Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Big Lie: Governments Have to Save the Big Banks

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, November 29, 2010

The Big Lie: Governments Have to Save the Big Banks

from Washington's Blog.

The author reviews some discourses on the effectiveness of big lies followed by some recent research to explain why ordinary people believe these lies. Then he concludes that big lies also apply to the recent moves by the US ruling class to justify making ordinary people pay for the bad bets of the banksters.

I think that ruling classes have always made great efforts to instill in the minds of their subjects, ordinary people, the belief that their masters are looking out for their best interests and should never be questioned. Thus, under monarchy they propagated the belief that kings ruled by Divine Right.

In modern times we are indoctrinated with the belief that authority figures are always right and should always be obeyed. Disobedience usually brings swift punishment. People in authority are portrayed as superior human beings. For example, judges in courtrooms are always positioned on an altar-like edifice above ordinary people. When judges enter the room, people are expected to stand to demonstrate their obeisance. In educational institutions children are taught not how to think critically about information, but to merely memorize. Obviously people are not inherently stupid, but are thoroughly socialized this way by ruling class institutions to believe and act as they do.