FUSsa-talk Mailing List: Fwd: Is the beast dead (yet)?

[Robert Tapp (tappx001]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Robert Tapp <tappx001 [at] umn.edu>
> Date: February 2, 2010 10:32:38 AM EST
> To: Humanist Institute Discussion List <hidisc [at] humanistinstitute.org>
> 
> 
> One of the key slogans of the conservative US <revolution> that started in 
> the 1970s was <Kill the beast>, the beast being big government. Cutting taxes 
> was the public slogan, but the less-public mechanism was specialized 
> spending. Result? A federal government so saddled with debt and entitlements 
> that any new social programs became impossible.
> 
> One great way to accomplish this was by militarizing and wars. (Karl Marx 
> long ago noted that wars were a major way for capitalism to dispose of 
> surpluses!). Preparing for, and waging, wars is of course very expensive. And 
> once some other country has been destroyed, more monies can now be exported 
> to rebuild it.
> 
> This also has the desired domestic effect -- lots of unemployment with 
> consequent lowering of wages, crippling of unionization, a disappearing 
> middle class, and a top one percent becoming super-rich at a faster clip. 
> That disaster can be concealed in lots of ways. Enemies, real and conjured, 
> in order to justify <security> expenditures, corporate control of media, 
> trivialize mass culture with celebrities and sports, vocationalize education, 
> encourage financial bubbles that speed redistribution.
> 
> Has the militarization and wealth redistribution since Reagan succeeded in 
> killing the beast? Try today's lead story and another dire prediction by a 
> Yale economist.
> 
>       
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/us/politics/02deficit.html?ref=todayspaper
> 
>       
> http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-01/ignore-the-sham-budget/
> 
> Bob
>