Rome is Burning 2

Douglas Rushkoff explains how our economic situation came to be:

"..Bush’s tax cuts and other measures favoring the rich led to the biggest redistribution of wealth from poor to rich in American history. The result was that the wealthy—the investment class—had more money to invest, or lend, than there were people and businesses looking to borrow. "

"Conservatives are still so angry about New Deal reforms of the 1930s that that they have infused politics and banking with an economic ideology that sees any regulation of worker exploitation or predatory investment as anti-capitalist, anti-American, and even anti-God."

"He’s currently working on a project called “Corporatized,” which will explore how chartered corporations disconnected us from reality." Interesting. Perhaps there is nothing more significant than economics in our "real" life, but it is becoming another method of disconnect in the post-modern or hyper-real world.

The conservatives are so worried that a Democrat might win this election because they do not want a New "New Deal", but the New Deal was a response to a severe economic crisis, and as the conservatives are creating another one, they themselves are perpetuating the need for The New Deal 2: The Sequel.

After seeing SH on Fox News getting angry that Obama might have won the debate and essentially calling him too smart to be president, I'm finally convinced that the Republicans are anti-intellectual, and loathe education, intelligence, as well as public awareness and interaction.


John Gray discusses America's fall:

"The fate of empires is very often sealed by the interaction of war and debt. That was true of the British Empire, whose finances deteriorated from the First World War onwards, and of the Soviet Union. Defeat in Afghanistan and the economic burden of trying to respond to Reagan's technically flawed but politically extremely effective Star Wars programme were vital factors in triggering the Soviet collapse. Despite its insistent exceptionalism, America is no different. The Iraq War and the credit bubble have fatally undermined America's economic primacy. The US will continue to be the world's largest economy for a while longer, but it will be the new rising powers that, once the crisis is over, buy up what remains intact in the wreckage of America's financial system."

This is exactly the point I've been promoting. Since the end of the Cold War, we have absolutely wasted our position as sole World Power. We could have been a leader - set an example, created (benevolently) a "New World Order", promoted democracy through peacful means, and raised the standards of living for everyone. But, instead we apparently just wanted to get rich (more rich). So to benefit the American upper class we have pissed off the rest of the world, wasted our military resources on securing unrenewable natural resources and destroyed our own culture (the actual people who have to work for a living). Not only will the forces of war and global economics pressure our relations, but internal corruption will tear apart the future of this country, just like former Empires. As others rise into position of new super-powers, we will not have the resources of strategic "force projection" to reach parity in international disputes. Without economic, military or diplomatic powers, we will no longer be able to project our will onto the world.