{"id":6139,"date":"2020-02-01T07:13:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T11:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=6139"},"modified":"2020-02-01T07:13:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T11:13:13","slug":"when-a-kleptocratic-plutocracy-prevails-across-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=6139","title":{"rendered":"When a Kleptocratic Plutocracy Prevails Across the Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE KALEIDESCOPE<\/i><\/strong><\/h1>\n

Submitted by Michael Brenner<\/p>\n

WE live in a kaleidoscopic environment that we call post-modern society. It spins and reconfigures itself without stop. Whatever the oases of solidity and order we have managed to carve out for ourselves, we sense the fields of reality ever shifting. It is all unpredictable and, to a great extent, incomprehensible. It is the continuous novelty of this scrambled environment that unsettles us \u2013 more than the disruption we experience. For It lacks any discernible coherence or design or pattern.<\/p>\n

That said, we are able to identify the most salient features of this singular phenomenon.\u00a0 The confluence of three powerful forces spins the kaleidoscope. Foremost is the triumphant Plutocracy<\/i>* whose dominance now reaches far beyond the economic sphere to degrade our politics, our public institutions, and our social ethics. Most firmly established in the financial heights, it has become transnational. Its predatory actions, freed from any significant regulation by state authorities, lead to fragmentation and atomization of communities along with pervasive worker insecurities.\u00a0 Moreover, their unprecedented success in rolling back the historic achievements of the post-WW2 period that institutionalized enlightened social programs has sown disillusion as standards of living \u2013 as well as future prospects \u2013 decline.<\/p>\n

The great \u2018civilizational compact\u2019 of that period culminated a cultural and social evolutionary process over two centuries. The speed and completeness with which it is being reversed represents a stunning counter-revolution. That remarkable achievement was planned and implementation through acts of political will. The greater political mystery is why that project was not detected, understood and resisted. Part of the answer lies in the post-modern condition described below.<\/p>\n

The plutocracy\u2019s tightening hold on society is inseparable from the success of a rather primitive utilitarian philosophy that has pervaded the culture.\u00a0 Homo economicus<\/i> is the foundation stone of an edifice that reifies the notion that it is our nature to seek gain over all else \u2013 and justifies all means in its pursuit. This is the contemporary expression of a monophysite world view. Manifestly at variance with experience and observed behavior, it nonetheless asserts as incontrovertible Truth that empathy, communal sentiment, and all other human aspiration are simply covers for selfish instinct. Beyond economics, this idea predominates in behavioral psychology, political thought, and even ethics.<\/p>\n

The effect is the recrudescence of Social Darwinism that justifies all manner of corporate greed, stigmatization of the poor, narcissism, and the exaltation of ruthless competition. As a consequence, it generates insecurities, anxieties and distrust not seen in the Western world since the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Second, is neo-Fascism. A recent additive to the brew, it introduces a highly volatile element \u2013 making the mix combustible. Neo-Fascism looks to be an historical \u2018throwback.\u2019 In fact, we are becoming aware that it is like a retrovirus that lurks in the body politique of modern societies awaiting the right conditions and right catalyst to reappear. Fascism is, above all, a state of mind. Although it takes on diverse colorations from one country to another, it is everywhere autocratic with attitude. Fascists relish acting with impunity in rejecting the legitimacy of any restraints \u2013 legal, institutional, ethical. Releasing an impulse to hate and to hurt, Neo-Fascism taps the free-floating anger and anxieties of a dislocated, disoriented populace.<\/p>\n

Like plutocracy, it is a transnational phenomenon. Crypto-Fascists have a strong natural affinity for each other \u2013as did their forebears. It transcends all other divisions. That is less a matter of ideology than of sharing the same atavistic impulses. It explains why Donald Trump is so strongly attracted to them \u2013 and they to him.<\/p>\n

