5 ms·

Death of the American dream was a decent doc about this subject. All of this has been engineered into place over a long period of time.

metalliqaz 8y ago
The ownership class declared a shadow war on the New Deal and has won the long game.
- danieltillett 8y ago
  The New Deal was just a head fake while they dealt with the real enemy - communism. I do have to give the owners credit (or more accurately their advisers) for how they played the long game - a work of genius that has totally won.
  - Applejinx 8y ago
    Pyhrric victory. In so winning, the capital class makes overthrow and revolution impossible to avoid. The threshold point goes ever higher, and by the time you're putting the screws to the borgeouisie and formerly comfortable middle class people it's too late: you're trying to exclude those who have enough power and leisure time to effectively mobilize against you. 'Totally won' means there's nowhere to go but down.
    - lotsofpulp 8y ago
      Technology can be used so that no matter the number of poor people that want to revolutionize, they will be defeated. You can pick out and get rid of the leaders before they even get a chance to get going, and even if they do, you have control of a very capable military and police force. Resource depletion and pollution might be their formidable enemies.
      - germinalphrase 8y ago
        There’s a speculative fiction story there - it involves a wall and drones, a post-scarcity walled garden society and a slowly poisoned and dying slum.
skrebbel 8y ago
> has been engineered into place You're conveying an image of handwringing illuminati in a room who are out to get us. Is that what you mean? If not, who has been engineering this and why?
- jinfiesto 8y ago
  That's a little overstated. The Powell memo all but declared a war on the working class.
  - throwaway7312 8y ago
    This memo? http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ Hadn't heard of it. Just read it. Interesting stuff. It's very clearly a call-to-arms for business leaders against Marxists/communists. Not the working class. Most Communists, at least in the West, spring from the middle- and upper-middle class, not the working class. And Communist countries, historically, tend to make their working classes worse off, not better. Equating a defense against communism with an attack on the working class would seem a stretch.
    - jinfiesto 8y ago
      Yes. With regards to it being a call to arms for business leaders against Marxists/communists, that's accurate to a certain degree. If you look at what gets lumped in with marxists/communists though, it becomes pretty apparent that the memo was meant to be an assault on everything that could be "unfriendly" to business. In the Powell memo, you can see some of the precursors to what's happening today. For instance, I think the demonization of academia in right-wing circles as well as the death of organized labor (unions) probably start with this memo (I'm not the only person who thinks this. Chomsky as elaborated on this at length.) The Powell memo was also started the process of making lobbying both widespread and acceptable to society (even when it was legal, it used to be frowned upon.) I think most people would agree that lobbying is a cancer on our democracy.
- rectang 8y ago

metalliqaz 8y ago

The ownership class declared a shadow war on the New Deal and has won the long game.

danieltillett 8y ago
The New Deal was just a head fake while they dealt with the real enemy - communism. I do have to give the owners credit (or more accurately their advisers) for how they played the long game - a work of genius that has totally won.
- Applejinx 8y ago
  Pyhrric victory. In so winning, the capital class makes overthrow and revolution impossible to avoid. The threshold point goes ever higher, and by the time you're putting the screws to the borgeouisie and formerly comfortable middle class people it's too late: you're trying to exclude those who have enough power and leisure time to effectively mobilize against you. 'Totally won' means there's nowhere to go but down.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    Technology can be used so that no matter the number of poor people that want to revolutionize, they will be defeated. You can pick out and get rid of the leaders before they even get a chance to get going, and even if they do, you have control of a very capable military and police force. Resource depletion and pollution might be their formidable enemies.
    - germinalphrase 8y ago
      There’s a speculative fiction story there - it involves a wall and drones, a post-scarcity walled garden society and a slowly poisoned and dying slum.

skrebbel 8y ago

> has been engineered into place You're conveying an image of handwringing illuminati in a room who are out to get us. Is that what you mean? If not, who has been engineering this and why?

jinfiesto 8y ago
That's a little overstated. The Powell memo all but declared a war on the working class.
- throwaway7312 8y ago
  This memo? http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ Hadn't heard of it. Just read it. Interesting stuff. It's very clearly a call-to-arms for business leaders against Marxists/communists. Not the working class. Most Communists, at least in the West, spring from the middle- and upper-middle class, not the working class. And Communist countries, historically, tend to make their working classes worse off, not better. Equating a defense against communism with an attack on the working class would seem a stretch.
  - jinfiesto 8y ago
    Yes. With regards to it being a call to arms for business leaders against Marxists/communists, that's accurate to a certain degree. If you look at what gets lumped in with marxists/communists though, it becomes pretty apparent that the memo was meant to be an assault on everything that could be "unfriendly" to business. In the Powell memo, you can see some of the precursors to what's happening today. For instance, I think the demonization of academia in right-wing circles as well as the death of organized labor (unions) probably start with this memo (I'm not the only person who thinks this. Chomsky as elaborated on this at length.) The Powell memo was also started the process of making lobbying both widespread and acceptable to society (even when it was legal, it used to be frowned upon.) I think most people would agree that lobbying is a cancer on our democracy.
rectang 8y ago