Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Senate Banking Chair Calls Jamie Dimon to Testify: But JP Morgan Chase is His Biggest Contributor!

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

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Senate Banking Chair Calls Jamie Dimon to Testify: But JP Morgan Chase is His Biggest Contributor!

Click here to access article by Thomas Ferguson from AlterNet.

This brief piece offers an illustration of the central feature of our capitalist "democracy", representative democracy, or republican government. While we are allowed to vote among candidates selected by the One Percent and that these people, according to capitalist scripture, are elected to represent us, one sees here the reality of who they represent. Of course, this must be obvious to everyone--but, it isn't. So, 1) why do all the authorities in our lives keep talking as if this were a valid form of "democracy"? And, 2) why do ordinary people go around spouting nonsense about living in a "democracy"?

Here are my answers, what do you think?

1) Because these authorities have authorities or bosses that they report to, and so on until one reaches the class of people, nowadays referred to as the One Percent, who quite literally own our economy. They have a huge stake in maintaining this arrangement and the myths about "democracy" which serve to justify it.

2) Because it can be very expensive to impose and enforce such a system on millions of people, great efforts are expended to convince people that the system is just, rational, and moral. If everyone can be convinced of the latter, then the class of people who benefit from this societal arrangement don't have to spend money on doing messy things like beating and killing people even though they are always prepared to do that. That is one of the essential functions of police forces as we've recently witnessed with their brutal use of force on protestors. The other being to protect the property of the One Percent.

Meanwhile, there are many among ordinary people who do not succumb to this indoctrination, but go along with it because there are a variety of rewards for doing so, and a variety of negative consequences for not doing so. Ordinary people in general go along with this fairy tale arrangement much like the people in the Hans Christian Andersen's fairly tale: they are not bothered by negative thoughts of taking action against authorities and it helps to keep peace in their lives.