A Fascist or crypto-Fascist movement places feelings above thought. That is manifest in its simplistic ideology (often reduced to \u201cwe\u2019re better than anyone else\u201d); in its rhetoric; in the crude emotions it taps among followers; in its suppression of dissenters; in its very demeanor and mode of address to all parties. The stress is on obfuscation rather than the inculcation of new ideas. It aims to clear the decks through acts of destruction, physical or institutional or philosophical or political, so that there is nothing left but raw emotions to be manipulated.<\/p>\n

Crypto-Fascists like to hurt people. That is the most tangible way to demonstrate domination, control and superiority. In extremes it is violent \u2013 whether impulsive or as a calculated move to cow and to intimidate. Today\u2019s crypto-Fascist movements naturally attract violent persons who see a chance to act out their aggressiveness in conditions that legitimize them and offer justifications for vile behavior.<\/p>\n

The stunning revival of Fascism \u2013 as doctrine, as sentiment, as movement \u2013 carries two cardinal dangers. First is its cult of destruction. There is nothing constructive about Fascism in theory or practice. It extols and exalts power \u2013 the power to destroy. A crude version of the Kali complex. It is incapable of building anything. Its companion trait is the instinct to inflict pain \u2013 on people, institutions. The total absence of empathy or humanistic feelings removes all inhibition about doing so.<\/p>\n

Second, the damage being wrought right now by neo-Fascism throughout the Western world and beyond (India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Philippines, Bolivia) creates a societal void, an ethical wasteland that could be filled by any manner of dangerous forces – all autocratic, all cultist; non- civil or humanistic. In the U.S., Trumpism foreshadows even worse. As it is, Trump\u2019s legacy will take a generation to overcome \u2013 at best \u2013 even were he (or a fellow cultist like Pence or Haley) not reelected. A second term means an end of the historic America.<\/p>\n

Just look at the destruction wrought by Donald Trump and his band of thugs in three years \u2013 despite the nominal institutional, cultural and legal constraints. This without any formal organization, militias, doctrine or discipline. This despite Trump himself being mentally deficient, abysmally ignorant, incapable of concentration or sustained action. Think of what it would mean to have someone in power who is far more clever, more skilled, more controlled, more capable of strategizing.<\/p>\n

The third force is Nihilism<\/i> \u2013 although the term \u2018force\u2019 carries misleading connotations. Nihilism is not a movement, much less institutionalized. It is a cultural condition.\u00a0 It acts principally as a permissive factor \u2013 one that invites, legitimizes all manner of thought and expression. As such, nihilism has had a crucial influence on the weakening of the super-ego \u2013 blurring norms, diminishing standards, undercutting the law, tolerating sociopathic deviance. The net effect is a perverted reification of the counter-culture admonitions: \u2018do your own thing, let it all hang out,\u2019 et al<\/i> -without any sense of the communal humanism that also was integral to the counter-culture ethos.<\/p>\n

NIHILISM<\/i><\/h2>\n

Nihilism is the doctrine or philosophy which postulates that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Hence, the ancillary axiom that there is no inherent morality, and that accepted moral values are contrived abstractions without a valid claim to authority. That is the standard meaning of the term.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Not all nihilistic behavior is erratic and random. Post-modern societies, in particular the United States, do encompass some groupings who calculating exploit that condition within an overarching social reality of indifference toward fixed values and norms. Outstanding examples: the plutocrats, the Christian Right, the American hyper-nationalists. The nihilist state-of-affairs also gives wide leeway to individual persons to behave in word and deed existentially with little need for explanation or justification. Trump is the personification; we see mini-Trumps cropping up everywhere.<\/i><\/p>\n

This state-of-affairs is close to Durkheim\u2019s concept of ANOMIE. It has been defined as a “condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals”- or, little moral guidance widely accepted by the populace. That leads to a loosening of social bonds between an individual and the formal community, and, thereby, among individuals.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Nihilism is a construct of two ideas; \u201cAnything can happen\u201d and \u201cEverything goes.\u201d That pretty much sums up where we are today in America (plus a few other English-speaking places). It explains the randomness of what we encounter while reminding us that often there is little consistent logic in what we observe and experience.<\/i><\/p>\n

