[Reader-list] Fwd: Can We Rescue the Republic Before the Dark Politics Take Over? By Kirk Nielsen, Miller-McCune.com. Posted December 25, 2009.

[Venugopalan K M]

http://www.alternet.org/politics/144809/can_we_rescue_the_republic_before_the_dark_politics_take_over_/?page=entire



"Did America slip into a semiliterate, polarized, pre-fascist state over the
past decade or so, allowing greedy oligarchs and corporate elites to run the
government? Two books I recently read offer reasonably persuasive evidence
and arguments that the country did, and a third suggests that dictatorial
mindsets could besiege Americans, with an assist from the Internet, if they
don't come to their more deliberative senses. Each of the books offers an
informed diagnosis of the dangers that widespread ignorance and ideological
polarization pose for American democracy, though none offers a comprehensive
treatment for the malaise.."


.."The latter list includes some of the spectacularly mind-numbing American
pursuits that Chris Hedges examines in *Empire of Illusion: The End of
Literacy and the Triumph of
Spectacle*<http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Illusion-Literacy-Triumph-Spectacle/dp/1568584377>.
Hedges submits that while they mesmerized large portions of the American
citizenry, CEOs being paid millions of dollars a year to run companies that
feed on taxpayer money usurped our government — with the help of elected
officials bought by campaign contributions and tens of thousands of
corporate lobbyists who now write many of the nation's laws..."


"..So are we drifting along in a pre-fascist state? Has our democratic
system really fallen under the control of corporate America? Hartmann's take
obviously starts and stays (far) to the left of center, and we'll just have
to stay tuned and see whether future events support the dire view he and
Hedges have of America's political direction. Meanwhile, I'll be on the
lookout for a persuasive book telling me how it isn't exactly so, and why
America can escape from the economic and ecological spectacle it has made
itself.."


-- 

You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a
nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the
foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.
-AMBEDKAR



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