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But the meta-narrative of "They Live", about the fear of being controlled by some massive conspiracy only you and a select group of “awakened” radicals can see,
by jessaustin 5y ago
But the meta-narrative of "They Live", about the fear of being controlled by some massive conspiracy only you and a select group of “awakened” radicals can see, is a different matter. That is the story of how many of us now see reality. While the text of "They Live" isn’t all that scary, the subtext is among the most terrifying aspects of life in the modern world.
So, it's important not to fear the actual deficiencies in democracy and self-rule that majorities of people in many nations recognize, but it's totally rational to fear the fear of those actual problems. "Meta-narrative", indeed.
- CyberRabbi 5y ago> self-rule Chomsky argues that democracy, at least in the US, is by and large not characterized by self-rule: https://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/chomsky_the_u_s_behaves_nothing_like_a_democracy/ https://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/chomsky_the_u_s_behaves_not...
- a1369209993 5y agoPretty sure that was (part of) the parent's point, actually.
- CyberRabbi 5y agoYes I was legitimizing that real concern
- jessaustin 5y agoThere was a fairly definitive study out of Princeton: The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence. Our results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism. https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/fi...