Recommended articles for 11/6/2017

• The new Gilded Age - but only for the few by Steve Jones from In Defense of Marxism (based in Britain). 

• Reviving the Spirit of Existential Rebellion in a World of Propaganda, Lies, and Self Deception by Edward Curtin from his website. (Addendum written at 6:09 PM Seattle time)

Curtin, in my opinion, is one of the wisest people on the World Wide Web. In this piece he analyzes and explains the reasons why people lie to others and to themselves.

We are awash in information (and disinformation) and both good and bad reporting, but it is still available to the caring inquirer.

The problem is the will to know.  But why, why the refusal to investigate and question; why the indifference?  Stupidity?  Okay, there is that.  Ignorance?  That too.  Willful ignorance, ditto.  Laziness, indeed. Careerism and ideology?  For certain.

One reason he didn't directly mention is the extreme individualism (the next step is sociopathy) that is promoted by a capitalist social system. But the sad reality is...we live in an advanced form of a capitalist society. So, we often lie to ourselves and to others, and believe the lies we are told by authority figures and sources. Consider this as a survival trait almost necessary to survive in an advanced capitalist system. Curtin explains this very well. (This is a "best post".)

•  In CIA We Trust by Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report. 

No single entity in modern history, foreign or domestic, has told more lies -- and been caught bloody-handed, during or after the fact -- than the CIA.