I only re-wrote it over and over again. Regardless of what I was saying and all the various ways I tried to say it the post “read” awfully. Incapable of making the post read better and unwilling to publicize something I’m not proud of I’ve deleted the post and am now left with a blank screen. Well a mostly blank screen…
What do I put on it? After spending a great deal of time on the deleted post I’m still tempted to take another shot at it. My fingers are itching to type it up yet again. Instead, perhaps I’ll just say what it was about and then I can move on. I was trying to write about Consumerism and mass consumption. While I am interested in the development of these two phenomenon in the United States that isn’t what I was writing about. It was a more personal attempt to express my dissatisfaction with that lifestyle and the changes I’ve been making in my life in an attempt to move away from that lifestyle.
These first steps, out of necessity, have been small and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to completely avoid Consumerism but I take the fact that I am now at least aware that this is a problem and one that I can rectify is an excellent start.
I was going to use one of 'those' posters but they're so ridiculous
I’m not going to bother linking to any sites or people who make the comparison they get too much traffic as it is. If only the educational system in this country had bothered to teach people what Socialism is this charge never would have been brought against the President. Of course the education system doesn’t have to bear the blame completely, Americans themselves are also culpable. It isn’t that hard to do some basic research and learn what Socialism is; and, that there exists in this country an actual Socialist Party, I know! How un-American!
The nice thing about the Socialist Party – USA is that they have their platform right there on their website and we can compare what they’d do if they were in charge of the Federal government with what President Obama has done and/or says he will do. The results aren’t impressive (if you’re a Socialist.)
From Socialist Party USA’s economics platform:
1. We demand the immediate withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and oppose the creation of a widened Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). – While candidate Obama did mention renegotiating NAFTA during the primary elections since his election the point has never been raised. In fact, the Obama administration has worked closely with the Mexican government to ensure the provisions of NAFTA are upheld and implemented
2. We call for worker and community ownership and control of corporations within the framework of a decentralized and democratically determined economic plan. – Except for some nonvoting stock in a few troubled banks and automakers, which the Federal government is keen to sell as soon as possible, The Obama administration is not contemplating the integration of corporations into the civic body.
3. We call for a minimum wage of $15 per hour, indexed to the cost of living. – The current federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour. Many states have their own minimum wage rates, some as low as $5.15 an hour (congratulations Georgia and Wyoming, you suck!) The latest I can find from the Obama administration is a call for the rate to increase to $9.50 per hour by 2011.
4. We call for a full employment policy. We support the provision of a livable guaranteed annual income. – I can’t find President or candidate Obama supporting this anywhere. I can find a much more enlightened figure doing so though, Martin Luther King. 5. We call for all financial and insurance institutions to be socially owned and operated by a democratically-controlled national banking authority, which should include credit unions, mutual insurance cooperatives, and cooperative state banks. In the meantime, we call for re-regulation of the banking and insurance industries. – See number 2 above.
There are 10 more tenets and President Obama doesn’t do any better on them either, let’s see how he does in International Policy
1. We call for the closing of all U.S. military facilities at home and abroad that train foreign military and paramilitary personnel. – The only base closure Obama has talked extensively about is Guantanamo Bay and, let me check, it is still open, as of July 2010 176 detainees still remained at the base… In fact, the United States is expanding its international military presence.
2. We call for the United States to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. – While the United States has withdrawn from Iraq (some 50,000 troops remain.) Our countries footprint in Afghanistan has grown to near 80,000.
3. We call for an end to the U.S. occupation of the province of Guantanamo, Cuba. – The President hasn’t even managed to close the base there and the official policy of the United States towards Cuba requires regime change before talking with the country
4. We call for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank-East Jerusalem and Gaza, and an end to all U.S. aid to Israel, as a precondition for peace. – The current administration is now overseeing yet another round of peace talks between Israel and Palestine. No mention of halting of aid has been mentioned, or as punishment for either side walking away from the table.
5. We support an immediate cutoff of all U.S. military aid to Colombia, and all other recipients. – In September the U.S. government approved $30 million in military aid to the country.
6. We call for the abolition of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and all other institutions of covert warfare. – The Obama administration has continued the policies of its predecessor by defending illegal practices in court. No mention of ending these agencies has even been floated.
7. We stand for unconditional disarmament by the United States. – President Obama has moved forward with a new round in the START program which will lower the US’s and Russia’s nuclear stockpile. The amount of money the US government has spent on the military has been steadily rising since 1998 and reached $494.3 billion in 2009, not including spending for the Afghan and Iraq wars.
8. We call for an international treaty outlawing all weapons of mass destruction, including the use of depleted uranium in conventional weapons. – Once again, the Obama administration is only concerned with preventing other nations from joining the nuclear club not eliminating the club itself.
9. We call for an immediate 50% cut in the military budget, followed by additional cuts, with the aim of rapidly reducing the military budget to less than 10% of its current level, with the “peace dividend” directed to essential social services and to the cost of cleaning up contaminated military sites. – See comments on number seven above.
10. We call for the disbanding of NATO and all other aggressive military alliances, and the closing of all overseas bases. – NATO continues to grow. Its newest members are Albania and Croatia which joined in 2009. The Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, and Ukraine were promised invitations to join at the 2008 NATO summit.
There are four more statements under International Policy and President Obama fails to live up to the Socialist charge with each of them as well. There are eight other planks of the US Socialist Party platform and President Obama’s policies fail to meet the Socialist agenda over and over again.
What can we take from this? A number of things I think: President Obama is not a socialist; those that accuse him of such have little to no understanding of what socialism is; this country’s most ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ Democrats fail to live up to socialist standards; politically the United States is a right of center nation; instead of investigating the claim that the President was a socialist the Media in this country merely repeated it, giving the claim credence it never deserved; and, finally, that the public at large seems to much more open to blind acceptance than skepticism of any claim.
P.S. While reading the Socialist Party’s platform I found my head nodding in agreement more often than shaking in disagreement. I wonder where I can sign up… ?
After two weeks of being good about posting on a schedule I blow it again. Thankfully, I’m only a few hours late rather than days.
I don’t have much to say today. That’s not true I have lots to say but none of it is in a format that would make sense to anyone but myself right now. So, I’m going to take the bloggers’ easy way out and construct a post out of random links!
Man, that’s a lot of work… Worse, I’m not coming up with something compelling. Damn, this easy way out is working at all like I assumed it would.
Let’s start this post of with something… depressing. It appears that 2010 isn’t the future people thought it would be. I’m not even talking about the ridiculous stuff either, like flying cars and floating cities. We haven’t even cured cancer yet!
We should be grateful it isn’t a full on dystopia yet, seeing as some people really think we’re heading that way. That is only Kunstler’s latest post read his archive which goes back years, all of which are just as cheery. Some people will be ready if and when collapse does come, it seems (I’m not talking about militias either those people are just silly.)
If civilization doesn’t collapse in the near future then we’ll be left dealing with the institutions we all know and love. Sadly, the possibilities these days in government seem to be limited to two flavors of the same drink. Which is it nice to see such vibrant alternatives as full-blown socialism. I might not agree but at least it is something different, something to get excited over and talk about. Not that it seems to matter, seeing as even when the government delivers no on seems to notice.
If you really want to dig into things you can always read Government Code. It is dry but you’d be fascinated by what you’ll learn that in California stealing a gilt or a barrow is considered grand theft (CA Penal Code Sec. 487.)
Finally I’ll leave you with how much privilege I don’t always recognize I have and this quote by Epicurus: If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not give him more money, but diminish his desire.
