The Class War Has Begun

[Rohirrim]

Another writer who realizes that the machine is broken and no amount of tinkering with it is going to get it to work again:

Elections are supposed to resolve conflicts in a great democracy, but our next one will not. The elites will face off against the elites to a standoff, and the issues animating the class war in both parties won’t even be on the table. The structural crises in our economy, our government, and our culture defy any of the glib solutions proposed by current Democrats or Republicans; the quixotic third-party movements being hatched by well-heeled do-gooders are vanity productions. The two powerful forces that extricated America from the Great Depression—the courageous leadership and reformist zeal of Roosevelt, the mobilization for World War II—are not on offer this time. Our class war will rage on without winners indefinitely, with all sides stewing in their own juices, until—when? No one knows. The reckoning with capitalism’s failures over the past three decades, both in America and the globe beyond, may well be on hold until the top one percent becomes persuaded that its own economic fate is tied to the other 99 percent’s. Which is to say things may have to get worse before they get better.

Over the short term, meanwhile, the Democratic Establishment is no doubt wishing that Occupy Wall Street will melt away with the winter snows, much as its Republican counterpart hopes that the leaderless tea party will wither if Romney nails down the nomination. But even in the unlikely event that these wishes come true, it is not likely to be the end of the story. Though the Bonus Army was driven out of Washington in the similarly fraught election year of 1932, the newsreels they left behind turned out to be previews of coming attractions for the long decade still to come.
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/class-war-2011-10/

[TonyR]

Wow, that guy nailed it.

[Tombstone RJ]

Another writer who realizes that the machine is broken and no amount of tinkering with it is going to get it to work again:

Elections are supposed to resolve conflicts in a great democracy, but our next one will not. The elites will face off against the elites to a standoff, and the issues animating the class war in both parties won’t even be on the table. The structural crises in our economy, our government, and our culture defy any of the glib solutions proposed by current Democrats or Republicans; the quixotic third-party movements being hatched by well-heeled do-gooders are vanity productions. The two powerful forces that extricated America from the Great Depression—the courageous leadership and reformist zeal of Roosevelt, the mobilization for World War II—are not on offer this time. Our class war will rage on without winners indefinitely, with all sides stewing in their own juices, until—when? No one knows. The reckoning with capitalism’s failures over the past three decades, both in America and the globe beyond, may well be on hold until the top one percent becomes persuaded that its own economic fate is tied to the other 99 percent’s. Which is to say things may have to get worse before they get better.

Over the short term, meanwhile, the Democratic Establishment is no doubt wishing that Occupy Wall Street will melt away with the winter snows, much as its Republican counterpart hopes that the leaderless tea party will wither if Romney nails down the nomination. But even in the unlikely event that these wishes come true, it is not likely to be the end of the story. Though the Bonus Army was driven out of Washington in the similarly fraught election year of 1932, the newsreels they left behind turned out to be previews of coming attractions for the long decade still to come.
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/class-war-2011-10/

Translation: "we are all spoiled brats and being that our perspective is so screwed up, we are gonna go all commie and call for the revolutionssss!! 'Cause we're idiots and we want the state to take care of us."

thanks for nothing Roh. I seriously doubt you understand what you are talking about.

[alkemical]

Translation: "we are all spoiled brats and being that our perspective is so screwed up, we are gonna go all commie and call for the revolutionssss!! 'Cause we're idiots and we want the state to take care of us."

thanks for nothing Roh. I seriously doubt you understand what you are talking about.

There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning. (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett)

New York Times, November 26, 2006.

[Odysseus]

This is one of the best political summary statements I have seen in quite awhile.

People don't remember history much less recent history. People idolize Reagan and Clinton without actually remembering some of the things they did not do correctly. We don't remember information without posting a link or having the ability to look it up.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/14/is-the-internet-replacing-our-own-memory/

We cannot count. We don't know numbers anywhere near where we should. Numeracy is becoming a global conversation.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/mathstest.htm
http://www.human.cornell.edu/hd/outreach-extension/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=43511

We don't save money. We spend everything we make. We want to spend it now. It's all about our own pretense, illusion, and optimism.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/USSavingsRateFallsToZero.aspx

For the first time in American history we have four generations in the workplace.

http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm

Everything we are focusing on calling real is not sustainable globally and the illusions that we have been raised on are on the verge collapse as church, state, and community converge into a different creation than it has been in the past.

