There are planners, and there are plannees. – Ursula Franklin
We should all look at Noam Chomsky’s documentary – Requiem for the American Dream. The Ten Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power.
Here is a summary – of how he says the super-rich widen the gap between themselves and everyone else – (the 99%).
- Reduce Democracy. The proper role of the populace (the riff raff) is to remain passive and apathetic; so let’s keep them that way.
- Reshape Ideology. The institutions responsible for the ‘indoctrination of the young’ (the schools, universities, and churches) should see to their job … and keep the ‘special interest groups’ / (the populace) apathetic, and not politically involved or asking unpleasant questions.
- Redesign the Economy. Big corporations figured out that they could easily make money by doing complicated tricks with money … and move manufacturing offshore – to make the workers of the world compete (world-wide) … because, while workers are not very mobile, capital is.
- Shift the Burden. The marginal tax rate for the highest earners has steadily declined since the 1960s. General Electric pays zero taxes and they have enormous profits. They take their profit somewhere else, or defer it, but they don’t pay taxes. And this is common. (Michael Moore calls this – “corporate welfare”) The rich have successfully shifted the burden of sustaining the society onto the shoulders of the riff raff – the general population.
- Attack Solidarity. “Solidarity is quite dangerous. From the point of view of the masters, you’re only supposed to care about yourself, not about other people.” Privatisation of public education represents a clear attack on the principle of solidarity. Free and affordable education was a central element of the American economic growth of the 1950s and 1960s. Also the burden of student loan debt is effective … because it diminishes civic engagement and the capacity for political consciousness.
- Run the Regulators. With ‘regulatory capture’ the business being regulated is able to run the regulators. Big business (naturally) applies constant pressure to increase lobbying and decrease regulation … which results in more economic crashes.
- Engineer Elections. As elections become ever more expensive, candidates go to the highest bidder – Big Business.
- Keep the Rabble in Line. Unions, Organized Labor, represents a barrier to Corporate Tyranny. That’s why the Unions have been systematically dismantled. The owners of the society do not want the 99% to realize that they are an ‘oppressed class’.
- Manufacture Consent. For about a century, the Public Relations Industry (which should be called the Public Control Industry) has realized that in the “free” countries (such as the U.S. and Great Britain) – the populace would need to be controlled by controlling people’s attitudes and beliefs. We need to be taught to be a Consumer. When a teenage girl has some free time (on a Saturday afternoon) will she ‘choose’ to go to the mall? And – is that an ‘accident’? No. It’s an eloquent testament to the pervasive power of the ‘Public Relations’ Industry.
- Marginalize the Population. The Owners benefit from creating division, hate, and fear … alienation – among the 99%.
We need to have the courage – to see our situation straight, see it clearly. Call things what they are.
And we need to be able to make sense of the smaller events – to see how they fit into the bigger picture.
The attitude … the way the Super Rich regard the rest of Humanity … is fundamentally predatory. It’s similar to the attitude of a conqueror toward the conquered. This means that we, in effect, find ourselves living in an occupied country … an occupied world.
Mmm ?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlzODoqipT4 (Noam Chomsky – 4/24/17 – w/ Amy Goodman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eygAlutORMk&list=PLcljdEZbVnuAd-Fpc-jrFFIgWs2sN0xUq
(Requiem for the American Dream – Noam Chomsky)