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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: "Everyone now is more or less a Socialist" [View all]Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)2. Chomsky...
The labor press of the early industrial revolution took strong positions on many issues that should have a resonance today. They took for granted that, as they put it, those who work in the mills should own them. They condemned wage labor, which to them was akin to slavery, the only difference being that it was supposedly temporary.
This was such a popular view that it was even part of the program of the Republican Party. It was also a main theme of the huge organized labor movement that was taking shape, the Knights of Labor, which began to establish links with the most important popular democratic party in the countrys history, the Farmers Alliance, later called the Populist movement, which originated with radical farmers in Texas and then spread through much of the country, forming collective enterprises, banks and marketing cooperatives and much more, movements that could have driven the country toward more authentic democracy if they had not been destroyed, largely by violence though, interestingly, similar developments are underway today in the old Rust Belt and elsewhere, very important for the future, I think.
This was such a popular view that it was even part of the program of the Republican Party. It was also a main theme of the huge organized labor movement that was taking shape, the Knights of Labor, which began to establish links with the most important popular democratic party in the countrys history, the Farmers Alliance, later called the Populist movement, which originated with radical farmers in Texas and then spread through much of the country, forming collective enterprises, banks and marketing cooperatives and much more, movements that could have driven the country toward more authentic democracy if they had not been destroyed, largely by violence though, interestingly, similar developments are underway today in the old Rust Belt and elsewhere, very important for the future, I think.
and
The concept of the Common Good that is being relentlessly driven into our heads demands that we focus on our own private gain, and suppress normal human emotions of solidarity, mutual support and concern for others. That I think is also an important part of what lies behind the assault on public education and on Social Security that has been waged by sectors of corporate wealth for years, on pretexts of cost that cannot be sustained, and against strong public opposition.
What lies behind these campaigns, I suspect, is that public education and Social Security, like national healthcare, are based on the conception that we care for other people: we care that the disabled widow across town has food to eat, or that the kids down the street have schooling ("why should I pay taxes for schools? I dont have kids there" . And beyond that, that we care about the tens of millions are dying every year because they cannot obtain medical care, or about dying infants, and others who are vulnerable.
What lies behind these campaigns, I suspect, is that public education and Social Security, like national healthcare, are based on the conception that we care for other people: we care that the disabled widow across town has food to eat, or that the kids down the street have schooling ("why should I pay taxes for schools? I dont have kids there" . And beyond that, that we care about the tens of millions are dying every year because they cannot obtain medical care, or about dying infants, and others who are vulnerable.
http://www.alternet.org/visions/chomsky-corporations-and-richest-americans-viscerally-oppose-common-good-0
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As a Sanders Supporter, I agree. Socialist Democrats would be more acceptable. I think it
libdem4life
Dec 2015
#3
Linguistics is culture...a noun is different than an adjective used to delineate a noun. We start
libdem4life
Dec 2015
#7
Who cares about Norway or Sweden. They don't get a vote here. I'm ignoring your
libdem4life
Dec 2015
#68
What is fascinating, if you'll look back, I agreed with you. From there on it was parsing
libdem4life
Dec 2015
#78
There are more tendencies within socialist philosophies than just Marxism.
Fantastic Anarchist
Dec 2015
#30
You are fighting a losing battle here, Babel. DU'ers who support HRC have nothing to add to the
mother earth
Dec 2015
#80