Here's my thought: I didn't think Trump could write anything more unhinged than his post on Easter Sunday but he followed it up today with "A whole civilization will die tonight."
Folks, this is the President of the United States!
Personally, I feel like everyday should be No Kings Day in every city and town until he is out. I'm thinking noon to 2. There are people in every community that feel this way, and enough of us retired people to pull it off.
That's easy Anne, there are only 3 people who can legally call Congress back into session. The president (either or both houses under "extraordinary occasions"), or working together both the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader. (The Speaker can also convene the House by itself.) Given who currently holds these positions, none of this is likely.
What Thom described is off-the-shelf fascism. But the nexus of the problem is not ideological; it is biological - Trump is a demented psychopath.
We are not being "governed" by a reasonable politician who is trying to make life better for all citizens. We are being "ruled" by a demented psychopath who delights in the rape and pillage of nations and individuals who annoy him. He has the impulse control of a 4-year-old in a candy store. He has the judgment of a person with no moral compass. He thinks morality is for suckers. And to make matters worse, he is surrounded by henchmen (and macho cosplay women) who are, like him, amoral and incompetent. They see their sycophancy as a path to future wealth and power at the expense of all who stand in their leader's way. They are so clueless that they ignore their predecessors piled under the proverbial bus to MAGAdum.
Article 25 has been shown to be a joke two cabinets in a row. Impeachment likewise is stymied by legislators who have no dignity or honor - in both parties, I might add. As Thom reminds readers, the only solution is for citizens to vote these people out of office and hold the entire administration accountable for their crimes by putting them in cages where they can no longer harm humanity. Otherwise, it will be the voters who wind up in cages serving the needs of greedy oligarchs.
"Second, the Democratic Party needs to re-embrace the social and economic goals of the New Deal and Great Society that brought us Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, free and cheap college, etc., etc. Put “we, the people” first and again restrain the toxic impulses of billionaires and corporations through appropriate taxation and regulation."
And the Democratic Party **must** embrace the will of the people in this particular regard: no more foreign influence over US policy, whether overt or covert. No more wars for nations that can't even maintain basic human decency in their own neighborhood.
There’s only one civilization that’s dying; and that’s the great civilization that the United States of America has built over the past 250 years.
We’ve had plenty of stops/starts over that time & we are far from perfect, but our country was envied by nearly every other country in the world…until this current president got away with an insurrection and was again elected via support by multimillionaires and billionaires that lied to us.
If we don’t take back our country, starting this November, our civilization is doomed and gone for the foreseeable future.
You know, setting people against each other is an old trick that the colonial powers played in their African and Asian colonies. You give one group (sometimes it didn’t even exist until the Europeans created it) a little more power and have them lord it over the others. Then you get them fighting one another rather than uniting against you. The “superior” group is also going to ally with you to keep their privileges. And the place is run on a cash economy, so to pay their taxes everyone has to work for your enterprises.
After these countries became independent the deep divisions between the groups remained, sometimes erupting into revolutions or genocide, as in Rwanda. Meanwhile the former colonial states still controlled much of their economies, as France does in a lot of west and central Africa. It’s a model that the GOP, the Democratic stooges, and their rich masters may be applying here.
Actually, the Brits set up two distinct territories that paid no attention to what tribes/ethnic groups/religious groups were where, and walked out the door. See India and Pakistan as well as Israel and the remaining territory within what had been the Ottoman Empire until the victorious Allied powers handed it over to the Brits after WW1
Most of us were exposed to Kipling, "the white man's burden." The idea was that left on their own, the natives would live in anarchy, indiscrimiately torturing and killing each other.
The flip side: "The horror! The horror!" Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. Written in 1899, when colonial powers ruled, documented that there was little difference between "civilised people" and "savages".
In China, the Brits used drugs to control the population. In India pitted the Hindus against the Moslems. Same in many places in Africa.
Many of the countries in the middle east were established arbitrarily, without regard to local involvement. Same was true in eastern Europe after WW I.
And that is for certain. Consider the Boers in southern Africa, the Belgians in the Congo, the French in southeast Asia, the Spanish in the Americas. The list goes on from the earliest days of colonialism.
