Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Super Patriotic Draft Dodger’s Rag: “Fire the Son-of-a-Bitch”

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

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

The Super Patriotic Draft Dodger’s Rag: “Fire the Son-of-a-Bitch”

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from The Greanville Post.

Curtin shines much needed light on the hypocrisy of American liberals and asks some very penetrating questions:

Who will take a knee for a radical redistribution of economic and political power? Who will link arms for the end to capitalist exploitation and the amassing of obscene wealth by a few at the expense of the many? Who will refuse to support war and war-making? Who will tell it like it is and say that the demon of racism can only be eliminated if the others are? Liberals won’t. Conservatives won’t. Who will? Who will pay a price?

Racism has been a very convenient weapon used by the capitalist ruling class (comprised of both liberals and conservatives) to divide Americans and divert their attention away from the many social and economic disasters of their system. Trump has now given White racists and police forces permission to use that weapon more aggressively.

Also he touched on what I have long observed about football games (especially NFL games) as useful spectacle to promote social cohesiveness:

In a society of the spectacle, NFL football is the most spectacular and entertaining mass hypnotic induction into the love of war and violence that we have. Goodell says that “the NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture.”

I think Goodell is right but for a very wrong reason. The sense of unity is devoted to the spectacle of violence, aggression, and dominance which are what US foreign policies are all about. The latter two characteristics also are useful attributes for capitalists domestically while in pursuit of profits and power at the expense of workers.

There is another excellent article posted on the same website that might interest you: "Good Blacks, Bad Blacks: From Washington and DuBois to Morgan Freeman and Colin Kaepernick" by Paul Street.

White America, for the most part, makes a critical distinction between “good” and “bad” Black Americans – and a related distinction between “good” and “bad” Black behavior. It goes way back.