The emerging focus is collaboration. Why? Being able to hunker and bunker will not be anywhere near as useful as the ability to resource friends and neighbors.

[Odysseus]

Translation: "we are all spoiled brats and being that our perspective is so screwed up, we are gonna go all commie and call for the revolutionssss!! 'Cause we're idiots and we want the state to take care of us."

thanks for nothing Roh. I seriously doubt you understand what you are talking about.

There might be some truth to that but quote itself is solid.

Food for thought:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/10/22/the-147-companies-that-control-everything/

[Odysseus]

There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning. (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett)

New York Times, November 26, 2006.

If you get a chance to take a tour of the Rhine river through Frankfort the castle tour is fabulous. Each castle starts with "This was erected by..." Every speech ends with "The castle was sacked in...."

Alkemical:
"Pardon me while I burst into flames..." -incubus

[alkemical]

If you get a chance to take a tour of the Rhine river through Frankfort the castle tour is fabulous. Each castle starts with "This was erected by..." Every speech ends with "The castle was sacked in...."

Alkemical:
"Pardon me while I burst into flames..." -incubus

LOL, I will have to do that some day (hopefully). I'd be very interested in that.

re: pardon me: yeah I know better than to play the silly games. I felt that way for a long time - Now, i dunno - lots changed.

[Rohirrim]

Translation: "we are all spoiled brats and being that our perspective is so screwed up, we are gonna go all commie and call for the revolutionssss!! 'Cause we're idiots and we want the state to take care of us."

thanks for nothing Roh. I seriously doubt you understand what you are talking about.

I seriously doubt you read a single word of that article.

[alkemical]

This is one of the best political summary statements I have seen in quite awhile.

People don't remember history much less recent history. People idolize Reagan and Clinton without actually remembering some of the things they did not do correctly. We don't remember information without posting a link or having the ability to look it up.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/14/is-the-internet-replacing-our-own-memory/

We cannot count. We don't know numbers anywhere near where we should. Numeracy is becoming a global conversation.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/mathstest.htm
http://www.human.cornell.edu/hd/outreach-extension/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=43511

We don't save money. We spend everything we make. We want to spend it now. It's all about our own pretense, illusion, and optimism.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/USSavingsRateFallsToZero.aspx

For the first time in American history we have four generations in the workplace.

http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm

Everything we are focusing on calling real is not sustainable globally and the illusions that we have been raised on are on the verge collapse as church, state, and community converge into a different creation than it has been in the past.

The emerging focus is collaboration. Why? Being able to hunker and bunker will not be anywhere near as useful as the ability to resource friends and neighbors.



I'll have to spend time with those links. I've been evangelizing some of these concepts though in terms of sustainability (not just a green term).

Why is it so difficult to have a conversation on where we need to go to next. which opportunities do we have that will enable us to transform our weaknesses into strengths?

It's hard to actually get people motivated. That's my biggest problem: Pain. People would rather do something after the fact (reactive), than prepare (proactive).

I still haven't solved that riddle.

[Tombstone RJ]

I seriously doubt you read a single word of that article.

I did read it and the differences between what was happening during the depression and what is happening now is huge. During the depression people had no money to EAT. Not so now. The "poor" feast on McDonalds.

There's simply too many differences between what happened in DC during the depression and what is happening in NY with spoiled kiddies who have student loans.

Eating or paying back loans... hmm. Are they the same thing?

nope. sorry.

Now I'm a big, big critic of DC and Wall Street.

In fact, I'm a bigger critic than you. You are just now seeing the light. Congrats brosef. Congrats for waking the fug up.

That being said, I don't want your stinking "revolution". I want Ron Paul, thank you very much.

[Odysseus]

I'll have to spend time with those links. I've been evangelizing some of these concepts though in terms of sustainability (not just a green term).

Why is it so difficult to have a conversation on where we need to go to next. which opportunities do we have that will enable us to transform our weaknesses into strengths?