..."in china, the Brits used drugs to control the..." Is that why, on TV, we see so many ads from the pharmaceutical industrial complex? Drug the people of the nation so they don't know and don't have the will to care that they are being fleeced? Ho. Lee. Shit.
It looks like you and Daniel know your history. The actual mechanics varied, and the British tended to run their colonies through local native leaders, though in the Caribbean the whites pretty well controlled everything. The Raj was a special case since it was so large and politically complicated.
In the French and Portuguese colonies there were very thin films of "assimilated" local people with the mass very much pushed down under them. And another factor was bringing in Chinese merchants to act as middlemen (the Brits also used a lot of East Indians). When the economy went sour they were easy targets for the blame. An example was in Indonesia after Sukarno was kicked out, when substantial numbers were killed.
So I agree that there wasn't a single model, but still the idea was to divide the natives and control them, either directly or through toy governments. I do think something like that is being tried here, whether as a conscious copy or just "what works" Is debatable.
The system of using local “rulers” who were in “charge” under the aegis of the colonial power proved effective for a long time. There were people native to the area who enjoyed wealth and position so long as they served the interests of the foreign power. Keep the booty flowing. Keep the unrest down.
Every article I read that you write shines a light I just recently joined your site and I must say that just today’s article is worth every cent I paid for a year
Regardless what happens tonight all of us tomorrow must start to unite this country. I know what it feels like there is nothing that we can do but there is. Each one of us counts regardless of “who” you are. I am a Quaker born in 1955 in Philadelphia I was educated differently than most but I am no smarter of a human being than the rest of America. My family came here in 1787 have fought every war and have the headstones to prove it yet we are equal I am not a better American citizen because of this. I am one of the few that can prove that I am related by DNA that my great ancestor is Benjamin Franklin and our family since day one kept journals it is required generation after generation kept in good condition each generation adds their story. My father was a apprentice for Leeds and Northrop in 1942 he followed seven other scientists two that were personal friends of Nicholas Tesla they created a device that can switch from using oil to using other sources of power. Not nuclear technology In 1959 my father was the only survivor and spent his life overseas mostly in Japan and Middle East his stories and friendships with Iran lasted till his death in 1999. Most of the stories we hear about the Middle East are how horrific the women are treated yet you don’t have to look too far to see in our own country how women are treated worse there would never had been a “ Epstein “ in Iran. From the friends I have had all of my life from Iran I have never seen or heard even close to the evil that happens daily here. I have no communication with my friends even with my short wave radio does not make it through this was our main communication with the world since I was a kid “ Morse code” We have become the country of greed and you and I will have a price to be paid. I can tell you many things about the past of this country but the most important message is that you must be part of your own community first there is no other way to survive unfortunately with all this technology we don’t even know our neighbors anymore nor we don’t like them for ridiculous reasons we praise our faiths yet we don’t follow the words. There is no magic wand like the mid term elections for instance. Everyone tells me there is nothing they can do yet there is so much we can do Think about it add some common sense.UNITED WE STAND
If I may add a Fourth point, the critical need to re-establish trust requires that the inevitable calls for “unity”, as have prevailed with all administrations since Watergate, must yield to demands for justice. Properly courageous, principled leadership can unify the nation around the need for justice in pursuit of good, honest, responsive, for-the-people government. The price of rinse and repeat politics has been far, far too high.
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” — is spoken by Krishna, the Hindu deity, in the Bhagavad Gita. And now by the fake American "President."
Commie, Felon, Pedo-Psycho, Carnival Barker, Thief, Rapist, Pimp Donald is way too comfy, too confident. The Queens whackjob is fairly reveling in his recent "I am become death" batshit craziness.
Why?
Pretty sure the election fix is in. Rs are going to preplace brass knuckles inside their boxing gloves. Then stealthily slip the brass knuckles on in the ring in November. Check those gloves, ref.
Reichstag fire? Check the want ads, they may be looking for a mad Dutch firebug equivalent.
