d on in the darkness of unregulated capitalism.Of course the FDA, or what remains of it after years of Republican misrule can't do much better it seems and the free press that's supposed to be an agent of illumination in a libertarian utopia doesn't care to try. Witness today at CNN.com an article telling us that products widely being sold as steroid free, body-building aids do actually contain dangerous synthetic steroids and can, in several ways, kill you. Thanks CNN.
Of course prominently displayed on the home page is a photo of a grotesquely, steroidal male torso which links to an ad for the very things the FDA is telling people to avoid like the plague they apparently are. "Safe, natural, legal!" Never mind that little liver failure thing.
The solution is clear. We really need to get rid of the FDA and that damned government regulation - bad for business, don't you know.
Ah yes, the wide-eyed innocence of the ultra free-marketeers. I recall writing a post about libertarianism a while back. It has its good side (its genuine appreciation for individual liberty) and its bad -- namely the conceptual yoking of that appreciation to a nearly or entirely unhindered capitalist system. The latter is the most naive position imaginable since there is hardly anything perfect in the universe of things and notions made by human beings. Libertarianism appeals greatly to people with little sense of history, I've noticed, since they seem to think you can just plunk an ideal directly upon a living, breathing society and get nothing but good results. Which is, of course (a la Edmund Burke's critique), every bit as crazy a thought as the one harbored by certain French radical Jacobins a few centuries back.
ReplyDeleteToo bad this post didn't get more attention (next time Octopus will be better prepared to participate).
ReplyDeleteSome quick thoughts: This idea of unfettered capitalism gained legitimacy under Reagan (with ideological support from the Milton Friedman School of Kleptonomics) who declared "government as incompetent" and then set out to prove the point. Another attribute of the debate, the relentless erosion of democracy by corporate lobbyists who hold more power in Washington than voters.
This interview with Noam Chomsky is apropos:
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It is one of the big differences between the propaganda system of a totalitarian state and the way democratic societies go about things. Exaggerating slightly, in totalitarian countries the state decides the official line and everyone must then comply. Democratic societies operate differently. The line is never presented as such, merely implied. This involves brainwashing people who are still at liberty. Even the passionate debates in the main media stay within the bounds of commonly accepted, implicit rules, which sideline a large number of contrary views. The system of control in democratic societies is extremely effective. We do not notice the line any more than we notice the air we breathe. We sometimes even imagine we are seeing a lively debate. The system of control is much more powerful than in totalitarian systems."
They dismiss Chomsky all too easily and his audience is too limited for him to make any difference by stating the obvious.
ReplyDeleteIt's hopeless.
Fantastic quote of Chomsky - worthy of a blog post in itself. Recalls to mind the "opposing talking heads/so-called experts" which have become such a CNN trope - seeming to objectively present all sides of an issue yet REALLY only presenting the same old PREprogramed analysis. A line SEEMINGLY drawn yet forever DELIBERATELY muted and blurred.
ReplyDeleteHope I'm making sense. . .
Squid: “worthy of a blog post in itself (…) Hope I'm making sense”
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, you are making sense!! All too often we forget that cable news is a product of media conglomerates … in other words “corporatists” … that depend upon other corporations for their advertising revenues. Thus, our news services do not serve the interests of citizens and voters, merely the interests of its corporate advertisers. Here is another Chomsky remark:
“Personally I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions in the society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level (…) Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.”
Consider the current debate on national healthcare reform. Months ago, over 70% of the public supported reform. Presto! Enter the corporate anti-reform lobby followed by a multi-million dollar campaign of distortions, innuendo, and disinformation duly reported by an all-too-eager-to-oblige MSM. Today, scarcely 44% of the public supports reform. That is how “sheeple” are manipulated by corporate America, while middle-class wage earners allow themselves to be manipulated and vote against their own self-interest.
Yes, I certainly hope we return to this subject … with vengeance in our hearts.
Worthy of yet another blog post, my dear Octopus. That's an even better quote!!
ReplyDeleteIt has always been my humble impression that capitalism = the pursuit of wealth = greed. The evidence is everywhere despite our desperate attempts to idealistically fashion capitalism otherwise. AND - therefore - capitalism does not jive with democracy. It simply can't. Evidence of this is the hysterical fear of socialism which is - quite frankly - what is needed, at least in part, to fix the damage wrought by SELF-CENTERED capitalism.
Can't have it both ways, oh my dear fellow Americans.
The American dream is packaged as the pursuit of personal success (i.e. wealth) - emphasis on PERSONAL. In other words - an individual quest. Democracy does not mix well with individuals out for SELF gain.
Just ask suckers like Willie Loman - what did capitalism ever do for him?