Narcissism not only enables and encourages random behavior; it favors certain kinds of behavior. Aggressive, selfish and exploitive. These are inhibited in healthy societies by traditions, communal norms, shaming and their adverse practical consequences. The most liberal and tolerant societies exercise restraints on the impulses toward destructive actions, domination\/suppression of others, gross exploitation of fellow citizens, or the subverting of communal harmony. In such societies, those impulses themselves are less pervasive, less intense, and more likely to be sublimated. That is due to socialization and the absence of negative models (Trump).<\/i><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s America features \u2013 indeed, celebrates \u2013 multiple expressions of the anti-social or asocial behaviors noted above. Many are not obviously pernicious, e.g. the incessant juvenilia represented on the mass media. Their common denominator is immaturity. That trait also is manifest in the word and deed of persons who hold responsible positions in society. Perhaps, the best descriptive term in American English is \u2018jerk.\u2019 And it is conceivable that the ultimate study of our times will be titled \u201cThe Age of the Jerk.\u201d \u201cJerk\u201d is very hard to define \u2013 but we know one when we see one (or, at least, we used to). A jerk is a child in an adult\u2019s body who indulges itself while prioritizing every (or most) momentary want, desire or impulse without regard to others or setting.<\/i><\/p>\n

A nihilistic society is a breeding ground cum playground for such persons. Think of a very young child who has reached the stage of testing his parents\u2019 tolerance of that kind of indulgence. In the absence of guidance, the child learns nothing about limits or restraints. They grow into functional narcissists. In contemporary America, the spoiled, now adult \u2018jerk\u2019 can aspire to occupy the Oval Office with a reasonable hope of succeeding.<\/i><\/p>\n

This kind of delinquent juvenile behavior is at once effect and cause of a nihilistic society. It grows on itself. Each observed instance provides some small measure of encouragement through modelling and further weakening of both norms and penalties for impulsive, selfish actions. Their effect is sociopathic. However, the acts themselves are not driven by hostility toward society \u2013 or others. It is entirely self-regarding, and, therefore, asocial.<\/i><\/p>\n

Nihilistic behavior can be found among every stratum or sphere of society. There are reactionary, neo-fascist, and racist \u2018jerks\u2019. Caution: by no means all of the foregoing types are jerks; in fact, the most dangerous ones are not. One would never imagine calling Mussolini or Bolsonaro or Orban or Pinochet a jerk. Boris Johnson, by contrast, very much is one \u2013 dangerous only as a self-absorbed fool is. Other examples: Erdogan is not a juvenile sociopath; Mohammed bin-Salman is. Here at home, Trump, of course, and lieutenants like Maryanne Conway, Jonathan Miller and Rudi Giuliani clearly are.<\/i><\/p>\n

Ignorance and intellectual deficiency encourage jerk-like behavior; however, they are not a prerequisite. Pompeo, for example, was first in his class at West Point.*** Ignorance does help, though, by minimizing objective facts in the mental equation. Jared Kushner is a prime example.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

These people do odd-ball things that makes you ask yourself: \u201cIs (s)he out of his mind? How can an intelligent &\/or educated person do\/say something like that?\u201d The above is a partial explanation. There may be expedient factors at work \u2013 political, financial, familial; but, still, repeated acts with no self-awareness or embarrassment suggests a behavioral deformation. The truth is that those people have not lost their mind in the sense of being insane. Rather, they have misplaced it – rational intelligence now longer controls thought and conduct. It\u2019s been replaced by self-regarding feelings and emotions.<\/i><\/p>\n

These immature people have an element of pretense in their make-up. Otherwise, they are just dismissed as fools. It is the glaring discrepancy between what they are pretending to be and their immature behavior that prompts us to call them jerks. These days, in our narcissistic culture, many of such are elevated to positions where that discrepancy arises automatically. The resulting exposure does not inhibit them, nor do they feel embarrassment when criticized for their unseemly juvenilia. They simply dismiss it as personal vendetta or conspiracy.<\/i><\/p>\n