VOTE. #Send Barron and Eric to Iran
PS Who is Crazy Donnie's paymaster? Addled Adleson? Mercer? Zuck? Theil? MBS? Vlad? All?
I keep returning to my basic mission statement. (some would call it harping!) There are at least 5-6 House Republicans who are dissatisfied with their 'dear leader', but not quite over the cliff enough that they will all leave the Repub party en masse to deprive mikey johnson the gavel. That damn (dam!) HAS to break BEFORE the midterms. Work on Don Bacon. Mike Turner, Thomas Massie, Ryan MacKenzie, Mace, Boebert and possibly Brian Fitzpatrick. Be relentless! PERSIST!
Thom writes: “All of which raises the question: How did we get here and how do we get out of this mess?” Did he read my mind, or did I read his mind?
In my Substack post from Sunday, with the title:
How Anti-democratic, Anti-egalitarian, & Un-American Reactionary Forces Undermined Our Original Principles & Values & Hijacked the American Dream
And the subtitle,
The Plan to Limit Popular Political Involvement and Critical Thinking
In my article I wrote:
Henry A. Giroux points out in an article entitled, “Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Authoritarianism: Challenges and Possibilities” (2019) that “oppression is learned”. Critical pedagogy for Giroux is controversial and even revolutionary. He says, “Whoever is not prepared to talk about capitalism should also remain silent about fascism” (my emphasis).
He says, astutely, (referring to Giroux)
“Education within the last three decades has diminished rapidly in its capacities to educate young people and others to be critical and socially engaged agents. Under neoliberal regimes now flirting with white supremacy, the apostles of authoritarianism have deemed the utopian possibilities formerly associated with public education as too dangerous to go unchecked. Increasingly public schools — which could have such a radical potential to promote social equality and support democracy — are falling subject to the toxic forces of privatization and mindless standardized curricula, while teachers are subjected to intolerable labor conditions.”
I also quoted from an article entitled, “Capitalism’s education catastrophe: And the advancing endgame revolt!” by Jamie C. Atkinson in which he said:
“The purpose of schools has been consistently structured around the interests of the dominant classes, and with neoliberalism, this trend continues. Just as education is utilized to inculcate youths to the dominant regimes in colonization, it can also be used to inculcate youths into consumerism and unfettered capitalism.”
How could students possibly develop trust in either institutions or government when their government requires their attendance is schools in which hypocrisy and arbitrary authority are the main feature? Kids are all too aware of the contradictions and conspicuous absence of autonomy and rational thinking in their daily lives in undemocratic schools.
At another point in my article, I wrote:
Making schooling mandatory for the masses was not ever about preparing students to be the sort of citizens who would become active in the nuts and bolts of democracy. Plenty has been written for those who have ventured to go beyond the superficial propaganda about what the primary motives were for people such as Horace Mann.
And, elsewhere I wrote:
Schools were in a sense to become models and simulators of the government (as well as of business), more or less arbitrarily determining the activities and directing students within a relatively exclusive and authority-based framework, with at least the potential for and illusion of education, autonomy, and intellectual development. It took over a century to suppress the popular fervor for democratic process and equality. But the mission has now been all but accomplished.
The worst damage was inflicted however, by changing perceptions of what literacy, study, and learning entail. Organically seeking and finding and exploring an infinite universe or addressing and answering questions and mysteries with wonder and a sense of excitement were no longer seen as the processes or purposes of schooling. All that was for the privileged few and was too Polly Anna for working people.
Instead, the purposes became to satisfy demands, forestall one’s own discoveries and personal pleasures in opening up the world, to compare one’s capabilities to those of others, to narrow one’s scope to a predetermined course and curriculum, and to prepare for a distant future life, rather than living and experiencing life in the here and now. The ends justified the means, and justifying the ends was, in fact, the core message.
Teaching became a process of creating busywork and justifying the school’s existence and the students’ forced attendance. Teaching was now less a matter of guidance and communicating to answer logical questions based on the thoughts of students, and more a matter of supervision, control, measurement, and following the dictates of an administration. Questions are not solicited much under this paradigm because they have been anticipated and homogenized and pasteurized in advance to cover a range which includes much irrelevance for many students most of the time.
