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The War Against Civilization Email Print

By empireburlesque
11/22/2005 04:02:33 PM EST

Dispatches from the front (NYT):
GM to Cut 30,000 Jobs and Close 12 Plants
For a GM Family, the American Dream Vanishes

It's obvious now that we made a mistake here in coming up with our "War on the Poor" tag to describe the rapacious and ruinous policies of the Bush Regime, and the brutal corporate ethos it represents. For it's not just a war on the poor, of course. That war was won long ago; Bush and the boys grind the poor beneath their heels just for the hell of it these days, just for kicks, a sadistic thrill. No, it's also a war against working people, against the middle class, against the very idea that there is a common good beyond the raw bottom line, that individual human lives and human communities have any intrinsic value or meaning whatsoever, except as raw material to be squeezed for blood money and chump chang

It is a war that is destroying, very deliberately, a way of life that brought an unprecedented measure of security and stability and prosperity to millions of Americans across generations. It's being systematically destroyed because the business elite can reap even higher, more obscene profits than they already command by gutting America and "outsourcing" its jobs (and not just in the auto industry, of course) to places that pay slave wages to unprotected, unorganized workers and kick back secret sweeteners to keep the corporate lords fat and happy. And it's being systematically destroyed because the political elite prefer an atomized, terrorized, polarized rabble -- scrambling for survival, worn out with worry, broken down with untreated illness or bankrupted by medical costs, fighting each other for a dwindling number of ill-paid, going-nowhere jobs -- to a secure and confident citizenry that stands up for its rights.

So it's not just a war against the poor, although the poor are its greatest victims. It's a war against civilization itself, if we define civilization as the struggle to overcome the worst instincts of our human nature, as free people coming together in search of betterment and enlightenment -- "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," in other words. The War on Civilization being waged by Bush and the elite has been far more destructive of the "American way of life" than the not-dissimilar war on civilization being pursued by the pockets of violent religious extremists could ever hope to be.

Both forces seek to destroy the idea of compassion, tolerance and inclusion that is the hallmark of true civilization, and instead impose a harsh, narrow vision of life, a society dominated by the arbitrary will of a privileged few. The "War on Terror" is not a "clash of civilizations;" it is in many respects a civil war between the enemies of civilization, fighting it out to see which of their barbaric, degenerate views of human society will prevail.

Chris Floyd


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The War Against Civilization | 7 comments (5 topical, 2 editorial, 0 hidden)
How do you account for them winning elections? (none / 0)
Do you believe these wealthy business elite types just  steal elections through fraud and control of the process. 

OR

Do you just think the majority of American voters are too stupid to see what you are saying here, or as the Guardian said post election day, how can 55 million Americans be so stupid.  Surely the working class and the poor outnumber the eltie in this country, so why do/can the elite win elections?  WHY??

by NG on 11/22/2005 07:37:49 PM EST

The latter (none / 0)
Though I don't doubt there's plenty of dirty shit going on in regards to election fraud, I also think that a fraud of that magnitude would require a conspiracy so large that it would fall apart.  Please, this bunch couldn't run a hardware store.  I think that people are prone to manipulation, and I think alot of people vote out of ignorance.  

If you don't understand someone, consider that the shortcoming may not lie with that person, but rather with your own understanding.

by Aethern on 11/22/2005 10:17:57 PM EST

[ Parent ]
The Greed Lever (none / 0)
Archimedes once said "give me a long enough lever and a place to stand and I will move the world."  Well, Republicans found the lever: greed.

For the last twenty fire years, they've systematically destroyed the contract between citizens and government, and they've done it all with simple variations on a single statement -- "follow us and you may be rich."

For what amounts to a lottery ticket, Americans gave away their security, rights, and Future.

by Devilstower on 11/23/2005 11:10:22 AM EST

[ Parent ]
I totally agree about the middle class (none / 0)
I've thought for a long while that the purpose behind this Bush group is the transfer of the cumulative wealth of the middle class to the elite. It's not just for the greed factor, it's also to break the will and spirit of the great educated middle.

If people are losing their homes, working two jobs, losing benefits, have little or no health insurance, they don't have time to stay informed OR to stay involved with social movements and issues beyond their own panicked personal lives (and who can blame them). It creates, instead of a buffered and buffering middle class -- a frantic dog-eat-dog underclass and a teeny-tiny elite. Those in the underclass will view each other member of the underclass as competitors for fewer and fewer goods, jobs, homes ... you name it. And as long as civilized life and the safety net we've created in our political system gives way, we're almost guaranteed to have scapegoating going on among the middle/slipping into poor -- it's always some other ethnicity/gender/religion's fault that we're hungry or that our kids are getting a shitty education or that we can't get by even on two jobs.

This is a great essay you've written here. Thanks so much for sharing it.

by SusanG on 11/22/2005 10:31:46 PM EST

The War being waged by the Bush regime (none / 0)
is a war against everything they can't control and benefit from.

by sbj on 11/25/2005 05:25:10 PM EST

The War Against Civilization | 7 comments (5 topical, 2 editorial, 0 hidden)
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