The historically unprecedented proliferation of persons in high office who deserve the appellation \u2018jerk\u2019 is facilitated by another singular feature of contemporary public life. Western societies face no mortal threats that might force a level of political sobriety that would prevent handing power over to deranged or feckless leaders. For that could be disastrous. Think of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of Britain in 1940. Or Donald Trump and his gang in the White House in 1941. Or Trump in 1933. Today, neither the United States – nor Western Europe \u2013 is endangered by an aggressive military power. Terrorism is a mosquito invasion by comparison. Human tragedy, of course, but no danger of systemic significance. Witness Washington\u2019s collaboration with al-Qaidi in Syria for the past 8 years. There we have assessed the authors of 9\/11 as a lesser enemy than Mr. Assad in Damascus \u2013 who himself barely registers on the security Richter Scale. Russia as a threat is a figment of our cultivated, low-grade but persistent hysteria. (\u201cIf we don\u2019t fight them in Ukraine, we\u2019ll have to fight them over here.\u201d) China does pose a profound challenge insofar as its rise requires us to fashion imaginative plans and skillful diplomacy to accommodate it on terms that modify, to some degree, the current structures and modus operandi of the international system. However, that is not an immediate, direct or security threat that places in jeopardy our sovereign integrity or core interests.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

This uniquely benign circumstance creates the kind of complacency and indulgence that opens the way for crackpots of various types to gain control of the levers of power. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The feckless manners endemic to the nihilistic society are exemplified by the notorious New York Times editorial endorsing TWO candidates for the Democratic nomination despite their divergent views on almost all issues of consequence. They did so just because they are both women. In this, they follow Barack Obama\u2019s inane dictum that women are innately superior and, thereby, should run things. Their actual preference is the chromosome challenged Joe Biden who, unfortunately, is also pigment challenged. The editor\u2019s original favorites had been the black, corporate Democrats Kamala Harris and Corey Booker who will reemerge this August when the Times promotes them for the Vice President slot on the ticket.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The NYT pseudo-editorial on the Democratic contest stands as the embodiment of nihilism. It exhibits the hallmark traits of our incoherent, randomized public communication. No logical continuity, inner contradictions, aimless thoughts presented at voluminous length, shameless; and totally dishonest in concealing the one solid preference: nominating a woman. Editorials with a modicum of integrity would candidly say: \u201cthere are two wings of the Democratic party in competition; we are divided as to which one we should support; you make up your own mind. If ambivalent, we encourage you to vote for a woman because we believe that feature as more important than the individual\u2019s views and character.\u201d 50 honest words \u2013 one for each state.<\/i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

There is yet another feature of the present state of affairs which is unique and of utmost importance: the IT Revolution<\/i>. Computers, social media, communication as affirmation of self, artifices of personal relations. Myriad are the ways that they interact with the three main driving forces that churn our maelstrom. The effects can be placed in a few general categories whose modalities are incalculable. Atomization and depersonalization, with attendant dehumanization is one generalized effect. That is closely associated with Nihilism. It also makes it easier to hurt people &\/or to passively tolerate people being hurt. It is an attitude at the core of the plutocratic and neo-Fascist mind-sets.<\/p>\n

