualism has an inherent flaw in that it rejects the common good. I win you lose. Capitalism and Consumerism are built around individuality. Everyone is raised to look out for Number 1 and not consider the common good.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. We've talked about this, consumerism absolutely

but not necessarily capitalism. Hell, the number of utopias, a few modeled on very different models of Capitalism are legion in the 19th century.

Nah Unions are dangerous for another reason, inside they push the practice of democracy. I wonder if the concurrent attack on education (one solution to the problems we used to believe) and unions has also led to lower voting rates overall?

Now these days I'd say Capital (modeled in the Third Way) has moved far from Capitalism (which needs regulations and anti trust laws), to fascism. And to keep the proles quiet they are taught to consume everything in sight.

What is the latest shiny now that the IPAD has finally come out and found, as usual, to be tarnished somewhat?

[Greyhound]

5. Taft–Hartley is a permanent, heavy thumb on the scales against labor.

It is the core of our servitude and robs us of our only weapon. So, even on the rare occasion that we do get some of us together, the best we can get is minimal and temporary.

Until this obscenity is dealt with we lose, it's only a matter of how much how fast.

OTOH, the corporatists are driving people to the breaking point and we know what happens when that happens. Another interesting year ahead.

[Omaha Steve]

6. K&R!