Democracy Is a Threat to Any Power System

[L0oniX]

http://www.thenation.com/article/202481/noam-chomsky-democracy-threat-any-power-system

“The race towards disaster is being carried out with almost euphoric intensity,” said Chomsky. Chomsky maintains that meaningful change requires a democratic awakening. “Democracy is a threat to any power system,”

[Autumn]

1. 'meaningful change requires a democratic awakening' We really need to wake up soon

before it's too late.

[L0oniX]

2. I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I think it is already too late.

[Autumn]

3. I just watched a video about Liz, I had a moment of optimism.

[NYC_SKP]

5. You can have an International Foundation, or you can be Secretary of State. You can't have both.

That's my new battle cry.

I believe it's true, the Clintons bit off more than they can chew or swallow and I doubt we'd ever accept a person to do both things at once.

Her dealings with Pinchuk, who dealt with Iran, the Ukraine, in petroleum and uranium deals, it's just too much.

http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/24/hillary-clinton-runs-white-house-and-row-over-ukrainian-benefactors-trade-322253.html

I think they thought it would fly, like it's Bill's post presidency thing.

Well, in this country a married couple are effectively one unit and the name of the foundation, after all, is the Bill Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

She only recently detached herself from the foundation, yeah right.

Well, it's too late.

She's toast, and I'm ecstatic about it.

Paging Warren and Sanders!

[L0oniX]

12. K & R

[zeemike]

8. It is never too late so the saying goes.

And I believe it is true, but the longer it goes on the harder and more painful it is.

[Enthusiast]

9. After witnessing that recent tantrum it's hard not to agree with you.

[PowerToThePeople]

4. Bookmarked for later viewing.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. But, we are a Republic. That's how our Constitution reads.

And until we understand the fact that we are represented by the people who get voted into office--and they hold the power--we will never understand how the system has been gamed.

Once in office, the umbilical cord between elected officials and their constituents is severed. These elected officials are indoctrinated into accepting a perspective that has nothing to do with the masses and has everything to do with improving the lives of those who send them big money donations.

So, only in a twisted way is Democracy a threat to any power system. It is a threat in the same way that revolution is a threat to any power system.

We are just useful when it's necessary to throw the incumbents out because they have become too corrupt. This is what makes the Thirdwayers so dangerous to the process, because nothing we do will make a major difference.

[Octafish]

7. Alex Carey studied the phenomenon: Corporations use propaganda to counteract Democracy

To help spread light, Maria Galardin's TUC (Time of Useful Consciousness) Radio:

Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda
The Attack on Democracy


The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.

John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.

Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.

This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.

SOURCE: http://tucradio.org/new.html

Here's the first part (scroll down at the link for the second part) on Carey:

http://tucradio.org/AlexCarey_ONE.mp3

Helps explain how we got here and what we need to do to move forward, starting with putting the "Public" into Airwaves again.

Thanks for the heads-up on Chomsky, L0onix! The older I get, the more I appreciate the guy.

[Enthusiast]

10. +1 a whole bunch!

[L0oniX]

11. ^^^THIS^^^

[NYC_SKP]

13. KICK

DAMMIT

[lark]

14. That's why Raygun ended the rules about equal time for the media

Can't let democracy function by telling the truth, nope, the lies of the 1% had to be enabled and the truth suppressed. This way, democracy is subverted and the oligarchs win.

[hanon]

15. thought-provoking

he makes some good points

[liberal_at_heart]

16. I don't think either party knows what democracy means anymore. But then again that may

be because it is both parties that control the system. Both parties are power hungry, money hungry, and no longer check and balance one another. It is time to shake up the two party system.