Another effect is to diffuse responsibility and, therefore, accountability. These days, nobody seems ready to admit error or sin. Nobody apologizes or says I\u2019m sorry. Inter alia<\/i>: the financial predators who brought us the great collapse of 2008, the non-regulators, the high officials who encouraged illicit practices, the economists who justified it all. Too, think of the disastrous military misadventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, et al. Think of the deceitful electronic surveillance of Americans that is at once illegal and unconstitutional. Think of Boeing executives and FAA officials. Think of Jeffrey Epstein: his collaborators, participants, protectors (DOJ, FBI, CIA, WHITE HOUSE, Virgin Islands Governor\u2019s Office, Buckingham Palace), free riders on the LOLITA EXPRESS<\/i> (Bill Clinton), beneficiaries (3 successive presidents of Harvard). Think of the American Psychological Association leaders who entered into a contract with the CIA to help them refine torture technics. Thinks of the doctors who participated in torture sessions by monitoring when the subject might expire from abuse and thus lose their utility. Think of Barack Obama who ordered the CIA to break into the staff computers of the Senate Intelligence Committee to seize documents that would expose those criminal practices. Not a single apology from any of the responsible parties.<\/p>\n

This phenomenon is at once cause and reinforced effect of the conditions being discussed. Where social media comes in is that they fragment institutional structures along with accompanying sense of collective identity and interest. We belong to the fluid, incorporeal electronic universe. The amorphous, ever-shifting\u00a0 groupings that do form provide no solid basis for understanding, appraising, judging and holding accountable those who exercise influence over our lives.<\/p>\n

Some might fault this overview for the failure to mention American military adventuresome<\/i>, the special interests that sustain it, the distorted nationalism that makes being Number 1 so important for Americans. There are several reasons for this absence.<\/p>\n

It has been treated extensively in other essays. That\u2019s one. I dislike repeating myself; after all, I am not an overpaid, underinformed bi-weekly Op Ed columnist for The New York Times<\/i> or Washington Post<\/i>. Also, the immense, tangible human costs are imposed almost exclusively on others: those who live \u2013 and die \u2013 outside the post-modern West which is my subject. That\u2019s two. The main impacts on the latter, above all the United States, are the surveillance state (also treated elsewhere) and the sheer waste of vast resources. The effects of the latter are felt by most of us (e.g. NYC subway riders, those dependent of public assistance, the working poor \u2013 among others).\u00a0 Still, we do not face mass destitution because of Pentagon waste; the sufferers are victims of the country\u2019s political-economy more than they are of militarism. That\u2019s three. In other words, taxing the rich and corporations while increasing expenditure on social programs and infrastructure would greatly improve the condition most Americans experience, particularly the worse off, even if the U.S. continued to squander hundreds of billions each year on the military\/Intelligence establishment.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

CACOPHONY!<\/i><\/h2>\n

Finally, we are immersed in noise and static.\u00a0 CACOPHONY Nothing registers deeply because it cannot get through, because it is quickly layered by other stimuli, because there is no time or space for assimilation or processing. Never before have we had so many means to communicate.\u00a0 Never before has there been more clatter and clamor.\u00a0 Never before have we communicated less.\u00a0 Especially in our political life.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about emotional self-expression rather than thought. Confusion reigns.<\/p>\n

Today, speech as self-affirmation drowns out speech intended to convey something. It\u2019s the \u2018I\u2019 in each phrase that counts \u2013 certainly not the \u2018you.\u2019\u00a0 Public figures seemingly follow the imperative: \u201cI sound off, therefore I am.\u201d\u00a0 Silence is tantamount to death in the celebrity age.\u00a0 The storm of static in our public space is invasive.\u00a0 It destroys the ability to reflect, to assess, to ponder, to imagine.\u00a0 We have come to \u2018think\u2019 in sound bites as well as to talk in sound bites.\u00a0 This is the ultimate endpoint of a culture dominated by the noisy hunt of sweaty egos for self-justification.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Antidote to Cacophony<\/i><\/p>\n

So here\u2019s a proposal.\u00a0 A national vow of silence from all of the above.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call it \u2018Shut-up Wednesdays.\u2019\u00a0 One day of the week, one of seven, devoted to whatever but all ranting and raving prohibited\u00a0!<\/p>\n

Tens of millions laid-back Americans listening to Fats Waller crooning:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/i>No one to talk with
\nAll by myself
\nNo one to walk with
\nBut I’m happy on the shelf
\nAin’t misbehavin’\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n