Yesterday, in the interview with Sabrina Haake, Thom again noted that students are woefully ignorant about government. I subscribed to her Substack and posted the following comments:
I am an avid follower of Thom Hartmann and saw the interview this morning and read the article. I agree 100%. Hegseth is one of the scariest crackpots to ever appear, and the fact that he has been given so much power is beyond terrifying. But I have a question, which to be honest is my segway into a discussion of my 60 year-long campaign. If school is under the auspices of government and a meaningful separation must be kept between church and state, why is there not more separation between school and state? Furthermore, why do students have almost no significant rights? All those famous cases brought by students are practically irrelevant because the high court has consistently undermined student rights by stipulating at the end of every single case that, administrators and officials decide the limits and terms and parameters of protests and expressions by students in the interest of protecting "educational missions", order, student safety, discipline, and regular schooling processes. Student rights, in other words are a huge joke and any student will tell you that, if comfortable enough to be honest.
The underlying issue, obviously, is compulsory attendance law. If attendance is required by law, the state is the ultimate authority, and jackasses such as Abbott and De Santis are enabled in banning books and indoctrinating students. No one can stop them. This is merely one small aspect of the larger problem. Schools are authoritarian bureaucracies because of the laws. Change is nearly impossible because power is in the hands of petty bureaucrats, ex-jocks, super-moralists, minor autocrats, and business-loving fascists. If you think I exaggerate, check the literature. There is enough to sink a battleship. Read my latest Substack, for a comprehensive review with an eye toward history. (I believe it is at robertbelliott.substacknewsletter).
Thom was giving a statistic about how few citizens can cite facts about government during the interview today. He usually, correctly blames Reagan and Bennett for cutting funding and civics and history classes. However, that is the symptom and not the disease or the cause. Students must live democracy to love democracy. Knowing facts and having a deep understanding of issues and our history depend on much more than civics classes. Maybe an attorney with a better grasp on the dynamics of power and influence will someday figure out that, if we do not fight to free students, we will never be able to be secure in our democracy.
People have been losing power and influence in society as corporate mergers and acquisitions have gradually destroyed locally based business and concentrated more wealth in fewer places and fewer hands. Politics follows the money, not the will of the people, so people sense that they don't count for anything anymore. That's fatal for democracy.
Agree. The last 40 or so years are like a feeding frenzy of sharks gobbling up every viable business and business idea (via patents), and stock repurchases in order to show unreal growth, profit, and protection of the few.
Those who control and influence these corporations, like primitive sharks continue to consume the raw power, influence and to abuse their power, neither concerned for the majority of the population nor seemingly even aware we exist, only seemingly concerned by their direct competition for contracts and deals.
Our country has been remodeled right in front of our eyes and we are now reaping the results. There is only one reason this crazy so-called leader was put into office: to fulfill promises to help achieve this power of the few in exchange for $$$$. It became a win-win for both sides of the deal: protection, power, and access to the majority’s tax money. Both sides get to act like vampires bleeding the American public dry while they live increasingly protected lives.
This same mind-set is what created Epstein crimes. People who are only concerned with the heady feeling of power and addiction to their own personal highs of choice.
Stearns' proposals for a mixed-member proportional system are worth talking about. We cannot return to the FDR days. Those days were a specific time. The Democratic party is too compromised to be effective. A new system is needed. Just as Germany needed to turn the corner in 1949 with a new system, so do we now.
Let's start talking about the future and what we should do, not a return to the past.
Trump runs a crime family. Couple that with malignant narcissism, bigotry, misogyny, Putin blackmail, and senile dementia. "Expect sobriety and judgement"? Not going to happen!
Here's my thought: I didn't think Trump could write anything more unhinged than his post on Easter Sunday but he followed it up today with "A whole civilization will die tonight."
Folks, this is the President of the United States!
Personally, I feel like everyday should be No Kings Day in every city and town until he is out. I'm thinking noon to 2. There are people in every community that feel this way, and enough of us retired people to pull it off.
What are we waiting for to be the final straw?
