Thoughts on the Class War

Simulposted at Daily Kos

Never has the divide between the Ruling Class and the “Underclasses” been so transparent, so stark, and so great.

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The debacle in Iraq and the torturer arising from it has limned the Military Industrial Class. The Financial ruination the Economic Class has wrought has outlined them in a bright spotlight. The hypocrisy at the heart of the Religious and Cultural (including the media) Class, whose rhetoric is used to divide the “Underclasses” is being exposed. And of course the corruption of OUR government, government as owned by the Ruling Class is now glaringly obvious.

It is obvious in the battle for health care, and obvious in the financial crisis. It is obvious, and they are vulnerable, for one main reason, this time they are not just going after the “Lower” Classes, they have made the critical mistake of “going after” (affecting adversely to a grievous extent) the Middle Class as well.  

Masses of people are now suffering at the hands of the system the Ruling Class has created to give them power and line their pockets. Foreclosure, unemployment, lack of good jobs and benefits for the employed and underemployed….and bill after bill of legislation for the Rich that ignores the plight, the plight that the Ruling Class created, of what they obviously consider to be literally the Lower Classes. The Health Care fight is just the most obvious and egregious battle of the Class War. But it can no longer be honestly denied.

Class War is now out in the open.

This dynamic, this willingness of the one or two percent of the wealthiest Americans to screw the rest of America…and the world…merely to line their own pockets and increase their power touches literally every aspect of our lives. From the very personal aspects of getting decent affordable health care and to putting food on our families…to the greater spheres of politics, foreign policy and the survival of the planet itself.

The cultural controls and societal memes and conditioning are still effective in ‘controlling’ most of the GenPop, the “Underclasses”… and keeping them from uniting to even a small extent and rising up against The Ruling Class… are still in effect.

Except, perhaps, to some extent….among a burgeoning, hyper-informed online segment of the GenPop. Teh Bloggers. WE are, in our chaotic fashion, telling the story. Getting the word out, albeit in dribs and drabs, when no one else will

But there is one thing, one galvanizing force still missing. Just as we have discussed here to some extent with fighting for torture prosecutions…there is no unified narrative of what is happening in the Class War.

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And of course that is where the media, or lack of it, comes in. With the death of Walter Cronkite and the media retrospectives that followed, we were reminded of his greatest contributions. Walter was the one whp provided the narrative to the masses on two of the most important events of his time. The Vietnam war and Watergate. Ben Bradlee credits Walter, as highlighted in this piece, with pulling the narrative together and making it…well, real. Real to enough of the population that it could not be ignored or swept under the rug.

Today’s media just does not do that. All of the stories of corruption and financial theft and the lies used to get us into iraq and the torture that followed are out there, But there is no one to pull them together into a comprehensive portrait of what has, and what is, really occurring in America.

A portrait that would make the Class War and all of its ancillary scandals and horrors into a narrative that cannot be ignored. That demands action. The larger picture is divided and diffused. Leaving the Underclasses divided and confused. And allowing the Ruling Class to not just continue the Class War that they are waging against us. to succeed, but also giving their PR armies time to do damage control, to seep the scandals under the rug and be minimized and forgotten.

Without a concerted effort by the one force they truly fear, the voice of the bloggers and their few but rapidly growing number of allies in government and the traditional media, the Ruling Class may succeed yet again in escaping the scrutiny they deserve. And the reforms to the system that are necessary not just to rein them in, but to break their hold on our economy, our media, and our government.

And incidentally…to prevent them from stopping efforts to save the planet from Climate Crisis before it is too late. For all of us. And our children.

The Ruling Class, the oligarhy/plutocracy have once again gone too far in their greed and exposed themselves. They are vulnerable. The new voices on the internet are doing a great job in exposing them and attempting to hold them accountable. But not yet quite good enough. The confusion and division they are so expert at sowing are still working, still preventing a clear narrative of the scope and tactics of their control of the economy and the government from emerging.

What more can we do to expose them? How can we weave the stories of groups like C Street and K Street and the MIC and the Banksters and their media pawns together into a compelling and powerful narrative that cannot be ignored?