Triumph of the Will<\/i><\/h2>\n

An inchoate society where purpose and design are obscure, where norms of behavior and speech are confused, where restless motion \u2013 individual or collective \u2013 replaces action, where celebrity sets status \u2013 is a society that invites abuse. That abuse may take political forms, economic ones, criminal ones.<\/p>\n

The resulting maelstrom of anxious egos rewards the belligerent.\u00a0 It is the willful who triumph<\/i>. The more ruthless they are, the less sensitive they are to the damage they do others and the collectivity, the weaker the superego or conscience, the greater the chances of accomplishing what they want. We see that everywhere. That reality is exemplified in Donald Trump, in Boris Johnson, in the autocrats and autocratic methods spreading around the globe like a wildfire. Here at home, the abuse of position and authority is so commonplace that we have come to accept it at the norm. On Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, in police departments \u2013 there, it reigns in the crudest form.<\/p>\n

It is even evident in places where civil regard for rules and for others are supposedly part of the organizational warp and woof \u2013 in the courts, in academia. Arbitrary use of power has become so routine as to figure as part of the normal duties of office. As for the media, factual truth is taken as just a speed bump on the road to entertainment and profit. They are the great enablers \u2013 inducing wearied resignation or mindless agitation. The winner is whoever is ready to push furthest into the moral wilderness of gross selfishness. On social media, we have reached the nadir of total anarchy and nihilism. That may be our future \u2013 a dystopian kaleidoscopic alternative to regimented autocracy.<\/p>\n

PRAXIS<\/h2>\n

Tracing the intertwined patterns among these elements is a daunting task. It is exacerbated by the constant shifting force fields tossed about by internal changes within each, technological developments in the IT dimension, and external events originating outside the Western world. However, there are a few things that we can do in order to give ourselves some intellectual purchase and to do some preliminary planning for ameliorative action:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Abandon the fiction that the present-state-of-affairs is \u2018normal<\/i>.\u2019 It isn\u2019t. Unfortunately, as the weirdness spreads, intensifies and persists the more natural it seems. Among the older, memories of a different time fade. Among the younger, narratives of them are taken as legends. (E.g. My students at a public university think that I\u2019m joking when I tell them that graduate school at Berkeley cost me $62.50 a semester). As for the tenor of public discourse, none of the wacky quotes listed below would ever had been made 25 or thirty years ago. Their remarks quickly would have brought about the demise of whomever uttered them.<\/p>\n

In this respect, our MSM are culpable of strengthening the belief that wackiness is normal. Not only do they treat everything as entertainment that fattens the bottom line, but they place every event or statement on an equal plane. If you have a clinical psychopath in the White House, surrounded by people almost as fanatical or deranged as he is, that truth should be presented as such. If there are repeated first-hand revelations that the national security decision-making process in the White House resembles the antics of Animal House,<\/i> we all have a responsibility as citizens to denounce, to broadcast and to cite that cardinal fact. However, that is very rarely done by either the media or even the Democratic leadership who view such action as \u2018bad manners;\u2019 expressions of outrage are \u201cuncouth.\u201d In addition, they fret about the risk of stirring up the Republican \u2018base.\u2019<\/p>\n

So, CNN devotes an hour of prime time to a discussion of Trump\u2019s latest claim that Suleimani was plotting an imminent attack on for U.S. embassies \u2013 leaving more views actually believing this bald-faced lie than if CNN had simply mentioned it as a 20 second news item with a reminder of similar lies. After all, those are objective facts \u2013 not opinion or speculation.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be blunt in how we depict our unsavory leaders \u2013 even at the risk of \u2018crossing a line.\u2019 Is it inaccurate or unreasonable to assert that Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Betsy DeVos, Kim Prince and indeed William Barr have Fascist mindsets? Pompeo, for one is a Christian Millenarian who declares that the United States\u2019 Divinely mandated role is to bring forward the apocalyptic Rapture when non-believers worldwide will be thrown into the fiery abyss of Hell. Everything he says matches closely the dogmas<\/i> of Hungary\u2019s Arrow Cross, Romania\u2019s Iron Guard, Franco\u2019s Falange<\/i> who melded Salafist Christianity with Fascism before and during WW II. The others likely would be entirely comfortable in those movements whose successors haunt us today. Yes \u2013 they are Evangelical Protestants while those movements were Catholic; the mindset, though, is identical regardless of denomination. Let\u2019s also remember that John of Palmos\u2019 Book of Revelation<\/i> that foretells Armageddon has been part of the canon for the Vatican as well as Protestants since the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.<\/p>\n