It's hard to actually get people motivated. That's my biggest problem: Pain. People would rather do something after the fact (reactive), than prepare (proactive).

I still haven't solved that riddle.

I can solve this riddle quickly. All real innovation that will occur over the next generation will be in software engineering, systems engineering, data linking/web 2.0, and social media.

Our present paradigm has failed. Everybody knows this. The guys at the top are looting the system.

Blackbeard was one of the first pirates who essentially invented downsizing. All the pirates were motivated by their own greed and selfish interest until Edward Teach left them to die which at this point they realized own greed destroyed them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard

Author Robert Lee surmised that Teach and Hands intentionally ran the ships aground to reduce the crew complement of the fleet and therefore increase their share of the spoils. During the trial of Bonnet's crew, Revenge's boatswain Ignatius Pell testified that "the ship was run ashore and lost, which Thatch [Teach] caused to be done."[48] Lee considers it plausible that Teach let Bonnet in on his plan, which was to accept a pardon from Governor Eden. He suggested that Bonnet should do the same, and should consider taking a privateer's commission from England, as war was threatening between the Quadruple Alliance of 1718 and Spain. Teach offered Bonnet the return of his ship Revenge.[49] Konstam (2007) proposes a similar idea, explaining that Teach began to see Queen Anne's Revenge as something of a liability; while anchored, news of a pirate fleet would be sent to neighbouring towns and colonies, and any vessels nearby would delay sailing. It was prudent therefore for Teach not to linger for too long, although wrecking the ship was a somewhat extreme measure.[50]

[Rohirrim]

I did read it and the differences between what was happening during the depression and what is happening now is huge. During the depression people had no money to EAT. Not so now. The "poor" feast on McDonalds.

There's simply too many differences between what happened in DC during the depression and what is happening in NY with spoiled kiddies who have student loans.

Eating or paying back loans... hmm. Are they the same thing?

nope. sorry.

Now I'm a big, big critic of DC and Wall Street.

In fact, I'm a bigger critic than you. You are just now seeing the light. Congrats brosef. Congrats for waking the fug up.

That being said, I don't want your stinking "revolution". I want Ron Paul, thank you very much.

The revolution is coming whether you want it or not. I'm not talking about a bullets flying revolution. I'm thinking we're past that now. At least I hope so. I'm talking a revolution of ideas. New systems. The old ways have failed. There are those who are digging in their heels and doubling down on the old ways. Those are the reactionaries. There are always reactionaries at times like these. But there are many who realize we can't go on this way. And by "we" I mean the human race. The times they are a changing. ;D

[TonyR]

There is simply a limit beyond which economic inequality threatens democratic life, when the majority suspect that a tiny minority has fixed the system beyond repair through the existing institutions, and when the powerful minority begins to think of its own interests as distinct from the interests of its compatriots. That moment is one of real danger, especially when those elites can move themselves and their money more easily across the planet than ever before, and it is a sign of responsibility, not irresponsibility, to focus on it.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/23/how-i-learned-to-love-the-goddamned-hippies.html

[Tombstone RJ]

The revolution is coming whether you want it or not. I'm not talking about a bullets flying revolution. I'm thinking we're past that now. At least I hope so. I'm talking a revolution of ideas. New systems. 1. The old ways have failed. There are those who are digging in their heels and doubling down on the old ways. 2. Those are the reactionaries. There are always reactionaries at times like these. But there are many who realize we can't go on this way. And by "we" I mean the human race. The times they are a changing. ;D

I wouldn't call it a revolution period. Remember the old line in the first Jaws movie by the mayor of Amity?:

Mayor Vaugh: Martin, it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July.

Stop calling for a "revolution". You want to call for change, fine. You want to ask me to buy into a "revolution" you got another thing coming.

1. The "old ways" you are talking about have not failed. Just ask China and other emerging economies like India. The old ways do work, but they are by no means perfect and everyone knows this. The old ways have worked so friggen well we have spoiled morons like yourself calling for a "revolution" because you can't pay back your loans because you don't know how to manage your money or compete in today's economy. That's on you brosef.

2. Go ahead and call me a reactionary because I want a constitutional democracy and free market opportunities. If that makes me a reactionary then fine. But in reality you are causing way more harm than good.