The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy

[1776Forever]

All around you are everyday heroes who refuse to be complicit in the economic mistreatment of other people.
by Lisa Dodson
posted Mar 18, 2011

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/the-moral-underground?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=socmed&utm_content=DodsonL_MoralUnderground&utm_campaign=110318_Happiness

...The talk about the economy is now very different from when I began this research years ago. The malignant effects of unregulated market rule are being exposed as economic damage spreads beyond millions of working poor families. But I found that long before the press and politicians became riveted by an economic “meltdown,” plenty of ordinary people had been grappling with an unjust economy. Far away from debates about Wall Street and Main Street, in the side streets, byways, and common corners of the nation, where most Americans live, some have been staking out different moral terrain.

There is a tale that has always emerged in America when business has free rein, can freely undermine the public good, and can freely buy and sell political will. Today’s is a contemporary version, but it is one that recalls a history when market rule could justify almost anything—buying and selling human beings, sending children into coal mines, denying people the right to organize, gutting whole communities to take jobs to a cheaper elsewhere, or leaving people who have labored their long lives without a pension or a home.

But there is also a parallel story, the one about resistance. It is a new chapter in the proud history of how people will refuse to go along with economic abuse—and not just the few heroes we recall. Heroes alone don’t shift the ground. Deep change comes only when regular people start naming what is happening, talking to one another, and, inevitably, some of them decide that they can’t accept such injustice. Occasionally, they move a nation.

(more at link)

........................

This really shows what so many working families are facing now and how the country's middle class is waking up and fighting back!

:thumbsup:

[jacquelope]

1. This thread should be stickied. It takes the Democratic Underground to the height of its potential.

Many thanks for this message. I'm gonna spread it around as many forums as I can.

[JoeyTrib]

9. +1

Great post.

[leftstreet]

2. "In the tradition of civil disobedience that marks the nation’s history"

K&R

[socialist_n_TN]

7. Yep. If you ain't willing to be arrested........

it ain't much of a cause.

And before somebody comes out with it, there ARE always exceptions to this rule. But they should be that, EXCEPTIONS, NOT the rule.

[MedleyMisty]

10. Bought two Martin Luther King Jr books last night

Also looked at Huey Newton's Revolutionary Suicide - gonna pick that one up too eventually.

I'm trying to emotionally and mentally prepare myself for the costs of standing up for my beliefs. I like to think that when/if the time comes, I'll be willing to pay them.

[socialist_n_TN]

12. I've been reading a lot by and about Trotsky lately

I went through a HUGE reading and learning spell about him 40 years ago, but just recently I decided to read some stuff again. I've read a couple of new biographies that weren't available back in the early 70s and have reread some of the stuff I read back then and he STILL moves me. The guy had charisma and dedication that reaches across the decades.

[Hannah Bell]

3. kr

[jacquelope]

4. Come on DUers, K&R this if you believe action speaks louder than words. n/t

.

[Raksha]

5. K & R

[tblue37]

6. K&R

[UpInArms]

8. k and r

:kick:

[reggie the dog]

11. before reading i was going to say we steal from our bosses

skimp cash that we know they dont pay taxes on anyways.... "lose" the occasional bottle of whiskey.... etc...

[socialist_n_TN]

13. I don't have a problem with that.........

One way or another, they steal from us.

[Scruffy1]

14. K&R

[socialist_n_TN]

15. What was that Abbie Hoffman book?

I think it was titled "Steal This Book".

[Lifelong Protester]

16. I came to the party late, (again) so I could not rec this, but I give it

a kick here because I think we need to stick together.

Looking for ideas/titles for reading on Trotsky and the workers' movement.

[socialist_n_TN]

17. I've got a few suggestions for you..........

First, read the AUTObiography. It's called "My Life" written about '28/'29. Now remember it IS an autobiography, so don't expect it to be a "warts and all" study, but it's well worth the read. Also, there's one I just finished last week called "Trotsky-The Eternal Revolutionary" by a Soviet army general named Dmitri Volkovgod (?). I'm not sure about that last name, but the copywrite was 1996. It IS a more "warts and all" biography. There's another that I just finished called "Trotsky- Downfall of a Revolutionary", copywrite 2009 by Bertrand M. Patenaude. I like it because it focuses more on his last years of exile in Mexico, when his thinking was a little more mature. It's also a little more personal, even than his autobiography, so you get a sense of LD as a PERSON and not just a character in a tragedy. It also gives some of Trotsky's negative traits, so it's not a whitewash either.

One other set of books you might want to check out is a trilogy of biographical books written by Isaac Deutscher. The titles are "The Prophet Armed", copywrite 1954, "The Prophet Unarmed", copywrite 1959, and "The Prophet Outcast", copywrite 1963. I read these things 40 years ago, but haven't read them since. I've got the first volumn and will start it next week again. It covers his whole life and, AS I RECALL, it gives a pretty solid, scholarly, and detailed reading on the arc of his life. After that, go for anything else BY the Old Man.

I would personally recommend reading them in this order. The first three (including the autobiography) read like novels, so they're easy to get caught up in. The Deutscher books are more scholarly and maybe a little harder to wade through (as I RECALL), but they're worth it.

The guy was amazing, IMO. His LIFE was like a Russian novel and his charisma and intelligence just jump off of the page and through the decades and grab you. I don't totally agree with all of his positions on everything of course, but he was obviously an amazing person.

[Lifelong Protester]

19. thank you and you were just the person I was hoping would reply.

jotting down notes here...

[socialist_n_TN]

20. The resident Trotsky expert?

:rofl: I am a fan and I have done a LOT of reading on him through the years. Like I say, a FASCINATING character.

[Lifelong Protester]

21. something about your name....

:hi:

[Angry Dragon]

18. Kick