We understandably hesitate at making so harsh a judgement. But we should not allow the Stars & Stripes pin in the label to eclipse the evidence of our eyes and ears. If we think that this designation is correct, and there is abundant evidence to substantiate it, then stating so is not only appropriate but obligatory.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Democracies produce enormous amounts of trash. Political health depends on having shoveling capacity to match. In recent years, the amount of BS has risen sharply while shoveling capacity has shrunk. The latter condition is due, above all, to an infirmed press that has abandoned its role as the public\u2019s agent in monitoring and exposing the behavior of their rulers. Instead, they welcome any antics that might entertain viewers\/readers. Interpretation and deepening understanding are no longer seen as the primary journalistic functions. The other chief sanitizing agent, in theory, is the political opposition. Timidity and conformity in that domain have deprived the country of the kind of direct contestation of policies and positions essential to keeping public actors reasonably honest.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another key to gaining some perspective on the perverse present, is to concentrate greater attention on other societies.<\/i>Admittedly, most of these trends are creeping around the world \u2013 especially in wealthy, liberal countries. England, for example, is as far gone as is the United States. Nevertheless, there are noteworthy contrasts to highlight. Think of healthcare.\u00a0 All of Western Europe has universal health care (as does Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc). World Health Organization studies give highest marks to the French system. Yet, France devotes less than 11% of GDP to its programs. We, by comparison, spent 16% + for the mess of a non-system here that leaves 45 million with no insurance whatsoever and tens of millions more with inadequate care. Despite these hard facts, when Elizabeth Warren proposes an American version of what exists elsewhere, the headlines shout \u201chow is she going to pay for it?\u201d Well, everybody else does – with far greater efficiency.<\/p>\n

The unstated, prejudicial assumption underlying this criticism is that existing health care structures will remain in place along with their profiteering and squandering of vast sums. Moreover, when the Treasury was stripped of assets by the Bush tax cuts for the rich, by the abundant bailout cum give-away to the biggest financial institutions, by the Trump administration tax cuts for the rich and corporations along with drastic deregulation \u2013 no one asked :\u201dwhat does that mean for inequality and the funding of basic social services?\u201d Can we afford them? Not even the nominal opposition.<\/p>\n

The unhappy truth is that a reasonably sharp 5th<\/sup>-grader could see the logical flaw in a formulation that has framed public debate for months. This mindlessness is enabled by ignorance even as it is exploited by those who reap the profits from the current set-up.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is imperative to regulate the IT world and everything associated with it. <\/i>The pernicious consequences, in multiple spheres, of runaway technology are now self-evident. To allow Silicon Valley profiteers, fantasists and the omnivorous appetites of the Intelligence snoops to shape our future without a good measure of public assessment and rule-setting is suicidal. We must regain the sense of collective interest and communal action.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Can we maintain a coherent society without reversing this trend? Individuals who do not genuinely communicate with their fellows are caught in a puerile trap \u2013 they neither grow nor decay \u2013 either as private persons or as citizens. So, too, for the collectivity that they form. But the change that we need is not what occupies most of us.<\/p>\n

Those with an understanding of our plight have a responsibility to speak up with brutal honesty. The alternative is to have our fate determined by brutal dishonesty.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0PLUTOCRACY<\/h2>\n