Why isn't Congress coming back to Washington DC to stop this maniac?
Because it is controlled by No. 1 LACKEY, Mike Johnson
That's easy Anne, there are only 3 people who can legally call Congress back into session. The president (either or both houses under "extraordinary occasions"), or working together both the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader. (The Speaker can also convene the House by itself.) Given who currently holds these positions, none of this is likely.
What Thom described is off-the-shelf fascism. But the nexus of the problem is not ideological; it is biological - Trump is a demented psychopath.
We are not being "governed" by a reasonable politician who is trying to make life better for all citizens. We are being "ruled" by a demented psychopath who delights in the rape and pillage of nations and individuals who annoy him. He has the impulse control of a 4-year-old in a candy store. He has the judgment of a person with no moral compass. He thinks morality is for suckers. And to make matters worse, he is surrounded by henchmen (and macho cosplay women) who are, like him, amoral and incompetent. They see their sycophancy as a path to future wealth and power at the expense of all who stand in their leader's way. They are so clueless that they ignore their predecessors piled under the proverbial bus to MAGAdum.
Article 25 has been shown to be a joke two cabinets in a row. Impeachment likewise is stymied by legislators who have no dignity or honor - in both parties, I might add. As Thom reminds readers, the only solution is for citizens to vote these people out of office and hold the entire administration accountable for their crimes by putting them in cages where they can no longer harm humanity. Otherwise, it will be the voters who wind up in cages serving the needs of greedy oligarchs.
That's not the ONLY solution.
Are you telling people NOT to pressure Congressional Republicans?
Krasnov is doing the job, that he was assigned. The complete destruction of America, It will no longer be a threat to Russia
And the world order. Then they pick up the pieces.
What is the "world order", who is in it, who directs and controls it.?
"Second, the Democratic Party needs to re-embrace the social and economic goals of the New Deal and Great Society that brought us Social Security, the minimum wage, Medicare, Medicaid, free and cheap college, etc., etc. Put “we, the people” first and again restrain the toxic impulses of billionaires and corporations through appropriate taxation and regulation."
And the Democratic Party **must** embrace the will of the people in this particular regard: no more foreign influence over US policy, whether overt or covert. No more wars for nations that can't even maintain basic human decency in their own neighborhood.
There’s only one civilization that’s dying; and that’s the great civilization that the United States of America has built over the past 250 years.
We’ve had plenty of stops/starts over that time & we are far from perfect, but our country was envied by nearly every other country in the world…until this current president got away with an insurrection and was again elected via support by multimillionaires and billionaires that lied to us.
If we don’t take back our country, starting this November, our civilization is doomed and gone for the foreseeable future.
Starting TODAY.
You know, setting people against each other is an old trick that the colonial powers played in their African and Asian colonies. You give one group (sometimes it didn’t even exist until the Europeans created it) a little more power and have them lord it over the others. Then you get them fighting one another rather than uniting against you. The “superior” group is also going to ally with you to keep their privileges. And the place is run on a cash economy, so to pay their taxes everyone has to work for your enterprises.
After these countries became independent the deep divisions between the groups remained, sometimes erupting into revolutions or genocide, as in Rwanda. Meanwhile the former colonial states still controlled much of their economies, as France does in a lot of west and central Africa. It’s a model that the GOP, the Democratic stooges, and their rich masters may be applying here.
Actually, the Brits set up two distinct territories that paid no attention to what tribes/ethnic groups/religious groups were where, and walked out the door. See India and Pakistan as well as Israel and the remaining territory within what had been the Ottoman Empire until the victorious Allied powers handed it over to the Brits after WW1
Most of us were exposed to Kipling, "the white man's burden." The idea was that left on their own, the natives would live in anarchy, indiscrimiately torturing and killing each other.
The flip side: "The horror! The horror!" Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. Written in 1899, when colonial powers ruled, documented that there was little difference between "civilised people" and "savages".
In China, the Brits used drugs to control the population. In India pitted the Hindus against the Moslems. Same in many places in Africa.
Many of the countries in the middle east were established arbitrarily, without regard to local involvement. Same was true in eastern Europe after WW I.
