Are Americans Too Broken By Corporations to Resist?

[amborin]

"the majority of the American people do know enough to oppose the war in Afghanistan, but they do almost nothing in response to recent troop surges.

Polls show that the majority of Americans actually support single-payer, Medicare-for all plan and even a larger majority support a public option, yet there are relatively few people on the streets protesting the Democratic party betrayal of them.

And look at the 2000 U.S. "banana-republic" presidential election, in which Gore beat Bush by 500,000 votes and the Supreme Court stopped the Florida recount, and 51 million Gore voters were disenfranchised. Yes, there were small protest demonstrations against this election farce, but the numbers of protesters were so small that they empowered rather than concerned the future Bush administration, which went on to almost vaunt its regime of anti-democracy and piss on basic human rights. How humiliating for an entire nation. The shame many Americans feel, at some level, for allowing torture and other abuses is similar to the shame that spousal abuse victims feel -- and this routinely makes people feel even weaker. So, while not all Americans are broken, demoralized and feeling powerless, many are.

I wish the answer to restoring democracy was simply one of people getting more journalistic truths through a non-corporate media --and certainly I am all for that -- but I think that much more is required. We need to take a look at what forces in American society are breaking the American people from the ability to resist tyranny and dehumanization, and we must start considering what are the antidotes to this. At least that's what any psychologist or social scientist who gives a damn about genuine democracy should be doing.

JB: So, our feelings of powerlessness are rooted in modern life, exacerbated by present political realities. I'd like to point out another factor, which is what Paul Rogat Loeb refers to as our 'historic amnesia.' Historian and social activist Howard Zinn spent decades trying to offset that amnesia by providing an alternate history of our country, emphasizing various movements that have spanned decades (or generations) and eventually brought about change. He told stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and his book, A People's History of the United States has sold two million copies. So, it's obviously struck a chord. What do you think about the power of stories as an antidote to the ennui you describe?

BL: Stories of resistance to tyranny are great for the morale, so Howard Zinn did a great service by popularizing historical examples. These can be inspirational. A broken person and a broken people need morale. Inspirational models whom people can identify with can be energizing, and energy is exactly what demoralized people need."

snip

http://www.alternet.org/media/146128/are_americans_too_broken_by_corporate_power_to_resist/

[Towlie]

1. Like Milo Minderbinder said, "we all have a share".

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

That's why Bush wanted to privatize Social Security. If we all have a share like Milo's operation in Catch-22, we can't subdue the big corporations without jeopardizing our own retirement investments.

[skeptical cynic]

2. A lot of people are struggling just to survive

But there's resistance out there, and it's fermenting...growing.

It will happen all at once, when the suffering reaches a breaking point; when a politician says the wrong thing; when we invade one too many countries; when one too many soldiers dies.

There's a line to be crossed, and the Powers That Be are too confident and arrogant not to cross it.

When that line is crossed, this nation will be instantly and nonviolently shut down. They require us to produce and consume, and all we have to do is stop. The only violence will come from the side of the status quo.

Violence would be counterproductive. The government wants violence--it's another reason to reduce freedoms. All we have to do is refuse to let the system function--to embrace dysfunction.

[rainy]

3. I think its because when we did fight, we were out in the streets

in large numbers, Bush was the most protested man in our history, we were ignored. Nothing we do gets on the TV and our leaders don't stir us to act. I blame the media. We are there but we are ignored.

[Uncle Joe]

4. This is a good interview; well worth the read.

Thanks for the thread, amborin. :thumbsup:

[ixion]

5. There's still food on the shelves at the grocery store

as long as there is, and as long as people can afford it, there will be no uprising.