History is Religion for the Masses

[thucythucy]

114. If, as you say, you know nothing about me

or really, any of the other people on this board, how do you presume to lecture us on the futility of our social justice work and our "addiction" to government?

And yes, much of what goes into government--our government anyway--is directed in ways I'd prefer it not be directed. But the solution to that problem isn't to shrug our shoulders and walk away from the struggle, all the while pretending we're somehow above it all because we aren't personally ground down by some aspect of the inequality. We're all disgusted by what goes on in the world--I doubt anybody on this board is particularly happy with how the last fifty years have played out in American history. The solution isn't to pretend the struggle is somehow beneath us. It's to re-engage to the best of our ability.

And that means knowing history--not dismissing it as nonsense. BTW, given the amazing levels of historical illiteracy in the general public, I simply can't agree that history is "religion for the masses." If "the masses" knew more history, it wouldn't have been so easy for Bush/Cheney & Co. to drag us into that atrocity of a war in Iraq. And if more Americans had known the history of Vietnam in 1960, we wouldn't have gone on that fool's errand trying to "save" Vietnam from itself. What we need is more history, more historical knowledge and understanding, not less. Even your framing of the argument is borrowed from history. It was Marx who said "religion is the opiate of the masses." Whether or not you meant to echo that phrase, echo it is what you did.

The whole world is "a playground for the wealthy." Not just government--the media, the churches, the universities, the beaches, the mountains, the frickin' ground you walk on and the air you breathe are "playgrounds for the wealthy." Do you advocate we get out of, give up on, all those as well? The wealthy control the majority of the wealth of this planet--that's what makes them wealthy! You act as though this was some amazing epiphany you're bringing to the rest of us--that the world is corrupt! Governments are corrupt! OMG who woulda thunk it?????

And I'm truly sorry about your accident. It doesn't sound as though it impacted you in the same way as, say, some of my quadriplegic friends have been impacted by their accidents. I know people who need assistance eating, moving, dressing. I've known a number of people who need ventilators to breathe. Who use puff and sip controls to manage their power wheelchairs. Shit like that is expensive. An average power wheelchair can cost anywhere from $15 to 30 to even 45 K. Most of us can't afford something like that, unless, again, we're very wealthy. Ideally, that's what governments are for. To give the rest of us a chance to survive if we need that extra bit of assistance. To dismiss that need as some sort of stultifying addiction is really quite insulting. I don't think you necessarily mean it to come off that way, but that's how it reads--to me, and evidently to others on this thread.

In one of your posts here you said something like "you need to listen less, and think more." I think you need to open your ears and eyes and mind to the experiences of people outside your own comfort zone, and truly understand some of the history of social justice movements, before you dismiss it all as a useless diversion.

I'll leave you with just a little more history for you to think about the next time you feel a need to declaim on how politics don't matter because it's all so corrupt.

I mentioned earlier that I was old enough to remember the impact Reagan had, not just nationally, but on pretty much every street corner in every city in this country. When JFK was elected, he helped foster the beginning of the deinstitutionalization movement. Did you know that, up until the 1950s, MILLIONS of disabled adults and kids were locked up in massive institutions, sometimes for their entire lives, just because they were disabled? That disabled kids were routinely used as guinea pigs in medical experiments? That the vasectomy, for instance, was perfected by operating on boys with disabilities--kids who were thrown away by society because they were different? This started to change in the '50s and '60s, and part of that was because JFK's sister had been locked away, and so he knew personally what it was like--wealthy as he was--to see a sibling experimented upon and locked away. So under JFK the institutions began to empty, and in their place were put community centers, group homes for people labeled mentally retarded, community mental health centers for people labeled mentally ill. JFK started this, LBJ expanded it greatly. Nixon tried to gut it but Watergate stopped him. Carter continued the programs.

Then Reagan came in. Reagan didn't try to cut federal funding for these programs. He ENDED THEM entirely. The result: tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people living on the street, or put into jails. That's the difference a good president, or a half way decent president can make, as opposed to a fucking travesty like Ronald Reagan. The man who started "the war on drugs." The man who refused to take AIDS seriously, because it was a "homosexual disease,"

Voting matters. Politics matter. Governments matter.

A great disability rights activist--may he rest in peace--Justin Dart used to tell us, "Get into politics as if your life depended on it. Because it does."

To urge people to opt out of voting--to cite your earlier OP--is thus something I think is very counterproductive.

So that's the end of my lectures for tonight.

Best wishes to you and yours, and have a safe and happy New Year.