And that is for certain. Consider the Boers in southern Africa, the Belgians in the Congo, the French in southeast Asia, the Spanish in the Americas. The list goes on from the earliest days of colonialism.
..."in china, the Brits used drugs to control the..." Is that why, on TV, we see so many ads from the pharmaceutical industrial complex? Drug the people of the nation so they don't know and don't have the will to care that they are being fleeced? Ho. Lee. Shit.
It looks like you and Daniel know your history. The actual mechanics varied, and the British tended to run their colonies through local native leaders, though in the Caribbean the whites pretty well controlled everything. The Raj was a special case since it was so large and politically complicated.
In the French and Portuguese colonies there were very thin films of "assimilated" local people with the mass very much pushed down under them. And another factor was bringing in Chinese merchants to act as middlemen (the Brits also used a lot of East Indians). When the economy went sour they were easy targets for the blame. An example was in Indonesia after Sukarno was kicked out, when substantial numbers were killed.
So I agree that there wasn't a single model, but still the idea was to divide the natives and control them, either directly or through toy governments. I do think something like that is being tried here, whether as a conscious copy or just "what works" Is debatable.
The system of using local “rulers” who were in “charge” under the aegis of the colonial power proved effective for a long time. There were people native to the area who enjoyed wealth and position so long as they served the interests of the foreign power. Keep the booty flowing. Keep the unrest down.
Every article I read that you write shines a light I just recently joined your site and I must say that just today’s article is worth every cent I paid for a year
Regardless what happens tonight all of us tomorrow must start to unite this country. I know what it feels like there is nothing that we can do but there is. Each one of us counts regardless of “who” you are. I am a Quaker born in 1955 in Philadelphia I was educated differently than most but I am no smarter of a human being than the rest of America. My family came here in 1787 have fought every war and have the headstones to prove it yet we are equal I am not a better American citizen because of this. I am one of the few that can prove that I am related by DNA that my great ancestor is Benjamin Franklin and our family since day one kept journals it is required generation after generation kept in good condition each generation adds their story. My father was a apprentice for Leeds and Northrop in 1942 he followed seven other scientists two that were personal friends of Nicholas Tesla they created a device that can switch from using oil to using other sources of power. Not nuclear technology In 1959 my father was the only survivor and spent his life overseas mostly in Japan and Middle East his stories and friendships with Iran lasted till his death in 1999. Most of the stories we hear about the Middle East are how horrific the women are treated yet you don’t have to look too far to see in our own country how women are treated worse there would never had been a “ Epstein “ in Iran. From the friends I have had all of my life from Iran I have never seen or heard even close to the evil that happens daily here. I have no communication with my friends even with my short wave radio does not make it through this was our main communication with the world since I was a kid “ Morse code” We have become the country of greed and you and I will have a price to be paid. I can tell you many things about the past of this country but the most important message is that you must be part of your own community first there is no other way to survive unfortunately with all this technology we don’t even know our neighbors anymore nor we don’t like them for ridiculous reasons we praise our faiths yet we don’t follow the words. There is no magic wand like the mid term elections for instance. Everyone tells me there is nothing they can do yet there is so much we can do Think about it add some common sense.UNITED WE STAND
If I may add a Fourth point, the critical need to re-establish trust requires that the inevitable calls for “unity”, as have prevailed with all administrations since Watergate, must yield to demands for justice. Properly courageous, principled leadership can unify the nation around the need for justice in pursuit of good, honest, responsive, for-the-people government. The price of rinse and repeat politics has been far, far too high.
“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” — is spoken by Krishna, the Hindu deity, in the Bhagavad Gita. And now by the fake American "President."
Commie, Felon, Pedo-Psycho, Carnival Barker, Thief, Rapist, Pimp Donald is way too comfy, too confident. The Queens whackjob is fairly reveling in his recent "I am become death" batshit craziness.
Why?
Pretty sure the election fix is in. Rs are going to preplace brass knuckles inside their boxing gloves. Then stealthily slip the brass knuckles on in the ring in November. Check those gloves, ref.