How can we comprehensively expose how the current corrupt system works, and having exposed it, bring about the real Change that we need to finally realize the promise of American democracy and achieve true justice and equality for all?

It is perhaps, the true challenge of our time. It is certainly an opportunity, now that they are vulnerable and exposed, at least for the moment, that is just too essential to ALL of us to let pass.  

22 comments

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  1. Photobucket

    • Edger on August 2, 2009 at 20:11

    everything, more will trickle down, and then everything will be ok?

  2. … among liberals who promote “civility” is the charge that honestly describing those who are profiting from human suffering is “demonizing” them – and making the usual equivalences of the far left with the far right.

    If it’s the truth, it can’t be demonization.

    Seems so obvious, yet I believe the Ruling Class has done a damned good job of exploiting our natural desire for cooperation into, instead, a veil of denial of the truth.

    So that we can see their agents, the Limbaughs, Coulters, Malkins, etc., fill a successful and well-compensated (both monetarily and societally) role in our culture while at the same time the folks who are yelling the truth are marginalized as DFHs or demonizers or the Angry Left.

    Great essay, well written, good stuff.

  3. great essay buhdy. You wrote it fast too, eh?

    From the very personal aspects of getting decent affordable health care and to putting food on our families…to the greater spheres of politics, foreign policy and the survival of the planet itself.

    I agree with you completely except that I dont have any trouble putting food on my family.

    🙂

    .

    There’s not much of a “Middle Class” left.

    Either you Have or you Have Not.

    It’s pretty easy to figure out which of those you are, but people are just… filled with Hope I guess. sigh.

  4. we could extend the “robust public option” meme to all of the other necessities of life… that would be good class warfare…

    • jamess on August 3, 2009 at 00:05

    but Warriors, not so much.

    One of the key pivotal “choke points” for me —

    in the whole Gestalt discussion of Classism is:

    Where is the Left-Wing Media?

    Where is the Progressive’s Rupport Murdoc?

    Al Gore made one worthy attempt with “Current TV”,

    but it has yet to reach any serious National platform.

    CSpan covers the Sausage Factory,

    but that is just too boring for most.

    Jon Stewart fights the good fight everyday,

    and does occasionally manage to change the National Dialog.

    We do have pockets of Citizen Journalism (online),

    worth supporting — which after all is all they had back in 1776 too.

    BUT for anything to change in a real substantial way —

    FOX and CBS and ABC etc, have to one meet their Media Match.

    My 2nd major point the Gestalt discussion of Classism is:

    Education.

    Without an Economically-literate Society,

    Without a Scientifically-literate Society,

    Without a Historically-literate Society,

    The Classes, will remain, where they are,

    with their members simply changing sides occasionally.

    imho.

     

    • banger on August 3, 2009 at 02:38

    How can we comprehensively expose how the current corrupt system works, and having exposed it, bring about the real Change that we need to finally realize the promise of American democracy and achieve true justice and equality for all?

    We can’t. You are one of the minority of people who are interested in that sort of thing.

    People kind of know about what is going on but they don’t care. The majority of the American people don’t want Democracy because it means taking responsibility for their lives and their community and they don’t want that–they want to play and be “secure”, i.e., want to return to infancy. They want to live a Michael Jackson life of fantasy not just as escape but as a way of life.

    You can expose the “truth” all you want but it won’t make any difference. I’ve seen no proof that revelations have done anything at all to change fundamental power relations in our society. The powerful are more entrenched now than at any point in U.S. History. No sector can be reformed even if most people would want it reformed. Our society has lost its ability to comprehend truth not just in politics but in anything. We are moving into uncharted territory more like and acid trip than history. Bon voyage!

  5. Great essay!

    • k9disc on August 4, 2009 at 11:35

    is to confuse and conflate until nobody knows what to believe anymore.

    They’re job is to lose the public trust and put reality up for a value check instead of rationality.

    On the side…

    Has anybody noticed that the only calm television available on network TV are the cop shows?

    No bombs, no guns, just everyday pedestrian murder investigations. Ho hum…

    interesting in that the only calming progamming is about murder and death…

    Great piece, bud…

    peace

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