Reichstag fire? Check the want ads, they may be looking for a mad Dutch firebug equivalent.
VOTE. #Send Barron and Eric to Iran
PS Who is Crazy Donnie's paymaster? Addled Adleson? Mercer? Zuck? Theil? MBS? Vlad? All?
I keep returning to my basic mission statement. (some would call it harping!) There are at least 5-6 House Republicans who are dissatisfied with their 'dear leader', but not quite over the cliff enough that they will all leave the Repub party en masse to deprive mikey johnson the gavel. That damn (dam!) HAS to break BEFORE the midterms. Work on Don Bacon. Mike Turner, Thomas Massie, Ryan MacKenzie, Mace, Boebert and possibly Brian Fitzpatrick. Be relentless! PERSIST!
So true!
Thom writes: “All of which raises the question: How did we get here and how do we get out of this mess?” Did he read my mind, or did I read his mind?
In my Substack post from Sunday, with the title:
How Anti-democratic, Anti-egalitarian, & Un-American Reactionary Forces Undermined Our Original Principles & Values & Hijacked the American Dream
And the subtitle,
The Plan to Limit Popular Political Involvement and Critical Thinking
In my article I wrote:
Henry A. Giroux points out in an article entitled, “Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Authoritarianism: Challenges and Possibilities” (2019) that “oppression is learned”. Critical pedagogy for Giroux is controversial and even revolutionary. He says, “Whoever is not prepared to talk about capitalism should also remain silent about fascism” (my emphasis).
He says, astutely, (referring to Giroux)
“Education within the last three decades has diminished rapidly in its capacities to educate young people and others to be critical and socially engaged agents. Under neoliberal regimes now flirting with white supremacy, the apostles of authoritarianism have deemed the utopian possibilities formerly associated with public education as too dangerous to go unchecked. Increasingly public schools — which could have such a radical potential to promote social equality and support democracy — are falling subject to the toxic forces of privatization and mindless standardized curricula, while teachers are subjected to intolerable labor conditions.”
I also quoted from an article entitled, “Capitalism’s education catastrophe: And the advancing endgame revolt!” by Jamie C. Atkinson in which he said:
“The purpose of schools has been consistently structured around the interests of the dominant classes, and with neoliberalism, this trend continues. Just as education is utilized to inculcate youths to the dominant regimes in colonization, it can also be used to inculcate youths into consumerism and unfettered capitalism.”
How could students possibly develop trust in either institutions or government when their government requires their attendance is schools in which hypocrisy and arbitrary authority are the main feature? Kids are all too aware of the contradictions and conspicuous absence of autonomy and rational thinking in their daily lives in undemocratic schools.
At another point in my article, I wrote:
Making schooling mandatory for the masses was not ever about preparing students to be the sort of citizens who would become active in the nuts and bolts of democracy. Plenty has been written for those who have ventured to go beyond the superficial propaganda about what the primary motives were for people such as Horace Mann.
And, elsewhere I wrote:
Schools were in a sense to become models and simulators of the government (as well as of business), more or less arbitrarily determining the activities and directing students within a relatively exclusive and authority-based framework, with at least the potential for and illusion of education, autonomy, and intellectual development. It took over a century to suppress the popular fervor for democratic process and equality. But the mission has now been all but accomplished.
The worst damage was inflicted however, by changing perceptions of what literacy, study, and learning entail. Organically seeking and finding and exploring an infinite universe or addressing and answering questions and mysteries with wonder and a sense of excitement were no longer seen as the processes or purposes of schooling. All that was for the privileged few and was too Polly Anna for working people.
Instead, the purposes became to satisfy demands, forestall one’s own discoveries and personal pleasures in opening up the world, to compare one’s capabilities to those of others, to narrow one’s scope to a predetermined course and curriculum, and to prepare for a distant future life, rather than living and experiencing life in the here and now. The ends justified the means, and justifying the ends was, in fact, the core message.
Teaching became a process of creating busywork and justifying the school’s existence and the students’ forced attendance. Teaching was now less a matter of guidance and communicating to answer logical questions based on the thoughts of students, and more a matter of supervision, control, measurement, and following the dictates of an administration. Questions are not solicited much under this paradigm because they have been anticipated and homogenized and pasteurized in advance to cover a range which includes much irrelevance for many students most of the time.
Yesterday, in the interview with Sabrina Haake, Thom again noted that students are woefully ignorant about government. I subscribed to her Substack and posted the following comments:
I am an avid follower of Thom Hartmann and saw the interview this morning and read the article. I agree 100%. Hegseth is one of the scariest crackpots to ever appear, and the fact that he has been given so much power is beyond terrifying. But I have a question, which to be honest is my segway into a discussion of my 60 year-long campaign. If school is under the auspices of government and a meaningful separation must be kept between church and state, why is there not more separation between school and state? Furthermore, why do students have almost no significant rights? All those famous cases brought by students are practically irrelevant because the high court has consistently undermined student rights by stipulating at the end of every single case that, administrators and officials decide the limits and terms and parameters of protests and expressions by students in the interest of protecting "educational missions", order, student safety, discipline, and regular schooling processes. Student rights, in other words are a huge joke and any student will tell you that, if comfortable enough to be honest.
The underlying issue, obviously, is compulsory attendance law. If attendance is required by law, the state is the ultimate authority, and jackasses such as Abbott and De Santis are enabled in banning books and indoctrinating students. No one can stop them. This is merely one small aspect of the larger problem. Schools are authoritarian bureaucracies because of the laws. Change is nearly impossible because power is in the hands of petty bureaucrats, ex-jocks, super-moralists, minor autocrats, and business-loving fascists. If you think I exaggerate, check the literature. There is enough to sink a battleship. Read my latest Substack, for a comprehensive review with an eye toward history. (I believe it is at robertbelliott.substacknewsletter).
Thom was giving a statistic about how few citizens can cite facts about government during the interview today. He usually, correctly blames Reagan and Bennett for cutting funding and civics and history classes. However, that is the symptom and not the disease or the cause. Students must live democracy to love democracy. Knowing facts and having a deep understanding of issues and our history depend on much more than civics classes. Maybe an attorney with a better grasp on the dynamics of power and influence will someday figure out that, if we do not fight to free students, we will never be able to be secure in our democracy.
People have been losing power and influence in society as corporate mergers and acquisitions have gradually destroyed locally based business and concentrated more wealth in fewer places and fewer hands. Politics follows the money, not the will of the people, so people sense that they don't count for anything anymore. That's fatal for democracy.
Agree. The last 40 or so years are like a feeding frenzy of sharks gobbling up every viable business and business idea (via patents), and stock repurchases in order to show unreal growth, profit, and protection of the few.
Those who control and influence these corporations, like primitive sharks continue to consume the raw power, influence and to abuse their power, neither concerned for the majority of the population nor seemingly even aware we exist, only seemingly concerned by their direct competition for contracts and deals.
Our country has been remodeled right in front of our eyes and we are now reaping the results. There is only one reason this crazy so-called leader was put into office: to fulfill promises to help achieve this power of the few in exchange for $$$$. It became a win-win for both sides of the deal: protection, power, and access to the majority’s tax money. Both sides get to act like vampires bleeding the American public dry while they live increasingly protected lives.
This same mind-set is what created Epstein crimes. People who are only concerned with the heady feeling of power and addiction to their own personal highs of choice.
Needed: A fundamental redefinition of the two-party presidential system. As Maxwell Stearns aptly notes, the system never worked well from the early years. https://www.lawweekly.org/front-page/2024/3/28/could-americas-future-be-parliamentary
Stearns' proposals for a mixed-member proportional system are worth talking about. We cannot return to the FDR days. Those days were a specific time. The Democratic party is too compromised to be effective. A new system is needed. Just as Germany needed to turn the corner in 1949 with a new system, so do we now.
Let's start talking about the future and what we should do, not a return to the past.
First order of business: remove the cancer.
Trump runs a crime family. Couple that with malignant narcissism, bigotry, misogyny, Putin blackmail, and senile dementia. "Expect sobriety and judgement"? Not going to happen!